Global NFT Treasure Hunt
Some of you might already know me but for those that don’t:
My name is Gabriel. I am a software developer by trade but mostly busy cycling around the world on a tandem bike since the past 1.5 years.
https://gabrieljaeger1.medium.com/bringing-polkadot-kusama-to-the-world-5173f5a2d98e
When I cycle I think a lot about ways to motivate others to do something adventurous/crazy too and that is kind of how this idea was born…
3 months ago I had to pause my trip (which goes from Germany to China btw) due to closed borders on my route (Iran). I returned to Germany from east Turkey to work on this new project of mine.
Initially I reached out to you guys (the community) with a vague idea of what I wanted to build…
I got some really good feedback and tips on reddit so thanks a lot for that! With that input, the idea started to take shape and I got building… At this point I already want to thank Yuri from RMRK for helping me out a bunch along the way.
Without further ado, I present to you:
KusamaGo — The NFT Treasure Hunt Game
TLDR
- Users customise NFTs, print out QR Codes to stick in their neighbourhoods -> these are the treasures
- The QR codes act as passwords that when scanned with the telegram bot, mint the treasure’s NFT into the finders wallet -> these are the rewards
I am sure many of you are familiar with PokemonGo and this game works in a similar way with some key differences:
- Instead of Pokemons, users collect treasures
- Treasures are user-created and completely customisable by their creators
- Treasures exist in the physical world (no AR (yet)) in the form of QR Code stickers
- When collecting a treasure, a user does not receive a Pokemon but rather a NFT (RMRK) on the Kusama blockchain.
Customizing a treasure, directly customizes the NFT that collectors will receive upon finding it.
Some of the customizable treasure attributes:
an image file — treasure creators can upload any jpeg/png file. This will be the image of the NFT
a description text — treasure creators can freely (ab)use this text field
a hint text — to make it easier for users to find your treasure
The above as well as other important info like treasure location, treasure creator, treasure name are all recorded in the NFT metadata.
Any NFT related data (including the image files) are stored using the IPFS protocol!!! This protects your NFTs against any tampering. Storing NFT data off-chain also has the added benefit of preventing clogging up the Kusama blockchain.
If you are a bit confused at this point, don’t worry.
Things will surely clear up now as I run you through how the game works…
Game Play
The game runs with the help of a telegram bot: t.me/kusamaGo_bot
and a website: www.substratego.com/kusama
You can take on roles (and switch between them) of creator and finder with incredible ease. But the first thing to do, should be to link a Kusama wallet to your account in the Account Settings.
Linking a wallet
When collecting NFTs, you incur a small cost (network fees + creator reward: approx. 40 cents USD total). In order for you to be able to cover this cost, you need to deposit a small amount of KSM to the bot wallet address.
- In order to make sure, that the right user account gets credited when a deposit comes in to the bots deposit address, you need to first enter the wallet address from which you will make the transfer.
- You will then be given a specific amount to transfer. The amount itself is a password which is valid for 15 minutes. This is done to ensure that you really are the rightful owner of the wallet.
If you have followed the instructions you should now have a linked account that is also funded with some KSM that should be enough to collect a treasure or two. After linking your wallet to your account you are free to deposit any amount you wish, as the bot has whitelisted any deposits from your registered wallet to be directly credited to your account.
Finding a treasure
Finding your first treasure is easy. Head on over to the finder menu and click on the Find Treasures button. You will be asked to share your location and voila, the bot will send you all the info you need to find the treasure closest to you (that you have not collected yet).
Alternatively you can also use the website to see a global map of treasures: www.substratego.com/kusama
Once you are at the treasure’s location, you should stay on the lookout for a sticker like the following:
This already brings me to an important point…
Each QR code holds a password for the respective treasure. Anyone that has a QR code can effortlessly collect a treasure (and thus mint its NFT). If you want to prevent that, then you shouldn’t share QR codes online. But, you are free to use the bot in any way you wish :)
Click on “Collect treasure” and send a picture to the bot of the QR Code.
You can also use any other QR Reader to scan the code but please beware that the link takes you to t.me/kusamaGo_bot…! (To avoid copy cat stickers that take you to different bots)
Once the bot has read the QR Code you will get an overview of the fees that the collection will incur. If you choose to proceed, the fees will be deducted from your account and the NFT will be minted and sent to your wallet!
Check out the NFTs already collected:
https://singular.rmrk.app/collections/84582e97503844b409-GO1
Creating a treasure
Since this bot is new, you may find that there are no treasures close to you yet when you first use it. This is a perfect opportunity for you to create the first treasure in your neighbourhood!!!
Although I believe that you should never do anything simply for a monetary purpose, there is a small reward paid to treasure creators by treasure finders upon collection. So go and put your creativity hat on and create some cool treasures!!!
To create a treasure, head on over to the creator mode and click on Create treasure (of course…). You will be asked to give the treasure a name and voila you will receive the QR Code for your new treasure! That’s it, you have now created a treasure with the default settings (default description, hint and NFT File).
All of the treasures attributes can still be edited after creation. Changing the treasure attributes, changes the NFT that users will receive when collecting it. NFTs that have already been minted cannot be changed of course, meaning that when you change your treasure’s attributes after the first users have already collected it, future collectors will receive a different NFT.
If you are planning on physically hiding the treasure, then you can now print the QR and place it somewhere in the real world. Once you add a location to the treasure, it will show up on the treasure maps and other users can easily find it.
Summary
The bot ships with many other cool tools and features and I truly hope that it brings joy to many. As of writing the bot is still in beta mode. Please don’t transfer a lot of funds to it and report any and all bugs to t.me/kusamaGo.
Be adventurous, go crazy with this thing!!!
The beauty of it all is that as an added bonus through this game, we will spread the word on our beloved Kusama around the world in the form of (what could be) a massive sticker campaign.
Next Steps
The telegram bot is essentially a prototype and this is just the start of KusamaGo (or SubstrateGo as the game can easily be rolled out to all substrate based blockchains that are supported by RMRK)!
Next steps are to build a dedicated AR App! This would open up a lot of other possibilities for the game and is an important step in bringing this idea to the masses.
The project is open-source:
I hope that you will join us as a collaborator. Because together, we can build something amazing!
