A few days ago, Rangers Protocol (Chinese name: Rangers Protocol), incubated by MixMarvel, a global blockchain game distribution platform, announced an institutional financing with a valuation of US$63 million. Prior to this, Rocket Protocol (Chinese name: Rocket Protocol), the predecessor of Rangers Protocol, also completed a $1.2 million seed round of financing. Financing institutions include: Pantera, Framework Ventures, Alameda Research, Hashkey Capital, SevenX Ventures, SNZ, Spark Digital Capital, Incuba Alpha Holdings, Consensus Lab, Puzzle Ventures, Kernel Ventures, Morningstar Ventures, Origin Capital, Yuanyuzhou Ventures, AU21Capital Dozens of institutions, as well as the former co-founder of Ele.me. In addition, Polkastarter, as a strategic partner, has also conducted in-depth cooperation with Rangers Protocol.
It is reported that the financing funds will be used for the development and technical upgrade of the current version of Rangers Protocol, and Rangers Protocol will be launched on the test network at the end of this quarter as planned.
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Standing at the crossroads of NFT+Metaverse
The new crown epidemic that broke out last year and is still spreading around the world has not only caused the world's currency to be oversupplied, but also accelerated the transformation of the global working lifestyle to remote virtualization. This makes NFT (Non-Fungible Token, non-homogeneous pass) and Metaverse (metaverse) become the most popular hotspots in many industries such as blockchain, Internet, and digital entertainment in 2021. NFT achieved a transaction volume of US$1.1 billion in the first quarter of this year alone, which is equivalent to the transaction volume of the whole of last year; the market value of tokens in the NFT sector reached US$13.3 billion (Coingecko data on May 24); according to the latest research by ARK Investment Fund , Metaverse revenue will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 17% from about $180 billion today to $390 billion in 2025.
Investors found that Rangers Protocol is not a product of chasing NFT and Metaverse this year, but MixMarvel entered the blockchain game industry in 2017 and stood at a crossroads in advance when it was committed to building a global blockchain game distribution platform , Through a series of development and exploration in the technology product market, the Rangers Protocol, a blockchain infrastructure for the virtual world, is incubated and built to embrace the trend and promote the early arrival of the future.
"MixMarvel hopes to create the oasis in the movie "Ready Player One"." MixMarvel founder Jade Zhang said, "As early as 2017, we imagined what the future virtual world would look like? We summarized 4 characteristics: First, we must It is an open and non-monopolistic world, so we proposed the concept of the Marvel universe, and it is a Mix (fusion) universe; secondly, it is a world that users can create by themselves; thirdly, digital assets can be interoperable in this virtual world; Fourth, the virtual world must be jointly built by the community, which is our vision for the Metaverse.”
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Overcoming infrastructure and standard protocols, laying the foundation for the Metaverse
From cognition to action, the Rangers Protocol incubated by MixMarvel chooses to "gnaw" the two "hard bones" that lay the foundation of the Metaverse, infrastructure and standard protocols, to solve developers' complex problems other than building finance. Insufficient performance, high development costs, and poor user experience encountered in blockchain applications.
Dapper Labs encountered this problem in 2017 - when they developed the explosive NFT chain game "CryptoKitties" (CryptoKitties), Ethereum encountered network congestion and Gas surged for the first time; today the same problem is in the bull market mushrooming Emerging NFT platforms and projects. According to the DappRadar rankings, 17 of the top 20 NFT projects by sales are on Ethereum, and developers, operators and users of NFT applications have to endure Ethereum's increasingly congested network and increasingly high miner fees , thus hindering the further growth of NFT. According to the NonFungible.com database, the number of NFT sales, sales amount and active wallet addresses in the past three months have shown a downward trend.
At present, there are three main types of solutions for NFT and Metaverse infrastructure on the market: one is public chains other than Ethereum, such as Flow developed by Dapper Labs and Near, which focuses on high-performance sharding technology; the other is side chains, There are Polygon (formerly known as Matic Network), xDai launched by MakerDAO, and Ronin developed by the blockchain metaverse game Axie Infinity; the third is Layer 2 solutions for Ethereum expansion, such as the blockchain e-sports game Gods Unchained and Immutable developed by StarkWare X.
The Rangers Protocol, which has been developed for 3 years and has been iteratively upgraded to the current version in practical applications, did not choose the second and third routes, because the Rocket Protocol version 1.0 launched in 2018 is a Layer 2 expansion solution based on Ethereum to solve the current operating problems. The pain points found in the development of the combatable chain game "Cloud Fighting Dragon"; in 2019, the Rocket Protocol upgraded to version 1.5 added an efficient VRF+BLS consensus mechanism, proposal and verification node block verification governance mechanism, multi-chain Identity and DID (decentralized identity) architecture and bridging and cross-chain technologies and functions are no longer attached to the Ethereum platform and have embarked on an independent development path.
The Rangers Protocol, which is scheduled to be launched on the mainnet in the third quarter of this year, is a high-performance chain group that is fully compatible with the multi-chain contract interoperability of the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). A blockchain infrastructure that professionally supports NFT and complex decentralized applications. It serves all entrepreneurs who want to explore in the blockchain world, allowing pioneer developers to freely try more diverse content and applications in the Rangers Protocol ecosystem without permission. Allow developers to freely create complex decentralized applications that adapt to various scenarios.
"Rangers Protocol is compatible with all Dapps and assets under the Ethereum EVM system, achieving contract-level cross-chain interoperability. For example, users can directly open applications on Ethereum through the NFT multi-chain wallet developed based on Rangers Protocol. Seamlessly transfer to any public chain. At present, Rangers Protocol already supports cross-chain operations of multiple mainstream public chains including Ethereum, BSC, and TRON.” Jade Zhang said, “Moreover, Rangers Protocol has also implemented special NFT protocols. Enhanced, it can provide developers with very practical functions such as one-click cross-chain, one-click shuttle, one-click merge, and one-click batch casting of NFT. These functions are based on our chain game development experience over the years. As a developer , we deeply understand the difficulty of developing applications based on the blockchain, and only by encapsulating these exposed wires can traditional developers be attracted.”
Compared with the current Polygon with a market value of US$9.2 billion, Near with a market value of US$1.1 billion, and Flow with a market value of US$500 million, first-tier funds believe that Rangers Protocol, which is valued at nearly US$100 million, is a project with great potential for track selection and strong technical strength target.
Roy Learner, Head of Investment at Framework Ventures, believes that NFT and metaverse applications are complex high-level applications that are close to users, and require underlying protocols other than Ethereum that can support complex applications. Rangers Protocol is highly flexible and is more friendly to game developers outside the blockchain field, making it easier for games to undergo blockchain transformation and expand the chain game market. Furthermore, since games are already the most complex applications, the Rangers Protocol is also compatible with other types of application developers.
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A free port connecting blockchain islands and application continents, built by game veterans
Regarding empowering developers, promoting the popularization of blockchain technology, and helping users create better collaboration and benefits in the digital world, Rangers Protocol would like to describe itself as the Odaily that is closest to the public users and can interconnect with various blockchain planets:
In the blockchain universe, Ethereum is a big planet, Polkadot is a constellation, and Rangers Protocol is an Odaily with a connector (Connector) and an engine (Engine). Whether it is on a large planet or an asteroid group, there are developers and various applications belonging to its ecology. Rangers Protocol is connected to the entrance in the universe through each connector: Odaily such as Ethereum and Polkadot are directly connected, and all data, assets and other information can flow freely; Odaily has also built an infrastructure suitable for large-scale applications—— Engine, developers can directly develop applications according to their own needs within the Rangers Protocol ecosystem. In addition, Rangers Protocol also provides parallel Engines for other ecological developers, so that developers on other planets can enter Rangers Protocol without permission to build their own applications, and realize the circulation of assets in different ecologies through connectors, which not only improves The liquidity of assets also brings exchanges between Odaily (inter-ecology). MixMarvel plays a special role on Rangers Protocol Odaily, similar to the first entertainment center in the ecosystem that is closest to mass users, and will attract a large number of ordinary users to the blockchain universe.
The positioning and development path of Rangers Protocol are favored by investors. SevenX Ventures, one of the leading investment agencies for the seed round, commented: “Just as the Suez Canal continuously transports crude oil from the Middle East and European commodities to all parts of the world and supports the modern industrial foundation of mankind, Rangers Protocol will be the link between all regions in the future. The Suez Canal in the blockchain continent. Blockchain is developing towards large-scale applications. Starting with games and NFT, Rangers Protocol will become an epic on the blockchain. In terms of nature and virtual machines, we will eventually establish interconnection standards in the blockchain world.”
Flow may be a more appropriate reference for the development potential of Rangers Protocol. In 2017, the team that developed the explosive game "Crypto Kitty" that made NFT enter the mainstream for the first time established Dapper Labs after deeply experiencing the limitations of slow throughput and expensive gas fees on the Ethereum platform, and raised financing from top institutions such as a16z and USV Later, it developed the Flow public chain focusing on NFT and games, and finally launched it together with the Flow chain-based NFT application NBA Top Shot in August last year. So far, NBA Top Shot has always ranked first in the transaction volume and number of users of all NFT projects; in the second quarter of this year, NBA Top Shot accounted for 62% of the overall NFT secondary market sales, led by NBA Top Shot Flow NFT sales totaled $473 million, not far behind Ethereum-based NFT sales of $678 million. Dapper Labs has raised $18 million before and after, with a latest valuation of $7.5 billion; in addition to NBA Top Shot, ecological projects based on the Flow public chain also include the UFC collection card project, the NFT trading platform VIV3, the browser Flowscan, the collection game Dr. Senuss, etc. .
Similar to Dapper Labs’ path of developing the Flow public chain based on the pain points of “Crypto Kitties” development needs, MixMarvel also discovered problems and needs in the development of more competitive chain games and began to incubate Rangers Protocol, constantly iteratively upgrading. The founding members of MixMarvel, led by Jade Zhang, are veterans of the game industry from Ubisoft, Tencent and other domestic and foreign game manufacturers. They have participated in the development of many national-level games and have more experience and experience in game application development and operation. Judging from the experience and performance valued by investors, MixMarvel’s self-developed or released blockchain games accounted for half of the DappReview TOP 20 list at its peak. In 2018, the total number of users and DAU of the Ethereum version of “Cloud Fighting Dragon” once exceeded "Crypto Kitty" has become the top 1 blockchain game. The image of the dragon in the game, together with V God and Crypto Kitty, was listed by CoinDesk as one of the top ten blockchain characters in 2018. Compared with Dapper Labs, which specializes in the development and collection of blockchain games, MixMarvel and its incubated Rangers Protocol are better at creating more complex combat competitive blockchain games. Therefore, Rangers Protocol creates a block that supports the NFT ecosystem better chain infrastructure.
Through this seed round and institutional financing, Rangers Protocol expects to obtain resource assistance from these front-line investment institutions in addition to technology research and development, improve its popularity in the global market, expand its user base, and introduce more developers, Top-level IP and high-quality resources from major communities lay a solid foundation for the subsequent economic system launch and ecological development.
