Splinterlands - Splintershards SPS needs more use cases in order to capture real value

By Behiver | behiver | 29 Apr 2023

In Splinterlands play2earn game on the Hive blockchain, the governance of its entire metaverse is ensured by the Splintershards (SPS) cryptocurrency. While I believe in its potential to gain or better said to regain value considering from where it has started from ($1.07 ATH on July 28, 2021 based on CoinGecko data), its price remains relatively low and even plummeted lately. The reasons behind this lack of appreciation are multifaceted and while I am trying to uncover them, for sure there is so much more needed to make SPS great once again.

Governance (only) purposed

First, SPS is primarily used for governance in the Splinterlands game, and not an attractive instrument for speculation or investment purposes considering its limited listing. It is used to vote on key decisions (even if I find them quite limited and not enough community from the community itself) that affect the development and direction of the game when it comes to using funds from the DAO Treasury. This is a good real use case and transparently implemented within the game, but I am affraid it might be the only one still keeping SPS from going down even more if possible (from the current low price of $0.024).

High supply

Second, the supply of SPS is very high, which can put downward pressure on the token’s price. With a supply of 3 Billion tokens and singular use cases, it simply discourages any investor or stakeholder to invest more in it. I wrote before that it would be great to have some burning mechanics implemented in different ways that could bring the supply lower and in line with the current and a realistic potential userbase for the game.

Bearish market

Another factor contributing to the low price of SPS is also the broader cryptocurrency market which has been volatile in recent years, but also entered a bear cycle. This impacted quite heavy the demand for SPS, as investors prefers to hold stronger and more widespreaded assets in their portfolio.

I see that the solely niche use case of Splintershards as a governance token within Splinterlands, it simply limits any potential growth of this asset. Thus SPS should extend to more use cases in order to be able to capture real value and trully repay its stakeholders and players for the trust given to it. Here are some directions in which SPS could dive into:

Get new listings into Top Exchanges, preferable Binance in order to really make a splash.
Have a more transparent DAO Treasury with a Dashboard implemented within the game for SPS holders to track its growth and be able to maybe even make investments using those assets outside of Splinterlands or Hive. Transform the DAO Treasury as a passive income fund that could provide periodic payments to SPS holders by putting the funds at work in the right place (for example I would use some funds to exchange assets for HBD and deposit those into the Savings account for 20% APR).
Add more utility for SPS within the game dynamics like enforcing a staked amount as a prerequisite for Leagues and enabling other features or gameplays based on that.
Have some clear burning mechanics for SPS, either from expected trading opportunities, promotions or other incentives to do so