DegenZoo wDZOO

Everything you Need to Know about Degen Zoo

Degen Zoo is a charity-oriented NFT game, which simulates the impact of capitalism on endangered animal species. In the game, players can mint NFTs by hatching multiple animal species with unique characteristics and taxonomy.

Each animal has a finite lifetime and players are ultimately forced to kill them by burning the NFT. Watching the animals die increases public awareness about endangered animal species in capitalist society. All profits from Degen Zoo go to animal charity funds, contributing to the solution.

The timeline

Degen Zoo started initially as a reaction to Logan Paul's abandoned project Crypto Zoo. Christoph Zaknun, the DAO Maker founder wanted to prove to Logan that crypto projects can be built in 30 days or less. The original idea was to build a CryptoPoo project, however as more people started following the process, the community demanded a more serious approach.

That is where Degen Zoo comes into play. A team of experienced founders (former senior Maker DAO dev and DAO Maker founder) has committed to finishing the first version of the project in 30 days. Degen Zoo has recorded the entire journey and during that period, they gathered a substantial following on Twitter and Telegram.

By the end of day 30. all smart contracts and front-end features were done, and the first version was deployed on the Goerli testnet. Testing further continued and the full public version launched on Ethereum mainnet on 16.3.2023.

Game Features and Mechanics

DZOO Token

DZOO is the native token of the Degen Zoo platform. Players may stake DZOO tokens to receive rewards and become eligible for hatching eggs. DZOO token is designed to provide a balance between inflationary and deflationary tokenomic models, by utilizing various mechanisms:

• Tokens are locked (staked) while eggs are hatching - lower circulating supply
• The total supply is increased by evolving animals
• When animals are killed (NFT burn) staked tokens are released

DZOO tokens are locked most of the time either in Eggs or Animal NFTs and present a kind of value measurement for elements in the game.

Egg Farming and Hatching

To bring an animal to life, that is, minting the NFT, it is essential first to earn and later hatch some Eggs. Players can earn eggs by staking the DZOO tokens for a period of time.

There is a finite amount of Eggs in the game (24K), which are distributed to players over time, according to their number of staked tokens. The current Egg balance will be updated every second, however, players are only available to claim once the full Egg has been generated. The Egg distribution slows every 90 days by 25 %, similar to the halving mechanism of Bitcoin.

Out of each Egg, one of the hundred possible animals will hatch. To hatch the Egg, players have to lock/stake a certain amount of DZOO tokens into it.

Animal NFTs

There is a total of 100 animals (NFTs) that may hatch from the Eggs. Each animal has a set of characteristics, which determine its value in DZOO tokens.
These characteristics depend on the type of the animal and some of them are issued randomly but can be enhanced later by evolving the animal.

Rarity: This characteristic depends on how much the animal species is endangered. Highly endangered species will have a higher rarity. The rarity also translates to the amount of DZOO tokens locked in the NFT, as rare NFTs will have a higher value.

Lifespan: Determines for how long the DZOO tokens remain locked in the animal. After the lifetime is over, players may kill the animal to unlock the tokens. Lifespan ranges from 25 to 400 days. Lifetime can be sped up by burning 25 % of the tokens staked in the animal.

Weight: Higher weight of the animal results in more locked DZOO tokens and is used to determine the final yield in combination with rarity and lifespan.

A unique taxonomy is determined by using these characteristics. Some animals will have a higher amount of DZOO locked in them, while some will have less. The amount partially depends on the element of randomness.

Evolving

Animals can be evolved by feeding one animal to other. The resulting animal bears new characteristics (visual, rarity, etc.) and almost always provides a higher value than the sum of two original animals. The level of the animal rises, while each animal can level-up up to two times.

Evolution can only be done only after the target animal has passed half or more of its lifetime. When combining two animals, the animal with a higher initial level evolves. If both animals are on the same level, the dispute is decided on weight.

Players can develop strategies for evolving animals by purchasing the NFTs they need on marketplaces like OpenSea.

Killing Animals

Finally, when the lifetime of an animal is over, the players are forced to kill it and therefore unlock the DZOO tokens. It is possible to kill the animal before the end of its lifetime, but the sooner it is killed the higher fee will be charged.

Killing an animal immediately after its birth results in a 40 % fee. That means 40 % of the DZOO value of the animal is burned - removed from the circulation. The fee then decreases throughout the lifetime of the animal.

Meaningful Approach

The team wanted to build something meaningful with a real impact on the world and therefore decided to donate all profits to endangered animal charities. What initially started as a joke hopes now to increase awareness of the effects that capitalist society and greed have on endangered animal species.

By burning the NFTs and essentially killing the animal, players are supposedly forced to think about how their actions impact wildlife.