From: thepipeline_xyz
Monad Games, a unique content experiment by The Pipeline, the Monad ecosystem, and the Monad community, incorporated several innovative onchain elements and technologies to enhance engagement and provide a behind-the-scenes experience [00:05:21].
Overview
The initiative aimed to be fun and engaging, bringing together original community members and contributors from the Monad ecosystem to compete in various challenges [00:04:40]. Beyond the physical games, significant effort was put into integrating onchain components, making it a “first-of-its-kind content experiment” [00:04:32].
Prediction Markets
Prior to the full episode’s premiere, prediction markets were made live on the Monad testnet [00:05:27]. These markets were provided by Opinion Labs, described as a “super super awesome prediction market product building on top of the Monad protocol” [00:05:35]. The purpose of leveraging this product on the Monad testnet was to generate community energy and speculation regarding the Monad Games challenges [00:05:42].
The Cipher Challenge
Development and Features
A significant onchain activation was the surprise cipher challenge [00:05:57]. This cipher, a hidden message embedded within the Monad Games video [00:06:03], was a concept designed by Jessup to create an onchain component where users could submit guesses to crack it [00:51:29].
The engineering team at Monad Foundation developed a sophisticated application for this challenge, utilizing “ZK and some cool onchain features” [00:51:41]. Key contributors included Harpaul, Marcus, Box, and Mo [00:51:44]. The design made it impossible for participants to simulate the cipher offchain and use bots to submit guesses, a common practice in simpler onchain ciphers [00:56:52]. This complexity was achieved through “pretty cool stuff going on behind the scenes with ZK” [00:57:00], making it intentionally very difficult to crack [00:54:40].
User Participation
The community enthusiastically participated in the cipher challenge, submitting “over 30,000 guesses” [00:06:08], totaling 43 unique guesses [00:52:14]. Although the challenge was designed to be difficult and it was expected to last longer [00:57:43], someone managed to crack it relatively quickly [00:06:22]. For participating, users who submitted a guess received a valueless testnet NFT as a commemoration of their involvement [00:54:22].
Future Implications
The success of these onchain integrations in Monad Games contributes to the broader goals of development and technical innovation in blockchains like Monad [00:53:31]. The project served not just for entertainment but also as a practical demonstration of building novel applications on the Monad testnet [00:53:36]. Future iterations of Monad Games are ambitious, aiming to involve more community members and ecosystem projects on a larger scale [01:03:08].