Merit Circle has announced plans to launch Beam, a gaming-focused subnet blockchain on Avalanche.
Beam aims to not only facilitate the DAO’s own products such as gaming NFT marketplace Sphere and TCG Edenhorde Eclipse but also become the home to thirdparty games. Already announced titles include Trial Xtreme, Walker World and Hash Rush.
Back in mid-2022, Merit Circle announced that Sphere was nearing its final stages. However, due to market conditions Sphere’s release was postponed. So, in the meantime, Merit Circle decided to develop Beam, as a means to provide a network for the games that were planned to launch on Sphere.
The subnet is empowered by Merit Circle DAO, with its network of over 60 partnered games, developers, contributors, and investors. The Avalanche network is known for its minimal fees and quick secure settlements, allowing for optimization of transactions in games.
Other blockchain games using Avalanche include Gunzilla’s Off The Grid, Pixion’s Fableborne and Neon’s Shrapnel.
Working with Ava Labs
To supervise the network, Merit Circle DAO has appointed OPL’s newly hired CTO Brandon Aaskov. With nearly 20 years of experience in leading software products, Askov comments, “Beam is meant for gamers and game developers alike: to take away the complexity and still offer true ownership and easy control of that ownership. To get there, we’re incredibly excited to work with Ava Labs who have proven that scaling via subnets works effectively and efficiently.”
He continues, “To keep transactions flowing and fees low, we’re optimizing Beam specifically for game-heavy workloads so that the “hard stuff” with on-chain operations becomes an afterthought for everyone but Merit Circle.”
Beam allows game developers to seamlessly deploy their games on-chain and provides everything from smart contracts to asset management and oracles for web2 games and marketplaces. Furthermore, it offers decentralized and autonomous applications by trusted developers, and it will use Merit Circle’s $MC token for gas.
For more details, read Merit Circle’s announcement in full.