In the past, we always used gold and gold jewelry to compare BTC and colored coins. Many people felt that this metaphor emphasized the value preservation function of ARC20, but ignored the ceiling of added value.
After discussing with my friends today, I found another metaphorical perspective of traditional online games. A limited edition "equipment" that can be worn, removed and upgraded may better highlight the premium principle of dyed Cong over white Cong.

Ordinary Satoshi, which we call White Satoshi, is the smallest unit of Bitcoin without any coloring (0.00000001 BTC)

The process of "dyeing" is to let a white Cong wear rare and limited "equipment". (In traditional online games, similar metaphors can also be skins, fashions, steel stamps, etc.)

Some people compare dyed smart to a rare smart, but in fact the logic of the two is different.
On the one hand, it is the source, the difference between innate and acquired; on the other hand, it is the characteristic of "wearable equipment" - a piece of equipment, when worn on a Cong, is "soul bound" and cannot be removed directly, but it can be destroyed by "de-dying", or it can be replaced by other Congs, and one Cong can wear multiple equipment at the same time (this is more complicated and will not be attempted at this stage).

Finally, these dyed smart cards we have in our hands are precisely the "high-level smart cards" with their own unique and scarce equipment attached.

The "equipment" here has several characteristics:
1. Acquisition cost: It costs money to acquire these equipments at the beginning. The process of creating equipments and putting them on Cong is called minting.
2. One coin for one satoshi: Equipment must be worn on satoshis to realize its value. One coin naturally corresponds to one satoshi. Even if the equipment is rotten, the satoshi still has value. If the equipment is very good, the combination of "equipment + satoshi" will naturally be more valuable.
3. Series differentiation: Equipment of the same series, such as equipment named Quark, and different Quark equipment are always homogenized (FT); while different FTs, such as Atom and Quark, belong to different series of equipment and have completely different values.
4. Limited total quantity: Once each series of equipment is released and manufactured, the total quantity is limited. For example, there are 21 million pieces of atom equipment and 10 billion pieces of quark equipment. Today, one piece of atom equipment is worth 4.3u in satoshis and one piece of quark equipment is worth 0.0023u in satoshis.
5. Added value: In the past, we compared dyed coins to gold jewelry, perhaps emphasizing the value preservation function. However, if we look at it from the perspective of "Satoshi + equipment", Satoshi is used to preserve value, while the value of equipment has no ceiling. Its endless upgrades and advancements after minting are determined by narrative, application and other aspects.

When you deploy a new ARC20 token, for example, called xxx, with 21,000 copies, each worth 1,000 coins, you are actually acting as a limited equipment factory and producing 21 million pieces of legendary equipment; the minting process for others is the process of putting these equipment on Bai Cong. If one is successfully minted, it means that your 1,000 Bai Congs are wearing equipment with the appearance of "xxx".

The additional value of this "xxx" equipment is defined by the public. It can be a pure meme costume or carry various narratives. It can be upgraded (empowered) with the support of the community, allowing an equipment that initially only has appearance to be gradually refined, advanced, and upgraded.
When we give an interesting narrative to xxx equipment, for example, we say that this is equipment approved by Thor, then the intrinsic value of everyone's xxx equipment will be enhanced, promoting consensus recognition; when we empower and develop applications for xxx equipment, then the external functionality of everyone's xxx equipment will be improved, enhancing its practical value.

Since equipment is scarce, it can naturally be hyped.
In itself, from the perspective of "fashion" and "skin", there is a difference in aesthetics (narrative), which is also the most direct value perspective as a luxury product or a rare handicraft; of course, from the perspective of "defense" and "durability", there are also attribute value bonuses in terms of empowerment, application, and rights (there is no upper limit on the points added).

Above. Understanding “coloring” and “satoshi” separately may also be an interesting perspective to explain colored coins.

——

When I told this idea to my friend, he agreed with the concept, but raised a question - how to "add points" to the equipment?
I think this idea is right. Adding points to equipment is where its added value is highlighted. It also emphasizes that colored coins are not only value-preserving, but also value-added.

When we put ourselves in the goal of "upgrading equipment", we can actually put the community in a new role. We say that a token community must persist in doing things and persist in building. In fact, "building" is to "add points" to the attributes of equipment.
Those who write articles have written one article after another for it, gathering a magnificent narrative (improving durability); those who output MEME culture have gathered a long-lasting consensus with visualized pictures and cultural genes that can be spread in the community (improving aesthetics and charm); application empowerment, based on the functional construction of tokens, has given more targeted practical value (improving special effects and passive skills); cross-project and cross-track development linkage, cooperation rights among multiple projects, etc., allow people to get unexpected returns on tokens (increasing drop bonus and experience bonus); those with sufficient funds, market making and market protection are the most direct market promotion (improving attack and defense, mana); after years of preaching, they have laid an ambush for a marketing point that may explode in advance, and every step of construction has its significance (increasing critical hit rate)...

In fact, Build can be done anywhere, and these things can be done with any token. But when and only when we understand "dyeing" as "wearing equipment", Build has a more exciting interpretation.

From this perspective, isn't it a "fun" route to forge equipment, hoard equipment, and polish equipment to make your "smart" army stronger?

#Quark #染色币 #Arc20 #atomicals #比特币生态

(Originally written by Leaper from Quark Community on 2024.04.20)