Dopewars

We have been closely monitoring the developments of the Dopewars project since its inception. We note that the initial excitement surrounding the free mint quickly subsided, with Dennison and Tarrance, two of the founders, minting heavily and holding a substantial portion of the DOPE Governance token supply in various wallets.

Following the secondary sales, which injected more ETH into the DAO treasury, the community expressed a desire to know what the next steps would be for the project. The DAO, influenced by large DOPE holders, subsequently decided to create $Paper, an “in-game token” that could be claimed by all DOPE holders. It is noteworthy that the original founders who had minted the DOPE token across multiple wallets were also the largest holders of $Paper.

We acknowledge the contribution of Mr Fax, who submitted impressive artwork that was well-received by the community as an excellent representation of the nostalgic game. However, despite additional proposals for improvements, including music, swap meets, and MMO development, the game remains non-functional, with no integrations with other projects.

Moreover, despite the significant amount of funds that the DAO has disbursed to pixel artists, music, and developers, we note with concern that there has been no significant progress towards a functioning game or a Roll your Own “RYO” arbitrage game.

In light of the treasury’s low ETH balance and the lack of an “in-game token” to reward future contributors, the community proposed the minting of more $Paper tokens to replenish the treasury and provide the “in-game token” to any future investors or contributors. While this proposal received widespread support from DOPE holders, the decision was made without conducting adequate research. Subsequently, it was found that Dopewars would be violating security laws by selling any of their freshly minted tokens. This dilution of supply without any direction led to trading members of $Paper selling off their heavily diluted tokens with zero gameplay or any plan for the future.

Despite this setback, Dopewars was able to secure funding based on community activity and usage of the Optimism network. However, we note that there is cause for concern regarding the proposal for more artwork by Mr Fax to start building a new 3D type of character for a StarkNet chain with a completely different contract to the original DOPE. While it is stated that no funds will be required from the DAO treasury as it is a pay-to-mint project, given the project’s history, caution is warranted.

We strongly advise that the focus be on completing and delivering the product as soon as possible, as funds have already been spent on 2D artwork assets, maps, music and other elements. While new mints may provide additional liquidity, they could harm Dopewars in the long run.

It is also essential to be aware of the absence of Tarrance, who claimed to be developing the RYO arbitrage game on StarkNet but is now working on Cartridge. There is currently no evidence of the arbitrage game being implemented on Cartridge.

Furthermore, we observe that the founders/developers who proposed the idea of claimable $Paper for unbundled DOPE have since sold all their $Paper without providing any value or use cases. This has left many feeling exploited, with the sudden liquidity dump exacerbating the situation. The lack of action is evident in the $Paper charts. However, we note that the founders/developers would not have been able to sell their tokens if the community had not expressed interest in buying them.

Finally, it is vital to be mindful of large DOPE holders who may try to influence votes for their benefit. We believe that an honest vote will provide clarity on the project’s direction, allowing the community to decide whether to remain part of the organization. We hope this information receives adequate exposure so that the community can make informed decisions.

Do you think that the organization should prioritize the development of the initial RYO game, which was the original goal, over diverting and diluting resources and interest towards the creation of more 3D art assets? This could lead to unnecessary spending on digital art and potentially delay the completion of the RYO game.