KuCoin AMA With Pentagon (PEN) — Unlocking the Potential of Web3 in the Entertainment Ecosystem

Dear KuCoin Users,

Time: December 27, 2024, 12:00 PM - 01:11 PM (UTC)

KuCoin hosted an AMA (Ask-Me-Anything) session in the KuCoin Exchange Group, featuring Mridul, the Head of Web3 & Community Growth of Pentagon.

Official Website: https://pentagon.games/
Whitepaper: https://pentagon.games/docs/litepaper 

Follow Pentagon on X, Telegram and Discord
 

Q: Can you start by introducing Pentagon Games and sharing its primary mission? What specific problems in the blockchain or crypto space does the project aim to address?

Mridul: Sure, happy to! At Pentagon Games, we are building a multichain entertainment hub powered by its zkEVM-based Pentagon Chain, offering secure, immersive, AI-driven 3D experiences, integrating brands and IP with Web3 technologies, and driving mass adoption and cross-chain interoperability. 

Our value proposition and  mission is to allow users to express themselves through the experiences they enjoy with portable and affordable next generation visual

So in summary, we are building 

1. A zkEVM chain:  Pentagon Chain, where PEN will be the native gas token and empower governance. 

2. An Interactive cinematic platform, in essence you could also call it a digital theme park for both users and business, This platform will host

3. Ecosystem games and IPs for users to explore within the platform, some of the seed games/IPs are developed in-house.

We are funded by NFX, Binance Labs, Polygon, Spartan, Republic, Animoca, YGG and other top tier investors.

In terms of problems being addressed,

I’m going to answer this not limiting to web3, there are a few problems we are trying to address with Pentagon Games:

Onboarding Mass Users to Web3, The shift from Web2 to Web3 presents challenges in introducing mass users to decentralized platforms, especially in gaming and entertainment,

Bringing IPs to Web3,  Converting high-profile IPs and gaming assets into Web3 collectibles with real value while ensuring that existing IPs can be made interoperable across platforms and accessible to mass audiences, is a major challenge.

Device Barriers for Immersive Experiences: High-quality AR/VR/XR experiences often require expensive, high-end devices

Lack of Genuine Social Expression: Traditional social platforms do not allow for authentic self-expression and fail to fully integrate digital ownership of content or personal data.

Large File Sizes and Slow Download Speeds: High-quality graphics and immersive content are often weighed down by large file sizes, making access slow and difficult for users on slower internet connections.

 

Q: Tell us about the team behind Pentagon Games. How do their backgrounds and collective experiences contribute to the project's success, and what is the unique vision that sets Pentagon apart in the market?

Mridul: In terms of vision, we are aiming towards Building a multichain entertainment hub powered by its zkEVM-based Pentagon Chain, offering secure, immersive, AI-driven 3D experiences, integrating brands and IP with Web3 technologies, and driving mass adoption and cross-chain interoperability. 

And to say the team is top-notch would be an understatement. The founders have been crypto veterans since 2015. They worked on the first fully on-chain game on Ethereum under the PentaPets IP in 2017 and developed the earliest NFT marketplace for DeFi games in the same year, even consulting with the OpenSea team before their launch. They also operate multiple validators and Layer 2 chains and have deployed over 100 smart contracts across various use cases. Additionally, they’ve contributed to some of the most well-recognized PFP collections in the space.

The team is the oldest team in Game-Fi, with over six years of experience working together. In addition to their Web3 experiences, the team also bolster 15+ experience in gaming, with experiences for large companies such as Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo on prominent hit titles. 

On top of the team, we are also supported by top industry leaders, including the VP of Disney Interactive, an official Binance KOL, and a leading Web3 PR firm. 

 

Q: How does Pentagon Games stand out from other projects in the market? Could you explain some of the unique features, including the mechanics behind the Pentagon ecosystem and how its tokenomics support sustainable gameplay?

Mridul: Great question! Pentagon Games differentiates itself by focusing on decentralized ownership, AI-assisted 3D content creation, and providing true ownership of digital assets. The platform addresses key challenges in current social media and gaming experiences, such as lack of personality expression, missed economic opportunities for users, and the high hardware requirements for advanced VR/AR/XR experiences.

Specifically, we can accomplish this with 5 elements:

Accessibility: we want to build a world that is easily accessible by most devices, where users can just join and play anytime and anywhere. 

We have a Native Cinematic Platform: We started building a platform two years ago and the Web3 part is mostly completed. We are working on the 3D part of the platform (central district) which users can visit very soon on their browser. It is powered by UnrealEngine 5, so in very high fidelity

IPs: Over the years, we have accumulated multiple Web3 IPs, one of which is the oldest IPs in Web3 space called Etheremon.

Games: To seed the content on the platform, and address the challenges faced by many previous projects, we have developed five in-house titles across different genres. These games will initially help drive traction and engagement.

In-house AI development specially for Games: In house, we have developed 2 tracks of AI. The first is an AI used in our 3D reconstruction app called HEXR, where users can create a 3D model of their room in minutes and upload it to the WORLD. The 2nd is that we have developed our own LLM model specifically for gaming. We have been training this model on our own game titles, then it will be able to produce personalized game highlights, remember your game progresses, and ultimately plug into a 3D avatar of your favorite character and have a chat with you about your gaming experience right in your 3D reconstructed room.

As for the tokenomics support, $PEN is the native gas token of the Pentagon Chain, designed to empower players, developers, and game studios while having additional extensive utility across the entire digital platform.

It enables seamless interaction across a vast network of Web3 games and provides users with governance rights to vote on proposals within the ecosystem, 

Gas Fees: Pay for transactions on our high-speed, low-cost zkEVM chain.

Governance: Participate in key decisions and vote on important updates.

Staking & Rewards: Earn exclusive NFTs and rewards by staking $PEN.

NFT Marketplace: Use $PEN to buy and sell digital assets like Land and Digital Collectibles.

Interactive Experience: VIP invites and purchase tickets to premium IRL events exclusively using $PEN.

Validator Requirements: Support network security and earn rewards.

Ecosystem Grants: Studios can earn grants by integrating $PEN.

Q: What are some significant achievements Pentagon Games has reached so far? Looking ahead, what does the roadmap hold for the next 6–12 months in terms of new features, game expansions, or exciting updates?

Mridul: Oh, where do I start?

On the public accolade side, I’ll share a few:

-Winner of startup world cup in Dubai, and represented dubai in the Global Grande finale in Startup world cup sponsored by Pegasus, one of the most prominent startup competition in the world. 

-We will be featured on a reality tv show called CryptoKnight, it’s the Web3 version of shark tank, will be aired next year and expect 500M views worldwide. I can’t disclose too much on the result, what I can say is It’s very good. 

-We have gotten backing from top investors in the space as mentioned earlier. 

 

On the product side:

-The Pentagon Testnet is now live, and we have already achieved impressive results, with over 500k wallets and 1.8 million transactions, and the numbers continue to grow.

-Penta Pets, our ecosystem's Telegram game, has recently reached 1.3 million monthly active users (MAU) and over 2 million total users in the past two weeks.

-Multiple ecosystem games in steam wishlist, steam early access, and public alpha. 

-We’ve made significant progress on the digital experience MVP, which I’ll be demoing in an hour during our Demo Night. Feel free to join us and check it out!

 

Major Partnerships:
- Official partners for multiple ecosystems which we have developed superheroes for. BNB, Polygon, Avax.. now expanding to TON, Tron + 13 other chains. We also worked with many Defi platform partners over the years, Sushi.com, PancakeSwap, Quickswap, and many more. 

- Global strategic partners for a major AR glasses manufacturer

Our goal is to hit top 100 project in Web3, and leading in Game-Fi.

Product wise:

-The Mmainnet is expected to go live early next year. 

-For the interactive platform, we are aiming for an alpha release and beta release next year, with a full release planned for 2026.

-We are also working on onboarding a large ecosystem of games and intellectual properties (IPs).

You can also find more info on our roadmap here.

 

Q: What challenges has the team faced in building and scaling Pentagon Games, and how have these been overcome? What valuable lessons have you learned through the process?

Mridul: The project started to capture the crossing of two mega trends, one is from web1 to web2 now to Web3, another is the evolution of media types from text/images to video, now towards AR/VR/XR. 

The challenges for any projects in Web3 in the past years is obviously how to deal with the bear market where liquidity in the market is dry. How we dealt with it without sacrificing too much progress is essentially streamline operations to be a lot more efficient and control cost. Of course that fact that we raised over 6M from top notch VCs and also we ran validators gives us the room of runway and piece of mind to keep focusing on what’s most important, that is continue to develop and optimize our products. 

Another challenge, if we call that a challenge, is dealing with adoption of AR/VR. 

How we deal with that is first of all, we chose a middle ground in quality and requirement to start with webXR browser based experience, that way anyone with a device that can browse the internet can access our product essentially lowering the barrier to entry to try out AR/VR. 

Another approach we are taking in parallel is forming strategic partnerships with device makers, there are pentagon games labeled AR hardware in the plans, much like the solana saga phone, to lower the effective cost for users. 

Another major challenge is the user onboarding experience/journey, we have made it extremely smooth for users to get started with Pentagon Games, they simply need to sign up with an email account to start with the ecosystem, and can hook up the Web3 wallets once they like what they see and feel comfortable. How we addressed that is probably a trade secret, and I’d like to keep my job, so I’ll have to leave that one under wraps!

 

Q: Could you share more about the VIP Hero NFT program and the concept of NFT mining within your ecosystem? Additionally, what are the top three reasons players should consider joining Pentagon Games, and how can newcomers get started?

Mridul: The VIP hero program or BCSH (BlockChain Super Hero) NFTs are amongst the core IP of the ecosystem. BCSH NFTs as the name suggests are the defenders of the blockchain space defending it from centralization. Most major chain partnerships have their own superhero themed NFT uniquely designed and minted on their native chain. This echoes our effort about ensuring multi chain support and interoperability. The NFT minting is currently live and you can go mint them at bcsh.xyz. The early NFT owners were in for a surprise during our Airdrop round 1.

The NFTs have various utilities across the ecosystem, including the staking model and NFTMining which is a platform powered by Pentagon Games. NFTmining allows users to utilize their NFTs to mine for rewards, competing against other users and winning tokens in real time. The NFTs remain in your wallet so its absolutely safe. If you own any BCSH NFTs, or Chaingunnies/Zombunnies, you can participate in NFTmining where each NFT has its own hashrate. More hashrate = higher chances of winning rewards. There’s currently a prize pool of over 10,000$ in tokens going out over the next few months.

 

As for Top reasons to join Pentagon Games:

-Leverage AI to create a space of your own, display your personality, your experiences, your preferences in VR 3D, accessible on any devices anywhere. 

-Enjoy our fun ecosystem games, we have Telegram mini games, First Person Shooters, Action RPGs and more. 

-Participate in the platform economy, engage with the Dapps on Pentagon Chain, trade, mint tokens and NFTs, participate in NFT mining and earn rewards.. 

Getting started is easy, head to our website; Pentagon Games and you will see a “How to get started” button, also follow our official X (Twitter) account.

Q: Where can users find more information about Pentagon. Games?

Mridul: The best place would be to visit the Website and following our socials:

X (Twitter), Telegram, Discord and YouTube. 

Q: Can you explain the unique experiences and benefits that Pentagon Games offers players, particularly in terms of social interactions and markets? Many Web3 games struggle with user engagement and fail due to lack of social interaction and difficulty in finding markets.

Mridul: That's a great question! First, user interaction is definitely key, which is why we focus on the user experience and onboarding above all else. In terms of unique experiences:

The cinematic experience/platform can be accessed in VR, AR, or desktop, offering multiple points of entry. You could wear an Oculus quest VR headset and walk around in the world and we actually demoed that in a couple of IRL events.

The games include a mix of Telegram mini-games to FPS and RPG games, some of them are already on Steam’s alpha and wishlist stages. Additionally, we created an abstraction wallet to help users get started easily, ensuring a smooth and seamless user journey.

Q: Who is your ideal consumer for your product and did you take into account the community feedback and requests in the development process to generate new ideas? Failing to understand the target audience and clients often leads to project failures.

Mridul: The ideal consumer is well everyone, we cater to gamers, degens, VR enthusiasts and Web2 audience alike. There's a whole ecosystem (Pentagon Chain + dApps) for degens to engage in, there's in house games for gamers, the platform supports Cross Reality including VR, and we have an extremely smooth onboarding journey+ wallet for Web2 users who are just entering into the Web3 spaces. So, we cater to all audience bases. 

And yes, we definitely took feedback from the community, like one of our FPS games, Gunnies underwent re-development and enhancements after hosting game nights and events. We ensure community feedback is catered to.

 

Q: How does Pentagon Games differentiate itself from other gaming platforms, particularly in terms of its use of zkEVM and Web3 technologies?

Mridul: That’s a great question! It is something a lot of people ask.

So it's not just a gaming platform, we are building an entire ecosystem. We have a platform that supports XR (Cross reality) so VR+AR+Browser. Then we have a chain that powers it. It's a zkEVM chain where PEN is the native gas token for it. We also have our own app where users can simply take a scan of the room you are in and create an exact replica of the room within the platform, allowing users to populate their own space themselves. I don't think any other project is doing that at the moment. 

Games, Cinematic Platform, Chain and dApps. We are more than just gaming, it’s an entire ecosystem.

Q: How does Pentagon Games address the problem of high costs associated with AR/VR devices to ensure immersive experiences are accessible to everyone?

Mridul: This is usually a barrier to entry that we anticipated would happen. Which is why the same platform can be accessed by multiple points of entry, if you are able to afford a VR/AR headset then you can enter the platform in a fully immersive experience. However, if you don't have access to a headset, you can still enjoy it through a standard browser or computer. This ensures that the platform remains accessible to everyone.

Q: Launching projects during a bull run is often more profitable than in a bear market, where many projects fail and sometimes fade into obscurity. How will @PentagonGamesXP stand the test of time? What strategies is the project employing to mitigate potential losses during this challenging market cycle?

Mridul: I think we have already bested that problem. We have been actively building during the bear market and have survived through that stage. I think it's mostly about projects being able to achieve sustainability that will keep them running. Which is what we are aiming towards, I can delve much into how these are covered,  but we definitely have strategies in place. Almost all products you see on our ecosystem are near Beta or Alpha stage, which suggests we have been actively developing for quite some time.

🎁 Participate in the Pentagon AMA quiz now for a chance to 161.82 PEN.

 

The form will remain open for five days from publishing this AMA recap

KuCoin and Pentagon have prepared a total of 25,000 PEN to give away to AMA participants.

1. Pre-AMA activity: 9,070 PEN

2. Free-ask section: 780 PEN

3. Flash mini-game: 6,250 PEN

4. Post-AMA quiz: 8,900 PEN

 

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