Balance Quick Review
- GameFi Project
- AI Narrative
- Big Raise – $30M
- a16z as Investor
- Non-Crypto Team, Except for One Co-Founder
- Parent Company from Web2 World (2.4M Registered Users)
- Activity Started Until September 16
- There Will Be an NFT Mint
- A Token and L2 Blockchain Are Planned
- The Documents Mention a Future Public Sale
About the Project
Balance is an ecosystem focused on creating a gaming platform using blockchain and AI. Created by the E-PAL team.
E-PAL is a platform where gamers can find companions for games. Launched in March 2020. Currently, it has more than 2.4 million registered users, of which 400 thousand offer their services as gaming companions.
The project (Balance) raised $30 million in a funding round with the participation of a16z, Galaxy Interactive, Animoca Brands, DWF, as well as angel investors Steve Chen (one of the creators of YouTube), Mark Merrill (head of Riot Games, which created the game League of Legends), Thomas Wu (one of the directors of the game League of Legends), etc.
On Twitter, Balance is followed by representatives of Animoca Brands, IOSG VC, OKX Ventures, etc., and the official accounts of Aptos and SHRAPNEL are also subscribed. It is strange that no one from a16z is there - they are subscribed only to the parent company E-PAL.
- They are lagging behind the roadmap. The Balance zkEVM mainnet was supposed to launch in August - there is no mention of the launch, but the roadmap has not been corrected either.
- In October, they plan (was planned) to introduce AI to the Balance platform, which will allow users to create in-game AI companions.
- In November, they plan to introduce AI to the Balance zkEVM network, which will allow developers to create smart contracts without a thorough understanding of the code.
- In December, expansion to Solana, Avalanche and Clayton is planned.
Balance Ecosystem:
- Balance Passport is a unified digital identification system for managing gaming accounts and assets in Web3. It simplifies login and management of games without switching between different wallets and accounts.
- Balance Wallet is a wallet that facilitates the transition of users from Web2 to Web3. It supports storage and management of assets on different blockchains and provides secure trading without using private keys.
- Balance ID is a unique user identifier in the Balance ecosystem, which is represented as an NFT and complies with the ERC721 standard.
Balance zkEVM, EPT Token, and Tokenomics
Balance zkEVM is a zk-rollup-based gaming EVM blockchain.
EPT is the governance token for both the Balance platform and the Balance zkEVM network.
EPT Usage:
- Paying for Applications: Game developers can pay fees using EPT.
- Staking: EPT holders can earn income by staking their tokens.
- Proof of Stake and Governance: EPT holders can participate in governance by voting on proposals related to reserve distribution, developer grants, fee changes, etc. A certain amount of EPT will be required to create proposals.
- Maintaining the Security of the Network: EPT is used to pay nodes to operate.
- Payment and Transactions: EPT serves as a means of payment on the Balance platform and as a means of paying for gas on the Balance zkEVM network.
- Priority Access: For early access to games at the alpha or beta testing requires players to own a certain amount of EPT.
- Incentive mechanisms: EPT is used to encourage participation in community development and content creation.
Total supply: 1 billion EPT
Distribution:
- Launchpool + Public sale (10%)
- Team (15%)
- Investors (15%)
- Ecosystem development fund (15%)
- Rewards fund for contribution to ecosystem and community development (40%)
- Marketing (3%)
- Liquidity provision (2%)
No vesting data.
About the team
According to the page on LinkedIn, the company employs just under 50 people.
The company has four co-founders, only one of whom had experience in Web3.
Although the team is not hidden, it is absolutely not public. There are no speeches, many do not have Twitter. And if they do, it is practically not maintained.
Brian Xiong – CEO and co-founder of E-PAL.
- CEO and founder of Wuxia Dreams (a visual novel platform acquired by Tencent). He started the company while studying at Berkeley.
- Education: University of California, Berkeley.
- No speaking engagements or interviews found.
LinkedIn page: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-xiong-b416571b7/
Norris Wang – COO and co-founder of E-PAL.
- Co-founder of Oasis Pastoral, Smart Farms UCI Group, Real Estate Central Estate projects in Australia.
- Education: University of Melbourne.
- No speeches or interviews found.
LinkedIn page: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yuzhe-norris-wang-a8b68b1b3/
Lucas Lee – co-founder of E-PAL and CEO of Web3 division of E-PAL
- Managing partner of META_W Capital. He was a director of a number of public companies in the United States.
- Education: MBA from Columbia Business School.
- No speeches or interviews found.
- No people or funds of interest to us follow Lucas on Twitter.
Twitter: https://x.com/Lucas_Balance
LinkedIn page: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucas-lee-2b70871a7/
Adam Chang – co-founder of E-PAL.
- Web3 entrepreneur.
- Education: Zhejiang University.
- Adam's Twitter is also not followed by any of the people or foundations that interest us.
- He practically doesn't tweet.
Twitter: https://x.com/BigB_Bal
Competitors and evaluation
There are quite a few GameFi projects that create gaming ecosystems – Immutable with FDV $2.4 billion, BEAM with FDV $765 million, Enjin with FDV $253 million, Zentry with FDV $156 million, Magic with FDV $111 million, etc.
And at the moment it is difficult to assess the impact of the success of the company's Web2 (E-PAL) on the success of Web3 (Balance). But given the support of a16z with their ROI of 14.96x, in a good market Balance has a chance to be valued at $200-300 million at least.
Participate in the project
Until September 16, the project is running the Pioneer Points Challenge campaign, within which you can get a place on the whitelist for the NFT Pioneer Badge mint.
400 whitelists will be raffled off:
- Top 100 leaderboard
- Top 100 by referrals
- 200 among those with more than 1000 points
Procedure:
- Go to the website: https://balance.fun/account
- Connect the EVM wallet
- In the Rewards tab, complete simple quests with social activities and do a daily Check-in (if desired)
- Go to the Invite tab. Enter the invite code cXPw0iflQ
- After that, a field with your referral code will open
What might NFT be needed for? Unknown. Maybe it will be possible to get to the sale with it, or maybe holders will be provided with an airdrop.
What's the bottom line
Perhaps the E-PAL team is taking a risky step by creating Balance, especially at a time of decline in the crypto market and against the backdrop of news about companies moving from Web3 to Web2. But maybe they will succeed with the support of a16z and given their success in Web2.
As for activity, the raise is too big to not take part in the project. Although the chance of getting into WL for NFT mint is quite low, you shouldn't miss such events. There is a possibility, although also quite low, that this activity will be counted in the future. Moreover, the time and labor costs are minimal and do not require financial investments.
