A thought experiment on uncombining cards

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#splinterlands

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Greetings from The Legendary Canary!

1. Combining cards is 'permanent' - sort of.

With the way Splinterlands is currently set up, combining cards is permanent; there is no in-game way to uncombine them. Oftentimes, this is described as burning the cards.

However from memory, from listening to an AMA long ago, it is actually possible to re-introduce the ability to uncombine cards. If this is the case, it is not really appropriate to say that these cards have been 'burned'. Burning cards to me gives the impression of cards being completely and utterly unrecoverable. Apparently this is not actually the case with Splinterlands cards.

2. A key feature of the pricing dynamics of Splinterlands cards

This might be a little concerning to players and investors who have grown accustomed to the market pricing dynamics that have been established over the past three years of the game's existence. One of the first things players notice almost immediately is that 1bcx cards command a premium over combined cards. This premium derives from the extra flexibility that 1bcx cards provide for upgrading and liquidity purposes. They are able to be moved around more quickly, and are able to be used for a greater number of combinations. Folks are willing to pay extra for this potential flexibility. Sometimes, a LOT extra.

What this implies, is that if we made it possible to uncombine cards to put back onto the market, then the premium for 1bcx versus combined cards would disappear, and liquidity would increase. This would be great news for folks building their collection and players optimising for the lower leagues. Perhaps not so great for investors who already have their positions.

3. Implementing an uncombine feature is technically possible, but is it desirable?

All other things being equal, this one is a tough one to answer. If we ignore the social contract around the game, then my initial instinct is to say that uncombining cards would be neither here nor there. There are pros and cons to either direction, but such an uncombine ability would not directly impact the actual mechanics of the gameplay itself.

4. Uncombining BCX will cause the market to undergo price re-discovery

What we can say right away is that if uncombining cards became a thing, it would seriously dislocate the market and everything would be thrown into price re-discovery. It would be chaos as everyone (including myself) would scramble to feel our way towards the 'new normal'. The traders in the community would be eating the volatility up. Holders like me ... not so much.

5. Uncombining BCX winners & losers

In this quick thought experiment, my initial guess is that uncombining cards would have these impacts on different aspects of the game/community:

i) Good for the gamers who actually play the game (increases flexibility without sacrificing in-game utility)
ii) Good for flippers (greatly increases liquidity)
iii) Good for people cashing out (much easier to liquidate chunks of their collection)
iv) Bad for collection value (the single BCX premium is compressed - tanking the singles market at least in the short-term)
v) Bad for confidence and certainty (once such a profound change is made after such having been prohibited since inception, it leaves other long-standing aspects of the game open to speculation)

6. Is there a best of both worlds?

I've heard it suggested that the game could implement a feature to uncombine BCX at a cost of DEC. In a sense, this would represent part of the premium that would otherwise have been enjoyed by the person uncombining their card. And this would go some way to absorbing some of the price dislocation shock, because single BCX cards would then need to be listed at a higher price in order to compensate for the DEC paid to free up that liquidity in the first place.

But then, who would determine the fee? Would it decided by Splinterlands, or by the players via the upcoming DAO? And how would you price the burn fee?

And then who would get the DEC fee? Would it go back to Splinterlands the company? Would it go into the tournament prize pool? Would it be distributed pro-rata to all the other holders of that card?

What about uncombining BCX at a cost of partial card burn? e.g. 115 uncombine, burn 15?

But then, how would you determine the card burn amount? Where would those cards go?

All the possibilities make my head hurt. Maybe exciting for some to think about, but I have to admit, not for me. I began writing this as an interesting thought experiment, but at this point, I realise that this is a rabbit hole that goes far deeper than I thought.

7. Uncombining BCX would go against the social contract of Splinterlands, and against the ethos of cryptocurrencies generally

But in the end, the biggest implications for introducing an uncombine feature may be more simply summarised as this:

This game from almost the beginning has been advertised with the understanding that card combinations would be permanent. This process has often been referred to as 'burning' the cards. Three years in, this understanding is very much part of the social contract of the game.

When the devs (and now the players) use the language of burning cards in the combination process, it brings to mind the familiar idea of burning tokens from other cryptocurrencies, and players import that understanding into the game. To uncombine cards would go against the common expectation of what we experience in the wider cryptocurrency space.

And furthermore, if this understanding were ever to be undermined within the game, the current social contract would be broken. A new one would have to take its place. This isn't to suggest that it would be the end of the game, but it would be the end of something the current community had built itself around. And not everyone would be moving along with whatever the new vision of the game might be.

So with all that has been said, in my opinion it would be a bad idea to allow for cards to be uncombined.

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Magic sneak attack ... enough said. Not many cards in the game have this ability set. It is an amazingly versatile card that packs a punch, with not alot of ways to directly counter it. Most sneak attacks are melee, which is usually taken care of by thorns in the back. But thorns don't help much against magic!