> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.asphodel.io/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.asphodel.io/whitepaper/economics/worlds.md). # Worlds A World in this context is a digital environment constructed entirely on-chain out of smart contract systems. The most mature example of this in production right now is Kamigotchi World, our first game, which serves as our environment for refining our World systems in production without committing to fully freezing our contracts up front.
A World consists of areas for characters (usually NFTs) to navigate, resources that can be harvested, and in-game items, currency, and assets that are tracked from within the smart contracts that comprise the World. Although these assets are decentralized and users may do as they wish with them within the World, purely in-World assets cannot exist on the wider blockchain outside of the World itself. In most ways, a World resembles a traditional video game environment, with the important difference being that its underlying data/structure is *completely decentralized*. While it is a walled garden, actors within the garden can act without censorship and may do as they wish within the set of actions permitted by the game's logic. This means that users can take in-world assets more seriously than they would the assets in a traditional video game. In the long run, we want to center things around a small number of Worlds built on Ethereum mainnet, which will collectively make up the Asphodel 'Universe' - the Prologue is the first of these. These Worlds are governed by Asphodel Studios during their early phases, with ownership being passed over to decentralized governance for ongoing stewardship once we feel things are ready. ### In-World Assets We believe that items held entirely in-world represent a new form of digital asset that has yet to be properly defined or classified. In theory, an in-game item that is defined entirely by smart contracts should have the same advantages as other decentralized virtual assets, and should be 'more concrete' than traditional videogame items. Kamigotchi World includes a wide set of items, some of which are perceived at the time of writing as being more valuable than the Kamigotchi NFTs themselves. You can expect most or all of our Worlds to include "in-world" assets of this kind - both items and occasionally currency. #### MUSU and Currency We have experimented with an entirely in-world currency with Kamigotchi World - MUSU. This is used to trade with vendors in-game, to mint new Kamigotchi NFTs, and can be exchanged using the in-world orderbook for $ONYX, a fungible token. MUSU sits somewhere between tradable points and a traditional token in Web3. The Asphodel Prologue will not use MUSU or an equivalent, but we intend to ensure MUSU balances carry forth into the wider Asphodel ecosystem over time. "In-world currencies" such as MUSU offer us an interesting economic alternative to tokens.
### User Generated Content and the Community Worlds of this kind are very well suited to UGC and player-driven content expansion, and perhaps uniquely suited to monetization of UGC. Kamigotchi in its current form is now played primarily through modded clients, some of which have monetized as their own third party businesses by charging fees to users in exchange for their services. Even in this very limited prototype form, we've found that it's possible for Worlds of this kind to give birth to new forms of businesses and services built on top. We think this has very interesting implications for the long term; we see a future where there are hundreds of small businesses built around or on top of Asphodel itself. This is a completely different dynamic from what we see in traditional gaming, and hugely empowers the community. Modders may do whatever they like within the bounds of the system; eventually, we expect to even see third party games in development that use the Kamigotchi and Taruchi NFTs or otherwise plug into our systems. We entirely support this and intend to enable our community to monetize their creations as much as possible. Enabling the long-term development of a UGC ecosystem is what turns Asphodel from a centrally developed project into a decentralized world that builds and expands itself. We are interested in enabling the largest and most vibrant community we can, and we intend to treat community builders as first-class citizens with this in mind. Centralized game studios simply can't do this. No matter how much they want to enable their userbase, empowering users to this degree is only possible when the core of the game is decentralized. The most successful existing UGC platforms - Fortnite, Roblox - are walled gardens with a tightly permissioned ecosystem, and the games with the most thriving mod communities generally prohibit monetization. Full decentralization allows us to lean into UGC in a way that's just not possible within a traditional, centralized system. It's a unique edge that we expect to keep growing over time. ### Current Trade-Offs and Caveats An important caveat here is that this additional significance is bounded by how truly decentralized the world itself is. Kamigotchi World currently has two major weaknesses, both of which we consider acceptable given its role as a prototype - these are the underlying blockchain itself, Yominet, which is essentially a centralized layer-two at the moment, and the fact that we have not yet frozen the game's contracts. As we use Kamigotchi to develop and prototype features that will later make it to the fully-decentralized environments on Asphodel, we think this is ok - for now. Asphodel itself will avoid the first of these weaknesses - by deploying on Ethereum, we have reduced the risk of the underlying chain failing in some manner as much as is realistically possible. However, we will not renounce the contracts for each section of Asphodel on day 1 - as will be discussed in more detail in the Prologue roadmap, we will carry out a finite number of patches/balance changes before finalizing the game, renouncing contract ownership, and fully ossifying the Prologue World to allow it to run forever in self-contained form. --- # Agent Instructions This documentation is published with GitBook. GitBook is the documentation platform designed so that both humans and AI agents can read, navigate, and reason over technical content effectively. Learn more at gitbook.com. ## Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter, and the optional `goal` query parameter: ``` GET https://docs.asphodel.io/whitepaper/economics/worlds.md?ask=&goal= ``` `ask` is the immediate question: it should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. `goal` is optional and describes the broader end goal you are ultimately trying to accomplish on behalf of the user. GitBook uses it to tailor the answer towards what is most useful for that goal. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.