When we started building consumer apps on Farcaster 18 months ago, one of our goals was to let people experience crypto without thinking about wallets, gas, and generally removing as much of the usual jargon that gets in the way - that's where the magic lies.

Gas was still pretty expensive at the time, so the scope of what you could do here was pretty limited, but over time, as gas costs came down to the penny mark, it became more and more achievable - but even then, there are limits, and Clankermon hit those limits pretty fast this past month.

The real killer was cost variance - it could cost $5, $30, or $200 for the same or less activity. The average cost per transaction ranged from $0.002 to $0.10. We had accounted for the lower end but not the upper limit that these costs could reach.

This made sponsorship unsustainable, and having to pass tx costs back to users created the exact friction we originally set out to alleviate. Ultimately, this led to shutting down onboarding, pushing back feature development, and pausing rollouts until we could determine the best path forward.

We examined our options, including reducing the onchain footprint by moving huge chunks of the game off-chain. We also considered switching to cheaper, higher-throughput chains or base L3s to stay closer to home.

Over time, we will add more and more interactive features and experiences that aren’t as heavily onchain, but one of our guiding principles for developing any feature is that the game's core logic and economic primitives rely on state and logic that live onchain.

Call us crazy, but it ascribes a kind of “Proof of work” value that we believe will make it so much more satisfying when you wipe the floor in with opponent in a friendly skill based wager match or settle a score in hardcode mode where losing has a real impact - and that’s one of the biggest unlocks crypto gaming has, the ability to be make what was once ephemeral feel tangible, rewards to be real and consequences to matter.

To do this, we need infrastructure that:

• Enables huge scale at consistently low costs

• Optimizes away inefficiencies that building onchain can present

• Doesn’t cut us off from growing network effects

So that’s exactly what we are building! The Clankermon appchain is designed to be a scalable moat for gaming mechanics built around our assets on base. Providing us with the scale that appchains enable while leveraging the infrastructure, liquidity, and distribution available on the base.

By leveraging Syndicate's Smart Sequencer, we can even move our sequencing logic onchain, enshrining randomness and oracles that supercharge game mechanics in every single block.

The concept of bridging can be quite an abstract idea for new users to wrap their heads around, even knowing what the word means already indicates you have been around the block(chain). Which is why we plan to integrate our appchain directly into our game progression loops. Blurring the lines between the two chains while leveraging the best aspects of each.

When we built the current version, we had an idea; we weren’t sure how feasible it was, if base could continue to scale at a rate that kept our idea viable, if people would play it (they did), and if it came to it, would they pay for it (they did). Now we have a plan and partners that can help us bring it to life, bigger and better than we initially imagined.

This is a big change for us, but we will make the transition as smooth as possible for the players - while taking the opportunity to rework core pillars of the game - player progression mechanics, babymon game loops, staking mechanics, and shipping a better version of dungeons that is both more rewarding and intuitive.

Clankermon, the chain. Clankermon, the game.