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What Is an IGO in Crypto? | Notum

By Notum

May 04, 20223 min read

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Recently, blockchain games have been gaining more and more popular among both developers and users. It is not surprising because blockchain technology can present many advantages for both sides: tokenization of in-game assets, decentralized gaming market, additional monetization methods for developers, and much more. To date, several thousand blockchain games have already been launched. In 2021, there was a real boom in the GameFi sphere. 

However, developing high-quality, detailed, and engaging game projects requires considerable funds. In addition, against the background of a huge variety of emerging projects, some worthwhile blockchain games are simply lost in all this diversity. Thus, for the game to become popular, it is crucial to raise funds and obtain partners and an audience. It is for this purpose that IGO launchpads were created.

What Is an IGO?

IGO is a fundraising method that is beneficial for all sides of the process — the game project, investors, and the launchpad. With the help of IGO, gaming projects get the opportunity to raise funds for the development and launch, and investors get the opportunity to get into the first ranks of holders of in-game assets and NFTs. Most often, investors are among the first to receive NFTs, which are various in-game items: land, characters, skins, or even mystery boxes. The profitability of such an investment can reach incredible proportions if the game project can break out into the market leader. For example, it is enough to recall the success of the popular blockchain game Axie Infinity and its in-game tokens or the equally popular game Decentraland.

After receiving tokens of the game project, users can use them to access the game or wait for the moment when the game becomes popular and sell the tokens received during IGO for thousands or even millions of dollars.

How To Participate In an IGO?

IGO is often carried out on launchpads, of which there are quite a lot on the market now. The most popular platforms for IGO are GameFi, Enjin Starter, Binance NFT, Seedify.fund, and Gamestarter. Each platform provides its own conditions and requirements for participation in IGO. Still, in most cases, it all boils down to the fact that participants need to purchase a certain number of launchpad native tokens to gain access to participation in IGO. More detailed instructions are as follows:

Select IGO launchpad. Each launchpad has its own requirements and benefits. Users wishing to participate in IGO need to study which game projects were launched earlier on a particular platform and how successful crowdfunding turned out to be. After selecting the launchpad, you will have to complete the KYC procedure.

Purchase launchpad tokens. For example, to participate in IGO on GameFi, users need to purchase and stake a certain number of native GAFI tokens. Launchpads usually implement a tiering model — the more tokens, the higher your tier, and therefore the greater the reward (allocation). In addition, the longer you stake the purchased tokens, the higher your chances of success.

Choose the game project you wish to participate in and wait for the date when you can apply for the whitelist. Once you are successfully whitelisted, you can purchase project tokens when the purchase phase begins. As soon as the IGO is completed, you can claim your tokens. Further, depending on the project, you will receive tokens that will be airdropped to your wallet or asked to claim tokens on a third-party platform.

IGO Risks

IGO may seem like a tempting and profitable investment. However, before investing in gaming projects that are at the IGO stage, there are several points to consider:

Who is behind the project? Find out more about those who are behind the project’s development, perhaps the project team is already known for successfully launched games, or the developers have valuable experience in other projects.

What is unique about the game? Evaluate what developers offer users, how this project differs from existing ones, and its features. Don’t forget to also pay attention to the roadmap.

Who supports the project? To develop a worthwhile project without investments from third-party investors and the conclusion of partnerships is an impossible task. Therefore, find out who saw the potential of the project and contributed to its development. It’s great if the game project has world-famous partners.

What is the mood of the community? Explore the official Twitter, Facebook, and Discord channels of the project. This way, you can determine how many people are waiting for the game to launch. The more active community members are, the more chances the project will be successful after the release, and the price of tokens will soar.

Conclusion

Blockchain games are a promising direction that is only gaining popularity, despite a number of already successfully functioning projects. Developers have yet to explore how blockchain technology can take the gaming experience to a new level. Thus, it is expected that the projects will become even more ambitious and exciting in the future. Participation in IGO gives you chances to get early access to in-game assets of potentially successful projects. Nevertheless, investors should take a critical approach to choose a project since if the game fails, they risk being left with useless tokens and NFTs.