Mojang/Minecraft’s new guidelines came as a surprise to everyone in the Web3 space and Critterz. We’ve previously asked the Mojang IP Enforcement representative about the compliance of Blockchain and NFTs several times and have always gotten the go-ahead.

Currently, we are still in communication with Mojang. The replies we’ve gotten indicate that they are still formalizing the EULA guidelines, which we should expect in a couple of weeks, as well as the confirmation that no servers or projects will be impacted until their owners have been formally contacted.

Complying with Minecraft’s new guidelines for NFTs and Blockchain.

This assumes that Mojang allows the use of NFTs and Blockchain with strict limitations. From what we know, the main requirements are:

• All players on the server have equal access to functionalities and a level playing field (No pay-to-win)
• In-game virtual currencies must not have real-world value, meaning that they can’t be exchanged for a real-world currency.
• Cannot have “digital scarcity” (This is unclear because non-NFT Minecraft servers can have scarcity, as well as some in-game resources that are already scarce by design.)

We’ve also been communicating with NFTWorlds, Gridcraft, Llamascape, and other projects on potential alternatives to Minecraft, in the case of them banning all content related to NFTs. These solutions range from building on top of open source projects or developing a new game from scratch.

We’ll go over these options now from least to most changes necessary:

Option #1: If Mojang completely bans NFT and Blockchain until they believe it’s more secure, the next option is to temporarily move all assets off-chain.

Being able to easily bridge game assets on-chain and off-chain is the most important function of Critterz. It’s what makes it possible for your Plot, Critterz, and block ownership to reflect on-chain and off-chain, and will be used for the upcoming cosmetic and custom item NFTs. If Mojang decides to allow NFTs again, we would just need to flip a switch to re-enable everything again.

Option #2: During this period, it is entirely possible for a 3rd party to build a decentralized bridge that allows any player to convert tradable in-game assets into NFTs and back.

A bridge like this would be completely facilitated by the players and would require no server or client integration. This bridge would work for any game without any form of permission from the game or the server, meaning that any player with a Minecraft account would be able to sell any item from any server as NFTs.

Option #3: Migrate to an open-source Minecraft-like game.

The main benefit is we can build something with native Web3 support, while not having to build from scratch. There are a few existing options such as Minetest.

Option #4: If the open source options are suboptimal in terms of design and performance, it may make sense to build a game from scratch.

This would give us the most creative freedom to design the Web3 integration from the ground up but would take a huge amount of time, typically years. There are potentials to collaborate with other projects on this. If it’s possible to build a minimal game that takes full advantage of Web3 like with Stepn (The move-to-earn game), it may make sense to start from scratch as well.

It is important to remember that Minecraft had been in development prior to May 2010 (12 years ago) and was chosen as a foundation due to its years of polish, existing modding community, and large player base. Building a game from scratch would void those benefits. We should also consider building a game from scratch is a very heavy task and is not something an increased budget can fix. A clear example of this is Hytale, which has been in development since 2015 due to Mojang’s limitations on Hypixel and was later acquired by RiotGames in 2020, still unreleased in 2022.

Option #5: Moving further into the extremes, it is possible for us to pivot into a completely new Web3 native game or blockchain product.

Zero Knowledge proof is one of the most interesting areas in the space right now, and as some of the best builders in this space, we’d be able to solve some interesting problems which brings more value to the crypto space.