Let me complain about something first. The staking page of Pixels, that daily earnings number, it doesn't refresh at the top of the hour. It's based on the time you last claimed, pushing exactly 24 hours forward, down to the second. I last claimed at 3:12:36 PM, and today I have to wait until after 3:12:36 PM to see the new number. There's a countdown on the page, ticking down second by second. I thought this design was ridiculous at first, but then I thought maybe it’s to prevent people from writing scripts to refresh it, who knows. Anyway, I sit there every day at the time, staring at it, afraid to miss a second, which is pretty silly.
There's one more frustrating thing. I added a bit more to the staking pool halfway through.$PIXEL , thinking that the returns should go up now. But after waiting for a long time, the number remained still. I thought there was a bug and almost went to DC to complain. Later, I flipped through the documentation for a long time before realizing that I had to wait for the current 24-hour cycle to end to recalculate the base. In other words, the batch of coins I added just sat there for more than a day before taking effect. I was so angry that I ended up scooping extra plots while harvesting that day and even planted the carrots in the wrong row.
To be honest, I had pledged on other projects on the Ronin chain before. The Axie one had a terrifyingly high annual yield, but three months later, the coin price plummeted, and the staking rewards weren't even enough to cover the fees. I also played a few mini-games afterward, and the patterns were the same: lock-up, issue coins, unlock, sell coins, and zero out. So when Pixels first introduced staking, my first reaction was, "Here we go again."
However, after using it for three months, I found it really is different. It doesn't issue token rewards but game items. Every day I receive a bunch of acceleration vouchers, rare seed packs, and fertilizers, and occasionally a few $PIXEL, but the ratio is very low, probably less than 20%. The rest are all items that can be used directly in the game.
Anyway, the rise and fall of $PIXEL have nothing to do with me; the acceleration vouchers I claim won't depreciate. Yesterday, I claimed three acceleration vouchers, which saved me almost two hours of waiting time for harvesting, very comfortable. The items produced from rare seed packs can sell for quite a bit of in-game coins, and fertilizers double the yield. The value of these items has nothing to do with the coin price; as long as I'm still playing this game, they are solid good items.
I personally think this pledge is more like buying a membership rather than a financial product. You lock $PIXEL in, and every day you get some items to make your farm run faster. As for whether $PIXEL itself rises or falls, that's another matter. The project team hasn't promised any annual returns; it just says on the page, "Daily rewards are dynamically distributed based on the pool's status." No empty promises, which is reassuring. However, some people say this is just them being lazy with calculations, haha.
However, there are really quite a few drawbacks. The upper limit of returns is too low. I know a guy who staked tens of thousands of $PIXEL, but the acceleration vouchers he gets daily are about the same as what I got when I staked a few hundred bucks. He was furious and complained in DC for several days. The project team's logic might be fearing that staking becomes a money printer for big holders, but for those with many coins, it really isn't stimulating enough. I don't mind; anyway, I don't have many coins.
Another issue is that the value of items entirely depends on whether the game is popular. If one day Pixels cools down and no one plays anymore, these acceleration vouchers and seed packs in my hands will just be a pile of useless data. The tokens in traditional chain games at least can still be sold in the secondary market for a final profit, but items like these non-standard assets have almost zero liquidity. So this staking system is actually tied to the lifespan of the game: if the game is hot, the items are valuable; if the game cools down, it’s all over. This is both an advantage and a risk, depending on how you see it. I personally think I can still play for a while, so I’ll stake for now.
The most annoying thing is that claiming rewards is too troublesome. In traditional chain games, rewards usually accumulate automatically, and you can claim all at once anytime. Pixels requires you to manually click the claim button every day, and each claim incurs a gas fee on the Ronin chain. Although the gas fee is very low—just a few cents—having to do it every day can be quite annoying over time. Plus, if you forget to claim one day, the rewards for that day are simply gone and not compensated. I often forgot at first and later set an alarm to get used to it. Yesterday, I almost forgot again; the alarm went off, and I remembered in a hurry to click it. The project team says this is to prevent scripts from automatically claiming, but I personally think changing it to claim weekly would be much better, saving both gas and hassle. But they probably won't change it, who knows.
There is one design that I think is quite clever. Most of the items in the staking rewards are bound and cannot be traded, with only a few high-level items being sellable. This means you can't create a bunch of small accounts to stake and then resell items. Moreover, to claim rewards, your farm level must reach level five or above, which directly blocks studios from participating. Traditional chain game staking is often exploited by studios using hundreds of wallets to brush rewards, but this mechanism in Pixels, although cumbersome, does protect the interests of ordinary players. I have seen studios brush staking rewards clean in a mini-game before, making it impossible for regular players to grab any.
$PIXEL's role in this system is very clear; it is not an income-generating asset but more like a ticket. You must hold $PIXEL to participate in staking, but the rewards are not linearly related to the quantity of $PIXEL. The official documentation states that reward distribution will comprehensively consider the quantity staked, the duration of staking, and the activity level of the farm. In other words, if you just stake without playing the game, the items you receive will be discounted. At first, I thought this was a bit demanding, but then I thought about it and agreed; the project team doesn't want to support a bunch of lazy people who only stake without playing the game. If you want to enjoy the benefits, you have to actually log in and play. I casually claim rewards when I log in to harvest every day; it’s not troublesome.
In traditional chain games, staking ultimately becomes a game for large holders; the small investors’ coins don't even make a difference. At least in Pixels, I, as a small player, can earn some useful items every day, and as long as you keep playing, the gap in earnings isn't that exaggerated compared to the big holders. I don't stake much; I claim a few acceleration vouchers every day, which is enough.
To be honest, this model is not suitable for those who only want to speculate. If you want to stake and just earn passively, that’s impossible. The items you claim daily require time to use; you need to plan when to use acceleration vouchers and arrange land to plant rare seeds. These all come with extra time costs. But for those who are already playing daily, these items are just free rewards, which is quite nice. I'm pretty satisfied overall, except for that annoying daily claiming design.
By the way, I visited a neighbor yesterday and saw he had planted a patch of watermelons, which reminded me that I should plant some too. But I found out there were no watermelon seeds in my warehouse, so I had to buy them with $PIXEL, which I was reluctant to do, so I decided not to plant for now. Getting off-topic, back to staking. Lastly, if you are already playing Pixels, logging in daily to harvest and do tasks, staking a bit of $PIXEL is quite worthwhile, as the items you get can save you a lot of time. If you are only in it for mining profits, then it's better to forget it; you'll be disappointed. I'm just a farmer, not into those intangible things.
