A new iteration of the P2E Sunflower game has launched a closed beta
The Sunflower Farmers team has managed to resurrect its project under the new name Sunflower Land successfully. The game’s first iteration was a splashing success earlier this year before malicious attacks and exploits to the smart contracts crumbled it to the ground. The team has released a revamped and much more secure second version of the game, which is already gaining traction.
Sunflower Farmers originally launched in September 2021. However, it did not start gaining traction until December the same year. That’s when the team launched stone mining and wood chopping mechanics, boosting rewards and earnings for players. Suddenly Sunflower Farmers became the GameFi hit of the year.
The game on the Polygon blockchain often ranked at the top of DappRadar Games Rankings, attracting thousands of users every week. It also became the top-visited play-to-earn platform on the Polygon blockchain. Unfortunately, the underlying code was not ready to host such a rapid influx of users. So what happened in January 2022, and why did Sunflower Farmers cease to function correctly?
Sunflower Farmers clogs the Polygon blockchain
The rush of users looking to play and earn on Sunflower Farmers was massive. Unfortunately, aside from legitimate players, an enormous wave of bots also rushed towards the platform’s smart contracts.
This surge in incoming activity resulted in gas fees on the Polygon blockchain rising from their base level of around 30 gwei to over 500 gwei per transaction. That’s an increase from about $0.00009 to approximately $0.001. Of course, the incredible rise in gas fees is extra shocking. Polygon is supposed to be a cheaper alternative to the already expensive Ethereum blockchain.
Another reason for the influx of transactions was a vulnerability in the game’s smart contracts. It allowed users to exploit the crafting system, enabling them to mint infinite iron pickaxes. The community raised this, and once it came to the team’s attention, the game was immediately shut down to prevent people from crafting any more items.
At this point, a snapshot took place at block #23451693 to preserve farmers’ inventories, resources, and NFTs. This is a critical moment for the now re-released Sunflower Lands. Addresses that held items and resources at the snapshot and still hold them can redeem these NFTs in the new game.
How is Sunflower Land different?
After a grinding halt for Sunflower Farmers, the team had to reevaluate their main principles. The original platform started as a 100% decentralized project and had 0% contract ownership. Unfortunately, this level of decentralization was not sustainable. The bot attacks and the considerable strain caused on the Polygon network resulted from that lack of centralized organization.
To make Sunflower Land a more refined and well-rounded product, the team has opted to add community governance mechanisms. Decentralization is still a vital component of the new game. However, the structure will be added through a DAO-like mechanism.
Notably, the DAO mechanics will be the last major milestone in a long list of beta testing and improvement goals. Sunflower Land is currently in the early stages of closed beta testing. This stage gives a limited number of players access to the platform. Still, according to DappRadar data, activity on the new Sunflower Land platform has been booming in the past 30 days. With more than 1,600 unique active wallets and close to 10,000 transactions processed, the game ranks 24th among all dapps tracked on the Polygon blockchain.
Next up for Sunflower Land
According to the official roadmap, Sunflower Land has plenty of exciting additions for players. The game will launch its open beta version in April, accessible to all Sunflower Land Discord members. This stage will also introduce the comeback of a wide array of NFT items and resources to the game.
During stage two of the open beta, the team aims to propose a community vote on new tokenomics and supply limits of each resource. The aim is to increase the scarcity of resources and improve the long-term sustainability of the game. Additionally, land NFT functionality will be developed and deployed.
Finally, in stage three, the team will develop decentralized protocols in preparation to relinquish control over the game to the Sunflower Land DAO. This stage also incorporates milestones like the launch of a decentralized exchange and more community-centric NFT collections.
DappRadar will continue monitoring the Sunflower Land project as it rises from the ashes of its predecessor Sunflower Farmers. Much like a phoenix, this revamped project has the potential to outperform its initial version. To learn more about Sunflower Lands, check out the game’s official dapp page. Additionally, you can follow DappRadar on Twitter to learn the latest blockchain gaming updates first.
Newsletter
