If you have reached this post, you probably know what AaveGotchi consists of.
At the gameplay level, an AaveGotchi is a virtual pet with a set of characteristics (energy, intelligence, aggressiveness, ...) that you can customize with different accessories (clothing and accessories) that will modify its qualities. That you can level up (completing missions, playing minigames, participating in voting to make decisions about the course that the platform will follow, etc ...). With which you can participate in tournaments (based on rarity or other parameters of the pet). And with which, shortly, and this is what I find most interesting, you will be able to enter a virtual world (from what it seems, something similar to a WoW- type MMORPG or similar) called the GotchiVerse.
(This image has been obtained from the official AaveGotchi v1.0 litepaper about the Gotchiverse that you can find here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hUHF29F3_tByWd8ezSphYEE0gPJYg3K5CN1K-X3_WK8/edit ).
In the following paragraphs I will summarize how AaveGotchi works from an economic point of view. If you have not entered the world of cryptocurrencies and NFTs, you could miss some parts.
Do
not be scared when you read the following paragraphs, although the
world of cryptocurrencies and NFTs is exciting, it is not necessary to
understand every detail 100% to be able to play AaveGotchi and earn
money playing this fantastic game based on blockchain.
At the economic level, an AaveGotchi is an NFT that has the particularity of being associated with a cryptocurrency that you can stake in AaveGotchi itself (and therefore, earn rewards in the form of said cryptocurrency as a result of staking). As if it were a kind of piggy bank and at the same time a kind of bank deposit that gives you interest just for having your money there. It is what is called the "Spirit Force" of the AaveGotchi. My AaveGotchi for example, is associated with DeFi Yearn Finance coin (YFI):
In addition, the platform (the economy within the game itself) works with its own token built on the MATIC network
, the GHST token
.
This token is like any other cryptocurrency, as you accumulate GHST, you
can use them within the game to buy things (you can also stake them to
obtain benefits), but you can also use an exchange like
QuickSwap to convert them into other cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin, Ethereum, USDT .. .) or FIAT currency (Euro, Dollar, ...).
Thus, from the investor point of view, an AaveGotchi has intrinsic value because it is an NFT. It is a unique virtual object, which belongs to you because it is registered in the MATIC blockchain associated with your wallet, and which, depending on its characteristics and the time of the market, you can resell it at a better price or not, like any other good (as if invest in a collector's work of art or bottle of wine to keep with the intention of reselling it later and making a profit).
In
addition, as I said, by being able to stake in the AaveGotchi the
cryptocurrency to which it is associated (USDT, YFI, Uniswap, etc ...),
you will be able to receive rewards in the form of said cryptocurrency,
which is known as staking. It could be likened to a bank deposit that gives you interest for having your money there.
And finally, as has been said, the economy of the game itself is based on the GHST token, with which you can buy AaveGotchis, its accessories and other game objects, etc ...
This is where gameplay and economy meet, because while you play, you can earn GHST (either by buying and reselling Gotchis or other in-game items, or by doing in-game missions, etc ...). And of course, if the time comes to do so, these GHSTs, like any other cryptocurrency, can be exchanged for other cryptocurrencies according to the current market price, or for FIAT currency (dollars, euros, etc ...).Get started in AaveGotchi avoiding abusive commissions
After this introduction, which was necessary especially for people who do not know the whole world of NFTs and AaveGotchi in particular, I am going to tell you what platforms and what steps I follow to buy the GHST token and with it, to be able to buy AaveGotchi and other game objects.
This I am going to tell you is the result of my experience, after much research and trying different ways, and after eating a few unnecessary commissions. I don't know if there will be another more efficient way, but by following these steps you can have your AaveGotchi avoiding many intermediary commissions.
1) MetaMask wallet
The first thing you have to do is install the MetaMask wallet. You have it available for mobile phones and as extensions for browsers.
It is a bit beyond the scope of this post to explain how to prepare MetaMask, but it is very simple. Here's a pretty clear article on how to prepare your wallet if you don't have it yet. Most importantly, DO NOT FORGET to copy yourself well on paper or the non-digital format that is the recovery words of your wallet. With them, you will never lose your virtual goods stored in your wallet.
Once we have MetaMask, we will work with the MATIC network. Once again, it is out of this article to explain how cryptocurrencies and networks that exist work. But to summarize a bit, let's say that there are many different cryptocurrencies and there are several networks on which you can transfer said cryptocurrencies (each network supports a set of cryptocurrencies).
If
you have such a cryptocurrency in a wallet on the Ethereum network, you
could send payments to another wallet on the Ethereum network, but
never to a wallet on the MATIC network. To jump from one network to another, you need to use certain platforms that act as exchangers.
AaveGotchi
works with the MATIC network and therefore we need to send some
cryptocurrency (for example USDT, a stable cryptocurrency that should
always be worth 1 dollar, or the MATIC currency itself) to our wallet in
said MATIC network, in order to later convert it to GHST .
2) Binance
It is possibly the best known exchange. You could work with another, but normally anyone who is in the world of cryptocurrencies already has an account in Binance and usually works with it. That is why I start from the idea that we start with cryptocurrencies on Binance. This is the most basic. But in case we are totally new to this world and we do not have cryptos on Binance, here is a good article to start shopping.
3) We need MATIC currency in our MATIC network wallet to be able to operate on this network
All crypto networks charge fees for transferring crypto from one wallet to another. The MATIC network is SUPER economical in this regard, it has very low commissions. Here you can read a little more about said network.
Commissions are paid in MATIC so it is mandatory to have some MATIC cryptos in our wallet. I had put around 5.02 MATICs in my wallet, and I still have 5.0135 after doing tons of trades. The commissions are really low, in the line of 0.000151 MATICs for a simple operation, or similar.
4) AscendEx
Therefore, we want to move MATICs to our MATIC wallet without going through other networks such as the Ethereum network (because the commissions of the Ethereum network are exorbitant, to the point that a few weeks ago, moving a few dollars through the network of Ethereum, could cost you $ 150 in commissions or similar crazy things).
This is where the AscendEx exchange comes in (it's another Binance-style exchange). It is the only one that I know of that is capable of allowing crypto withdrawals (specifically MATICs) through the MATIC network directly to a wallet in said network.
As I was saying, I start from the idea that you initially have your capital in cryptocurrencies in Binance, which is quite common. If it is another exchange, or a wallet, the thing would be similar.
4) Binance -> BNB -> BEP20 -> AscendEx -> USDT -> MATIC
Yes, I know that the title of this section seems a bit crazy, but it is simple.
To move money from Binance to AscendEx the cheapest way I have found is to buy BNB (Binance's cryptocurrency) on Binance and send it to AscendEx's BNB address BEP20 through the BEP20 network because that network also has cheap commissions. The other option would be to use Ethereum's ERC20 network, but as I already said, the fees are insane. Or we could also buy Bitcoin, Cardano, or similar, and send them through the appropriate network of that crypto. But I think the BEP20 network fees to send BNB are the cheapest for this case.
So we send BNB from Binance to AscendEx and once in AscendEx we just convert it first to USDT and then to MATIC (there is no direct BNB - MATIC conversion on this exchange).
By doing it this way, we will have spent the Binance commission to buy BNB, the BEP20 network commission to send it to AscendEx, and the AscendEx commission to convert to USDT and then to MATIC.
I have not done the exact calculation but adding everything, I do not think it is more than 2 dollars.
5) AscendEx -> MATIC wallet
As I have already said, once we have those MATIC purchased in AscendEx, now we can withdraw them directly to our MATIC MetaMask wallet. This will cost us a commission of 2 MATIC. As we will see later, this will only have to be done once, as long as you do not run out of MATICs in your wallet, then I will explain how to avoid it.
6) QuickSwap
QuickSwap is an exchange in the MATIC network with which you can exchange cryptocurrencies in your MATIC wallet for other cryptocurrencies.
As I said, when you do operations with your wallet on whatever network, they will charge you commissions. In the MATIC network they are sooo low, but they exist, so the ideal is never to run out of MATICs in your wallet or you will have to repeat the process of buying MATICs through AscendEx.
With QuickSwap you can convert your cryptos in your MATIC wallet to other cryptos. For example, since we have already moved MATICs to the wallet, we could convert them to GHST to be able to buy an AaveGotchi.
QuickSwap's commissions are also low.
7) Xpollinate
Following steps 1 to 6 you can now have your GHST in your MATIC wallet to buy in the Aavegotchi game and we have already seen that they are not abusive commissions either.
However, once you already have MATICs cryptocurrencies in your MATIC network wallet, if you need to buy more, there is another way that I think is even a little cheaper than going through AscendEx.
It is about using Xpollinate , an exchange that allows you to move USDC, USDT or DAI (they are three stable currencies that are always worth 1 dollar) from a BEP20 wallet of your MetaMask to a MATIC wallet of said MetaMask.
As we have already said, the BEP20 network does not have very high fees either, so you can withdraw USDC, DAI or USDT from Binance directly to your MetaMask BEP20 wallet. And then with Xpollinate, you move those USDC, DAI or USDT to your MATIC wallet.
And finally, once again, you use QuickSwap to convert these cryptos to GHST in order to operate in the AaveGotchi game.
8) Transak
There is another alternative with which in theory you can directly buy cryptocurrencies with FIAT currency and receive them in your MATIC wallet, this is Transak.
However, I tried to use it and after filling out a thousand forms about my identity (because they are obliged to notify governments), and making a SEPA transfer of the money, it never arrived (they returned it to my bank account after a few days), and the crypto purchase never took place (I already had the FOMO through the roof because I wanted my AaveGotchi NOW, and this hurt me 👺).
In
addition, I think that the commissions are much higher than the sum of
all the commissions of the steps explained above, so I do not recommend
using Transak.
Choose an AaveGotchi
You already have your GHST in your MATIC wallet, the time has come to go to the Aavegotchis market and buy your first AaveGotchi.
There you will find all kinds of crazy things. AaveGotchis that cost a lot (some because they are really worth it and others because they have just set high prices), AaveGotchis with more or less high rarities, with different characteristics, etc ...
Here there will be all kinds of opinions and surely I am not the most expert but I give you my point of view.
The
kinship (you will find out what this is) is not important, because
simply by clicking the button to take care of your AaveGotchi every 12
hours you increase its kinship, therefore it is not an important
parameter, you will increase it with a bit of time and dedication.
Rarity increases based on qualities. High or low qualities increase rarity. That is, an intelligence of 0 raises the rarity value as much or more than an intelligence of 98.
So at first I would say that the most important thing to choose the Gotchi is that it has extreme base characteristics (below, or above, without modifications due to clothing and objects).
This is possibly the most important, because the only way to modify the characteristics of the Gotchi is with clothes and objects, which cost money and there are a limited number of them that you can put on it. You can also level it up, but gaining experience is not simple and it is slower.
Therefore, extreme characteristics below or above are of interest.
And now here is my opinion. I think that when the GotchiVerse starts and the RPG game starts, my opinion is that high characteristics will help in the game. Makes sense? Maybe not, maybe having an IQ of 99 is no better in the game than having an IQ of 0, who knows.
But something tells me that if you can buy an AaveGotchi with extreme and also very high characteristics, the better :) I said, these are only my speculations, the final decision is yours.
Oh, and another point to keep in mind is perhaps the Spirit Force. USDT is not the same as YFI.
If you are going to stake a currency, you may feel more comfortable stake a stablecoin than a currency with as much volatility as YFI. That already depends on each one and their aversion to risk. My AaveGotchi is YFI, which has dropped from $ 68,000 to $ 30,000 since May 12.
If the going goes 😈 and you are willing to endure these ups and downs, you know. But maybe a stablecoin AaveGotchi like USDT or DAI may be more appropriate for you.
Conclution
In this post I have tried to tell you the way in which I buy in AaveGotchi, which is the cheapest way and with the least commissions that I have found. Maybe there is another better way, if you find it, do not hesitate to leave a comment here :)
I hope this article is helpful to you.
If you are interested in this type of content, you can follow me on twitter where I will publish more about this topic.
Greetings to all.