This post gives an December 2023 updated look at the utility of $SPS, $DEC, and Vouchers in Splinterlands.
Splinterlands has a 3-token economy powered by $SPS, $DEC, and Vouchers. $DEC is designed to be the primary in-game currency, while SPS is the governance token and also designed to be the token required in order to maximize rewards from the game. Meanwhile, Vouchers are used to obtain discounts from SPL sales and to get special access to certain features. This article covers, at a high level, the various utilities & sinks provided by these 3 tokens.
SPS utility:
- Staking rewards: Staking SPS provides rewards in the form of SPS and Vouchers. Based on current prices, the SPS staking APR is ~13%.
- Ranked rewards boost: In order to maximize battle rewards (SPS and Reward Shares), players must stake SPS. The current requirements are explained in detail here.
- Delegation: SPS can be delegated to other players to support their staking requirements, and a simple marketplace is also available which gives SPS stakers the ability to temporarily lend out their SPS in exchange for DEC. Delegating & lending SPS does not reduce staking rewards, but it does reduce the SPS staking available for the lending player's rewards boost. At the time of writing, SPS can typically be rented for 0.002-0.003 DEC/SPS/day; assuming you rent 100% of the time, this would translate to roughly a 3% additional APR (on top of staking) for SPS.
- Burn for DEC: SPS can be burned for DEC at a rate of 975 DEC per dollar of SPS. SPS burned this way is gone forever (i.e. DEC cannot be burned to recover the SPS). This mechanism is explained here. So far, >33M SPS has been burned for DEC (~1% of maximum supply of SPS that will ever be created). Here is a fantastic chart by Splintercards showing the progress of SPS burning for DEC:
- Tournament entries & staking requirements: SPS is generally required to enter tournaments, and there is also a minimum SPS staking requirement for most tournaments.
- Buy validator nodes: Validator Nodes are priced at a fixed US dollar value but are purchased with SPS. 80% of the SPS used to buy nodes is burned while the remaining 20% is allocated to the DAO. Details on Validator Nodes can be found here.
- Governance: SPS is the only way to participate in governance proposals in the Splinterlands ecosystem. So far >55 proposals have gone to an official vote. On average, the "voter turnout" represents about 40-50% of total staked SPS
- Soulkeep rewards boost (upcoming): This functionality is not live yet, but will be coming with the release of Soulkeep (the Splinterlands Tower Defense game). It will work in a similar fashion to the rewards boost for ranked play in Splinterlands. The mechanism is explained in this post.
DEC utility:
- Buy cards & assets on marketplace: DEC is the primary currency used to make card or other asset purchases in the card and asset marketplaces.
- Rent cards on marketplace: DEC is the primary currency used to rent cards on the marketplace.
- Purchase & Rental transaction fees: 2% of all DEC used for purchases and rentals is burned. At current transaction volumes this equates to ~$500-1000 of DEC burned per day from transaction fees.
- Purchase & Rental listing fees: 1 DEC is required for any listing or listing update. This DEC is also burned.
- Rent SPS: DEC can be used to rent SPS from SPS stakers, in order to increase the ranked rewards boost. 2% of the DEC used for the SPS rental transaction is also burned.
- Buy packs: DEC is the primary currency used to purchase packs from the official Splinterlands store. In the store, DEC is always given peg value (1000 DEC for $1). When a purchase of this kind is made, the DEC is given to the Splinterlands Company.
- Energy refill: DEC can be used to refill energy. The amount of DEC required depends on the league the player is in. DEC used for energy refills is burned.
- Power cores: DEC is required to purchase power cores for land to produce resources. This DEC is burned.
- Dark Energy (for land rewards): In order to harvest resources from their land, players must stake DEC. This DEC can be unstaked at any time.
- Buy potions: DEC can be used to buy Legendary and Alchemy potions, which increase the chances of getting Legendary and Gold Foil cards when opening packs.
- Buy stones: When guilds reached the required level, DEC may also be used to buy Blood Stones and Power Stones, which increase the likelihood of receiving Legendary and Gold Foil gladiators from Gladius cases.
- Buy Guild Power: DEC is used to purchase Guild Power, which is required to level up Guild buildings. Details on Guild Power are found here. This DEC is burned.
Voucher utility:
- Discounts on packs: Vouchers can be used to purchase extra packs at a discount after reaching certain pack tiers.
- Discounts on Validator Nodes: Vouchers are used as a discount on Validator Node purchases and have a pegged price at each Node sales tier.
- Reroll daily focus: Vouchers can be used to re-roll the Daily Focus (after the first free re-roll). A re-roll costs 15 vouchers.
- Conflict Wagons: The Conflict system, introduced with Rebellion, requires Wagons for players to participate in airdrops. Each Wagon costs 50 Vouchers.