Aavegotchi (GHST) is the governance token of the Aavegotchi NFT Gaming protocol. GHST token holders receive voting power in the AavegotchiDAO, which oversees all aspects of the protocol, Aavegotchi’s flagship game the Gotchiverse, and Aavegotchi NFTs.
Aavegotchis themselves are pixelated ghosts backed by the ERC-721 token standard. The Aavegotchi NFTs have dynamic metadata that changes over time through user interaction.
An Aavegotchi’s value and rarity is determined by its collateral stake, traits and wearables.
Collateral stake is based on the innovative ERC721 Aavegotchi NFT that manages an escrow contract holding Aave-backed ERC20 collateral or "aToken," which generates yield via Aave's LendingPool. Traits are based on random traits upon birth, kinship and experience (XP).
The protocol is called Aavegotchi as a nod to Aave, which translates to “ghost” in Finnish, and is powered by the Aave protocol, one of the leading lending protocol in DeFi. The token ticker also cleverly spells out “ghost,” minus the vowel.
## Who Are the Founders of Aavegotchi?
Aavegotchi is created by Singapore-based Pixelcraft Studios.
Jesse Johnson is the co-founder and COO of Pixelcraft Studios. In the past, Johnson held key roles such as director of business relations/development and manager of international market development in different companies, including China Intop Exhibition Co and ZB Group. Coder Dan is the co-founder and CEO at Pixelcraft Studios.
Aave’s founder, Stani Kulechov, was the project’s first advisor.
In November 2020, Aave invested in Pixelcraft Studios. The project’s mainnet launch was scheduled for Jan. 4, 2021, but was pushed to March of 2021 due to high transaction fees on the Ethereum blockchain. Due to the fact that Aavegotchis require daily interaction, the Aavegotchi community decided to launch the project on Polygon, the leading side chain to Ethereum.
On March 20, 2023, Pixelcraft Studios announced the successful completion of a multi-year long token sale, raising a total of $30 million. The sale of the $GHST token utilized a decentralized fundraising model, DAICO, proposed by Ethereum's founder Vitalik Buterin. It began on Sept. 14, 2020.
## How Does Aavegotchi Work?
Each Aavegotchi NFT manages an escrow contract holding their "Spirit Force," also known as "collateral" or "aTokens," a balance of yield generating tokens from the Aave Protocol. Thanks to the yield they generate, the balance of an Aavegotchi’s Spirit Force increases over time.
Aavegotchis have a minimum amount of Spirit Force that is initially defined by their base rarity score. Upon opening a Portal, ten Aavegotchis are generated with a unique combination of traits. Users may only choose to summon one of the ten Aavegotchis, while the remaining nine are burned and gone forever. An Aavegotchi’s traits are generated via Chainlink VRF, an on-chain random number generator, and combine to form the base rarity score.
Traits also influence an Aavegotchi's rarity and their performance in the Gotchiverse game. In order to summon an Aavegotchi you must stake the required type of Spirit Force. The minimum stake of Spirit Force remains fixed for each Aavegotchi throughout its lifetime. However, there is no upper limit of Spirit Force for each NFT. Removing the minimum amount ejects the Aavegotchi back to the so-called Nether Realm, and the NFT is burned, with the collateral returned back to the owner.
## What Makes Aavegotchi Unique?
Aavegotchi has pioneered a number of developments and features in the NFT Gaming Space. For starters, they were the first major NFT protocol to go live on Polygon.
The protocol has distributed millions in rewards through its original play-to-earn mechanism known as Rarity Farming, rewarding the most enthusiastically engaged members of the Aavegotchi ecosystem with GHST tokens across the categories of rarity, kinship and XP.
Aavegotchi’s flagship game, the Gotchiverse, has been live on Polygon mainnet since March 2021. Within the Gotchiverse, players use their Aavegotchi NFTs as web3 avatars to explore, build, battle, earn and socialize. The Gotchiverse fair-launch playdrop introduced four new ERC-20 tokens collectively known as Gotchus Alchemica: FUD, FOMO, ALPHA, and KEK. These tokens act as the four elements of the Gotchiverse and are used to craft and upgrade Installation NFTs placed on a player’s Gotchiverse land parcel. A fifth ERC-20 token called GLTR was also created to reward Alchemica liquidity providers. GLTR’s primary utility is to speed up the crafting and upgrading time of Installations in the Gotchiverse.
Another innovation the protocol developed is Gotchi lending. Gotchi lending is Aavegotchi’s improvement on the traditional scholarship model made popular by other play-to-earn games. Gotchi Lending requires no middle man and comes with zero risk of human error. It allows players to trustlessly lend their Aavegotchi NFTs to other players without any risk. The Gotchi lending smart contract automatically splits any earned tokens per the agreed upon terms of the contract once the duration of the lending period expires.
Aavegotchi also became the first NFT gaming protocol to have their governance token available as collateral on Aave in February of 2022. The first ever cross-chain governance proposal on Aave passed, allowing GHST to be listed as new collateral on Aave’s Polygon Market along with BAL, CRV, DPI, LINK and SUSHI.