Interview with Metascore- The Game-Changing DAO

Metascore is quite literally game-changing. Here they discuss how skill will be rewarded through leaderboards in play-to-earn on the Internet Computer.

1. What attracted you initially to Blockchain?

My background is in web development, so what attracts me most about blockchain is what I can build with it. I ignored crypto for a long time; I read about bitcoin in 2009, but it didn’t make sense.
Then the latest bull run started, and that was my entry point at the beginning of 2021. Things clicked for me late one night, and I just saw vast parts of the world remade on Blockchains while laying in bed.

Each week working in the Internet Computer community, that same vision and the excitement that comes with it re-emerges in new forms.

2. Of all the platforms you could have chosen, why did you decide to build on the Internet Computer?

I explored a few other options; I poked around Ethereum and IPFS… Fission is doing some incredible things. Simply put, the Internet Computer has the most complete blockchain development stack in the game right now.

Yes, there are some massive holes: whacky domain names that scare people, opaque command-line errors ...but hey, it’s early days. The point is that as someone who’s been building non-crypto products for about a decade, shipping an app on the Internet Computer feels natural (once you wrap your head around a few things.)

I was also really impressed by the Genesis event and bought big the minute the market opened (in case you wanted evidence that I’m a builder, not a trader.)
Massive bag deflation aside, the ideas currently bubbling in the Internet Computer development community are fascinating. In my opinion, it’s a matter of time before ideas born on the Internet Computer start shaking up the whole blockchain world.

3. How long has your company been established, and what is your business model based on?

Metascore is a brand new DAO spawning out of an idea for the DSCVR Season 2 Hackathon. We don’t have a business model yet. Our goal right now is to deliver a project on an abridged timeline that developers, gamers, and the blockchain community all think is awesome.
All of your favorite NFT projects are generously sponsoring the prize pool for gamers: Cronics, ICPunks, ICmoji, and Starverse to name but a few. Fighting up the leaderboards in a gaming event is great fun, and Metascore will crank up the excitement by raising the stakes.
The better you play, the higher your chances of scoring a juicy NFT.

Our scoring system is being carefully designed to reward skill. Still, it also has strong incentives to play a wide range of games, so we expect games that integrate Metascore will receive a strong surge of motivated gamers.

4. What makes your company marketable, and what will ensure its long-term success?

As a DAO, Metascore is pretty darn transparent, and we want to engage the community in our development process.
A lot of our process is out in the open in our GitHub repos, warts and all. Building in the open should mean that we’re perpetually steeped in the community sentiment, so it’s harder to go down a path that doesn’t excite people.
I hope that building in the open like this will encourage people from all walks of life and with varying skill sets to jump on board and contribute to the project.

Once we stick the landing on our hackathon project, we can take so many fantastic directions. Being an open community project with fluid membership and working on projects that excite everyone will be the key to our success.

5. What challenges have you faced while building your company?

There’s a ton of excitement in the community, but there are not enough developers to go around. We’re an open book. If you like the project, hit us up! We’d love your help.

6. What overall vision do you have? Do you have a roadmap? If so, what does it involve?

On top of the prize pool from our generous NFT sponsors, Metascore will be minting non-transferable NFTs for each participant based on their rank across all games.

These “soul-bound” NFTs will be permanently attached to your wallet in a way that will allow you to build up the reputation of your gamer identity; an identity that can prove your skill as a gamer on-chain is a compelling concept.
The art for these badges is coming along really nicely, and I’m sharing progress on my Twitter account @jorgenbuilder.

I can’t speak to a high-level vision past the Hackathon; we’ll have to talk about that when there’s some room to breathe.

7. Tell us about the team

Quint and I are the project’s primary contributors, but we have had contributions and support from at least ten other people so far.

Quint has been writing the bulk of the Motoko for the first version of our canisters, and you can follow him @quint_av8 on Twitter.
Before we started working together on Metascore, I was admiring his Motoko chops on other open-source projects.

My background is full-stack product development, first for https://www.careerexplorer.com/ until that was sold, then as a consultant for the past 1.5 years.

8. What advice do you have for anyone working in the same space as you?

My advice would be to reach out to us and say hi!

Relationships and communication are going to trump standards in this period of innovation.

9. What other projects building on the Internet Computer are you most excited about?

I’m super excited about my other project, Saga Tarot, and I’ve learned a ton from the work of both Toniq and Departure Labs.

10. Do you have any plans to collaborate with other projects building on the Internet Computer?

Collaborating the projects on the Internet Computer is the only way we got to this point. We’re already blessed to be working with several NFT projects, a slew of hackathon developers, and extraordinary communities like this one.

11. Do you have any token sales planned for the future? If so, when? Can you give details?