When envisioning a digital world system capable of supporting large-scale, simultaneous human interaction, we inevitably confront a series of fundamental constraints, including limitations in underlying infrastructure throughput, the complexity of multi-client state synchronization, and more. Some of these limitations partly depends on advances in underlying infrastructure, but equally important is the optimization of internal system within the world itself. Today, I want to discuss one of the most crucial mechanisms: the oblivion engine.

From a technical design perspective, the introduction of the oblivion engine aims to mitigate the impact of state explosion. This issue is particularly severe for worlds based on the onchain reality thesis. The narrative of onchain reality depends on blockchain decentralization as the fundamental source of the world’s value. Only if people believe that the blockchain will persist indefinitely and last beyond a human lifetime into the distant future can it provide a strong and confident foundation of meaning to inspire and attract more participants. However, block space is extremely limited. Given the trade-offs between decentralization, security, and scalability, the gas limit for onchain operations per unit time is unlikely to increase significantly in the foreseeable future. Therefore, it is especially important to maximize the use of limited onchain storage to generate richer interactive content.

Taking Dark Forest as an example, the specific parameters of planets in the universe are generated by combining onchain keys with perlin noise curves, while ZK circuits is used to conceal the coordinates of the planets. Each player needs to perform local hash computations to obtain a map containing planetary information — the map is identical for all participants. Initially, the state of each planet is not stored onchain; only when a player attacks a planet does it trigger lazy-update function that updates the planet’s state, which is then stored via smart contracts. As more participants interact with the universe contract, the number of onchain planets increases. When exploring larger maps in browser clients, the need to handle the storage and updating of more planetary states leads to earlier crashes. In this situation, an alternative solution is to develop independent clients. However, such independent clients require higher development costs and often face resistance from users due to security concerns. Therefore, once again, we hope to alleviate this problem by modifying the world’s design. To reduce the total number of planets stored onchain, the number of times humans interact with each planet must increase. This means the mechanics need to encourage warfare to improve the efficiency of repeated utilization of individual planets. Of course, this represents a rather indirect oblivion mechanism: the enemy’s energy transported to your planet offsets your energy on that planet, indirectly erasing your previous operational footprints. A more direct and harsh approach is to embed a oblivion engine within the world. Over time, this mechanism gradually causes participants to lose control over planets, eventually reverting the planets back to their original pristine state.

The introduction of such a direct and harsh forgetting mechanism has been met with widespread opposition, as it appears to be a negative feedback system rather than a positive one that brings joy to participants, seemingly contradicting the original purpose of creating a game. This also reflects the differing philosophies among members of our team. For me, I do not wish to build a game that simply delivers sweet, high-pleasure experiences. Instead, I aim to create a serious onchain reality interaction system that can have profound impacts on its participants. To break free from past influences, I believe starting an independent project from scratch might better showcase my vision. The oblivion engine is designed to embody the concept of endings within the digital world, evoking more complex emotional experiences from its participants through this notion of finality. From the perspective of time, oblivion engine also offers greater possibilities for different people who wish to engage with the system. This represents a viable path to constructing an infinitely self-sustaining system.

Another argument against the introduction of the forgetting mechanism is that it undermines the immutability of the blockchain. People find it difficult to accept that the planets they have painstakingly acquired might no longer belong to them in the future. However, I think the oblivion engine does not conflict with immutability. The past remains immutable, but the future of the digital world can evolve over time, and this is where the oblivion engine plays a role. Furthermore, I do hope that the boundaries between different participants will blur and dissolve within this world. This means that everyone’s actions are connected to everyone else, and the objects abstracted by the interaction protocols can actively influence the participants themselves.

Oblivion may seem like a tragedy, but fortunately, we can design ways to resist it, though this may require great effort from the participants. As long as you are willing to put in the effort, everything can still be saved. Would you like to live in such a world?

When envisioning a digital world system capable of supporting large-scale, simultaneous human interaction, we inevitably confront a series of fundamental constraints, including limitations in underlying infrastructure throughput, the complexity of multi-client state synchronization, and more. Some of these limitations partly depends on advances in underlying infrastructure, but equally important is the optimization of internal system within the world itself. Today, I want to discuss one of the most crucial mechanisms: the oblivion engine.

From a technical design perspective, the introduction of the oblivion engine aims to mitigate the impact of state explosion. This issue is particularly severe for worlds based on the onchain reality thesis. The narrative of onchain reality depends on blockchain decentralization as the fundamental source of the world’s value. Only if people believe that the blockchain will persist indefinitely and last beyond a human lifetime into the distant future can it provide a strong and confident foundation of meaning to inspire and attract more participants. However, block space is extremely limited. Given the trade-offs between decentralization, security, and scalability, the gas limit for onchain operations per unit time is unlikely to increase significantly in the foreseeable future. Therefore, it is especially important to maximize the use of limited onchain storage to generate richer interactive content.

Taking Dark Forest as an example, the specific parameters of planets in the universe are generated by combining onchain keys with perlin noise curves, while ZK circuits is used to conceal the coordinates of the planets. Each player needs to perform local hash computations to obtain a map containing planetary information — the map is identical for all participants. Initially, the state of each planet is not stored onchain; only when a player attacks a planet does it trigger lazy-update function that updates the planet’s state, which is then stored via smart contracts. As more participants interact with the universe contract, the number of onchain planets increases. When exploring larger maps in browser clients, the need to handle the storage and updating of more planetary states leads to earlier crashes. In this situation, an alternative solution is to develop independent clients. However, such independent clients require higher development costs and often face resistance from users due to security concerns. Therefore, once again, we hope to alleviate this problem by modifying the world’s design. To reduce the total number of planets stored onchain, the number of times humans interact with each planet must increase. This means the mechanics need to encourage warfare to improve the efficiency of repeated utilization of individual planets. Of course, this represents a rather indirect oblivion mechanism: the enemy’s energy transported to your planet offsets your energy on that planet, indirectly erasing your previous operational footprints. A more direct and harsh approach is to embed a oblivion engine within the world. Over time, this mechanism gradually causes participants to lose control over planets, eventually reverting the planets back to their original pristine state.

The introduction of such a direct and harsh forgetting mechanism has been met with widespread opposition, as it appears to be a negative feedback system rather than a positive one that brings joy to participants, seemingly contradicting the original purpose of creating a game. This also reflects the differing philosophies among members of our team. For me, I do not wish to build a game that simply delivers sweet, high-pleasure experiences. Instead, I aim to create a serious onchain reality interaction system that can have profound impacts on its participants. To break free from past influences, I believe starting an independent project from scratch might better showcase my vision. The oblivion engine is designed to embody the concept of endings within the digital world, evoking more complex emotional experiences from its participants through this notion of finality. From the perspective of time, oblivion engine also offers greater possibilities for different people who wish to engage with the system. This represents a viable path to constructing an infinitely self-sustaining system.

Another argument against the introduction of the forgetting mechanism is that it undermines the immutability of the blockchain. People find it difficult to accept that the planets they have painstakingly acquired might no longer belong to them in the future. However, I think the oblivion engine does not conflict with immutability. The past remains immutable, but the future of the digital world can evolve over time, and this is where the oblivion engine plays a role. Furthermore, I do hope that the boundaries between different participants will blur and dissolve within this world. This means that everyone’s actions are connected to everyone else, and the objects abstracted by the interaction protocols can actively influence the participants themselves.

Oblivion may seem like a tragedy, but fortunately, we can design ways to resist it, though this may require great effort from the participants. As long as you are willing to put in the effort, everything can still be saved. Would you like to live in such a world?