Do Degens Dream of Electric Sheep? Ubik, the peculiar Lo-Fi metaverse packed with thoughtful tokenomics

The Hong Kong based founders of Ubik seek to create in their words, the first “Lo-Fi Metaverse on the Solana ecosystem”. Lo-Fi is a strange word to use, on the backdrop of an expanding metaverse race in the NFT space where some players in the market are banking on Unreal Engine 5 to produce visual masterpieces. This is one of many reasons why Ubik stands out to me as peculiar, in a particularly enticing way.

Taken as directed, Ubik provides uninterrupted sleep without morning-after grogginess. You awaken fresh, ready to tackle all those little annoying problems facing you. Do not exceed recommended dosage. (“Ubik” by Philip K. Dick)

Ubik as a brand and its origins in science fiction

The team are clearly inspired by the great science fiction novelist Philip K. Dick, who wrote a book called “Ubik”. As a short summary of Ubik’s role in the book, Ubik is a strange substance that has the ability upon use to temporarily reverse rapid deterioration. Ubik therefore becomes a lifesaver for those struck with deterioration in the somewhat supernatural future world that Dick paints (the year 1992, as the book was published in 1969). It’s unclear what Ubik really is, or what it is made out of, and we are left with the following mysterious passage in the book:

I am Ubik. Before the universe was, I am. I made the suns. I made the worlds. I created the lives and the places they inhabit; I move them here, I put them there. They go as I say, they do as I tell them. I am the word and my name is never spoken, the name which no one knows. I am called Ubik, but that is not my name. I am. I shall always be.

As the team mentions in their Sheepaper , Ubik means everywhere, and:

…in the same way, we want to construct the whole world with you, starting from the tiniest electronics and atoms. Therefore, we named this project Ubik with the original residents in this project being the electric sheep.

Clearly the usage of electric sheep as the NFT imagery for Ubik is also inspired by Philip K. Dick’s very well known book, “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” in which following a global war, owning authentically real animals becomes a status symbol due to their scarcity, whilst people who cannot afford such real animals own robotic versions, with the protagonist Rick owning an electric sheep.

I think it was worth discussing Ubik as a brand, because instead of being just another ape or monkey derivative, or an ETH NFT copycat, the team thoughtfully used a piece of science fiction genius for inspiration and are trying to build a magical brand of their own. Let’s move onto the project itself.

Ubik — the basics of the sheep

Ubik is a collection of 1,618 sheep, with a futuristic and magical pixel-art theme. The project minted on 23 January 2022 and is listed on Magic Eden. The rarity of your Ubik correlates to the more airdrops you will receive from the team and holders have the ability to upgrade their NFT using the Ubik native tokens, Positron ($POT) and Negatron ($NET), which I will come back to.

There are three layers by which rarity can be assessed:

1. The outer layer, or, PFP side: these are the visual/physical attributes of the NFT.
2. The element layer: each sheep possesses an element trait, which relates to the periodic table of elements, along with an atoms trait, to which this relates.
3. The hidden layer: As at the time of writing, it is unclear what this hidden layer will feature but the relevant traits to keep in mind would be the “name” and “health” traits.

Ubik Sheepaper v1.2, page 4

A closer look at an Ubik sheep — here the sheep has a rare spiral body, crown and laser eyes. The atom number is 3, which corresponds to the third element of the periodic table, Lithium (Li). Its name is a secret, and its health is healthy.

Staking rewards

The current emphasis on holder rewards appears to be placed on the element rarity of your sheep and therefore the number of atoms your sheep has. A staked sheep will be spinning out the following rewards:

$POT YIELDS

1 atom = 100 $POT per day
2 atoms = 150 $POT per day
3 atoms = 200 $POT per day
4 atoms = 250 $POT per day
5 atoms = 300 $POT per day

…and so on.

$NET YIELDS

1 atom = 5% chance to get 1 $NET per day
2 atoms = 7.5% chance to get 1 $NET per day
3 atoms = 10% chance to get 1 $NET per day
4 atoms = 12.5% chance to get 1 $NET per day
5 atoms = 15% chance to get 1 $NET per day

…and so on.

The Ubik team mention that the tokenomics may be adjusted in line with project development and DAO votes.

Upgrading your sheep (the Nuclear Fusion System)

Holders can upgrade the element of their sheep through nuclear fusion (e.g. upgrading from 1 atom (h) to 2 atoms (he), which will require $POT. It appears also using $NET can increase the success rate of an upgrade from suggestions in the Sheepaper. As at the date of writing, the Ubik Discord suggests holders will require 3,000 $POT to upgrade once, and that as expected, the probability of a successful upgrade gradually decreases as you move to a higher level atom upgrading to the next level atom.

The latest Ubik Tokenomics graph showcases a general overview: upgrades will become harder as atom number increases, and as atom number increases, daily income in USC (roughly based on the market value of $POT and $NET) increases:

Source: Ubik Discord

A closer look at $POT and $NET and passive income projections

Positron ($POT) and Negatron ($NET) are the tokens of the Ubik ecosystem.

$POT: The max supply of $POT will be 600m, with 200m $POT made available for airdrops. The remaining $POT are currently locked.

$NET: The max supply of $NET will be 1.2m, with 400,000 $POT made available for airdrops. The remaining $NET are currently locked.

Given how early we are, the Ubik team has recently been adding liquidity of $POT onto Raydium and should be doing the same regarding $NET soon. The initial price set by the Ubik team when liquidity was added for $POT was 1 $POT = 0.00075 $SOL (here is the swap link). The token address for $POT is 9iz45n44TQUPyoRymdZXEunqvZUksZyhzS6zQ7sLMadj.

As expected, there has been a slight decrease in that value since the recent launch and this offers a potential opportunity to grab more tokens while the project is still in its first few days. At the time of writing $NET has not been added on to Raydium but we know the token address: AsiP4tPh6tWfgKMjTibhA5H6ge3EnHSyh3iPPDEFSqSu. It will be added soon.

The presence of these tokens on Raydium means holders will passively earn income through staking, and if the value of $POT/$NET increase as the value of the Ubik Lo-Fi metaverse expands, the dollar returns could be very big.

A sheep being staked on https://www.baa.is/farm

The future phases of Ubik

It is clear that the Ubik team will feature the non-atom traits of a sheep as carrying utility and being key in the further expansion of their metaverse. The project will progress through phases. At the time of writing, we are in Phase 2.

Phase 3 makes reference to: a Bounty Hunter System where sheep will be combined with different materials to complete quests and get rewards; animating all sheep for free; and releasing the Nuclear Fusion System discussed above for upgrades.

Phase 4 makes reference to: a Material Bounty Hunter System for material quests, gaining rewards for their completion, as well as the creation of an atom exchange market.

Phase 5 makes reference to: potential mutations for sheep, and further upgrades and integrations for the Ubik ecosystem.

Phase 6 makes reference to: building the Ubik world with materials gained from earlier phases, building a farm, and the creation of the Lo-Fi metaverse.

Analysis — the positives

• A lot of thought has gone into the tokenomics and I can see Ubik developing a strong band in the Solana ecosystem because of how creative and unique it comes across.
• The project offers staking rewards, which should drive up the Ubik floor price and enable holders to earn passive income.
• The team is clearly working very hard, with regular updates and they are often losing sleep to push the project forwards and continue momentum. The work ethic is admirable and they clearly want to build something that lasts. There is an ambitious roadmap and progress can be tracked here: https://ubik-development-progress.super.site/
• The team come across as ethically sound. They committed themselves to setting up an anti-rug fund post-mint to support victims of the Big Daddy Ape Club (BDAC) rug which occurred recently.

Points to think about

• The team isn’t personally doxxed. But, I don’t think that matters too much. The team committed themselves to a RadRugs audit, and doxxed projects can rug-pull. This Ubik team certainly don’t come across as a rug to me.
• It’s still yet to be seen how the outer layer and hidden layer aspects of rarity play out, with current emphasis being placed on the element/atom feature. This may impact the rules of the game, though information should be released over time to make this clearer.

Conclusion

• I personally think there is something special about the project. If the team continue the pace of their work, they could very well build a self-sustaining Lo-Fi metaverse that could boost a healthy return for early and long-term investors. They’ve traded the high graphics metaverse play for an easy and fun to play world, with balanced economics. It’s a good hedge. Like a great sci-fi book, you really don’t need all of that P2E top-quality graphics stuff to enjoy yourself. That’s the point of Ubik.

Ubik Socials

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/UbikNFT
• Discord: https://discord.gg/ubik
• Website: https://www.baa.is/