No more wine for me.
I’m past delighting in the thick red,
the clear white.I’m thirsty for my own blood
as it moves onto an active battlefield.— Jalal al-Din Rumi
How’s the blood taste, Martians?
If you’re reading this, you survived. I make a point not to talk about price, but it’s okay to admit that sub $0.50 is scary. After a big downturn like that, it can be easy to let fear take hold. Questions pop up.
Is this the end?
What are we gonna do?
Or, more accurately,
FUCK, my bags!
I’m proud of you for not panicking. We all knew this was coming. But the question remains, what are we gonna do about it?
Chasing blood, making history
We’re done with the easy, cheap wine of crypto.
We’re looking for a battlefield. The hard work of doing things well in a fast world of cheap shit designed to Pump 'n Rug 
.
We’re looking for blood. We’re here to do things that will piss off jaded crypto investors and blow the minds of everyone with a shred of curiosity and wonder in them. We’re checking our egos and imagining a world where the rules we’re supposed to live by no longer apply. Where you forget what you think you know, and start something new.
We’re making something real.
Mars is working exactly as it should. You already know this, but Mars is a designed to have endless layers. We’re building DeFi tools to serve a game which serves a metaverse which serves its community of users, who are all participating in a giant social experiment unlike anything that’s been done before, that will evolve to fit its community.
It’s not strictly scientific, per se, in the sense that we don’t have a single variable/control setup. Instead, it’s more a simulation; a messy, human project that is a microcosm of life that aims to get as close as possible to an example of an ideal society.
With different definitions of that “ideal society”, there’s bound to be conflict. That’s just how it works. Our duty, then, is to seek to resolve that conflict well.
People play games because they like to be who the game gives them the chance to be, among the friends they want to be with.
Mars is exactly that, done in a way that, due to earnings potential, will eventually be something people can do sustainably, without feeling like gaming is taking away from their lives, but is rather contributing to it.
On Mars, gaming will be an exercise in governance, entrepreneurship, the arts, friendship/guilds, entertainment, and everything else a society runs on.
Basically, this tweet.
Oh, and this one.
When I say the problems are all a part of the process, that’s not some dismissive bullshit to wave away our mistakes.
You know I do my best to acknowledge and learn from my mistakes, and I know you do, too.
What I mean is, we’re tossing all the unhealthy patterns in crypto, and building something good, cautiously, one step at a time, and welcoming the mistakes as learning points.
It’s not our goal to make as much money as quickly as we can, it’s our goal to build a society unlike anything the world has ever seen.
Something that will be used as a case study for future generations, whether in Web3 or otherwise.
Something that can be an example for how we want our digital society to work.
You’ve seen the problem: The internet is still a new tool, in the grand scheme of things. Social media is new. It’s an entirely new place that society gathers. The metaverse, in that way, is a bit like the wild west.
Or space frontiers.
People unsure how to operate in this new society are using it for echo chambers, division, and masturbatory criticisms that feed shriveled egos.
We want to move past that, into something more unified, while not coercively unified.
We’re figuring it out together as we go. So we need to have each other’s backs.
Mars is, in the moment, a place for you to be yourself freely in a community of amazing people.
Anyway, I’m getting all preachy. What does this mean practically?
It means our plans for this thing go way deeper than you think they do:
Governance. Customizable gameplay. A mind-blowing plot. On-chain subdevelopments. Bridges. Pets. Collectibles. Entertainment/media. Guilds. In-game businesses founded by players. PvP. Group missions. Chain-wide collaborative meta-missions. Project integrations. Investment DAOs. Secret societies. Treasure hunts. Robots. Perishables. DeFi and lending/banking. MarsCon. An actual fucking space ship.
But you’ll see.
Even though I’m officially becoming full-time, these things take time.
Like, years.
So when I seem like I’m not as vocal, it’s because I’m thinking.
Watching, listening, asking, and planning.
Taking the time we have, fighting the urge to give in to the rush of the industry, and reimagining things.
In the end, the patient ones who put in the work win.
You’re already in early, just buckle up.
Specifics
“Alright preacher-man,” you’ll say.
“Tell me what all that really means. Do I sell? Do I upgrade? Do I wait?”
I can’t tell you how to be you. What I can do, however, is give you more info about what we’re doing, and you can make the best decisions for yourself.
Voting
The mission rewards vote has been developed. Devs are waiting for my all-clear, for me to have proposals live. I will publish 3 proposals within 24 hours, and then we will vote:
-
The top proposal by informal votes
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The second highest proposal
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A proposal which combines aspects from all four original proposals
Voting, as previously stated, will be one-per-wallet that contains any MC NFT, according to a snapshot we took last week or so.
Why?
Frankly, because it’s fast and equitable. It works fine enough for right now. No need to pretend it’s perfect.
We can have all sorts of conversations about the ethics of money affecting voting power, and we will.
This voting structure is NOT permanent. We are using it because it’s the simplest fair method with what we have at the moment for a quick vote like this.
I will put forward an official DAO structure proposal when I can, and then we can all discuss it and amend it together.
We will have a multi-tiered system with checks and balances eventually, and then that model will be reproduced across chains and each chain will put forth its own representatives for an interchain DAO, adding another tier.
More on that later.
For now, I’ll announce when I publish the official vote instructions and final proposals. Voting will take place directly in app.marscolony.io.
DEX
After recent updates, we’re happy with the speed of routed transactions, and are ready to run the code base through a final inspection. Then, we’ll work the code base into the frontend SpaceXchange UI, add a couple other UI changes we came up with, and then launch. I still don’t have a date, but we’re finally moving again. Because we’re prioritizing missions, the DEX isn’t urgently launching.
Missions
We’ve been building missions while the rewards debate is ongoing, and a very basic proof-of-concept should launch by this weekend, assuming no delays.
That will be a glimpse into how missions will work, so you can get familiar with it.
Dev communication
Now that I’m almost all-Mars-all-day-every-day, communication can become more consistent. This isn’t a magic fix, as I still have SO MUCH to plan and build out so we can be an efficient communication machine, but things will start improving.
One of the first fixes is Eugene’s idea of doing a GitBook. We’ll be tracking overviews of what’s next in development for the game, so you can stay generally up to date.
There’s a lot more that will need to be explained beyond the GitBook, but it’s a good way to stay assured that we are, in fact, “doing something”.
AMA
It’s been a while since the last core team AMA, eh?
We’re going to have one this week, Thursday or Friday! The time will be announced soon, but expect a Twitter Spaces AMA later this week.
Start posting your questions in the AMA-chat Discord channel.
Also, that joint AMA/hangout with multiple Harmony projects is happening on Saturday, April 23rd, at 5pm PT on Twitter. Stay posted for an official announcement.
Anyway, I’m sure there’s more to update you on, but I’m exhausted still after the rollercoaster life has been, so if you’ve got questions left unanswered, ask them below to remind me!
TLDR;
Development/Design
— We rolled out code changes for technical debt and bug fixes, including avatar naming on mobile and buildings not showing on some plots.
— We built simple public voting mechanisms in-app.
— We continued to flesh out the backend service for missions.
— The DEX is finally moving again, in final review before a few UI updates and linking frontend and backend, then launch. No date yet.
— We’re deploying the first clickable proof-of-concept for missions within a week.
— We’re deploying voting likely by Wednesday.
— We’re working on a public gitbook to help keep you in the loop about current dev processes.
Community
— We’re hosting an impromptu core team AMA this Thursday or Friday as a Twitter Space, time TBA.
— I’m going full-time Mars Colony and going to MC headquarters, so communication, lore, teasers, and governance is about to get a lot better (over time, with a process of trial-and-error with you, of course).
— We’re working on missions and game teasers, comic teasers, and more.
— After this mission rewards vote, we’ll publish a DAO strucutre proposal for further discussion.
— Expect some more posts ranging from lore to cross-chain in the next week.
— Mars is like the Stanford Prison Experiment, but better (but less scientific, in some ways).
— Bear markets are temporary. Mars is forever.
— You guys are the fucking best.
Forward.
— brother
