# Golden Tides

> Golden Tides is a KRAFTON-backed pirate MOBA with an on-chain economy: tokenised skins, an ERC20 currency, and a store that hides the wallet.

- Client: KRAFTON · Golden Tides
- Sector: Gaming · Web3
- Role: Web3 economy, in-game store, on-chain skin pipeline
- Year: 2025

## Overview

The on-chain economy for a KRAFTON-backed pirate MOBA: an in-game store, tokenised skins, and an ERC20-backed currency, engineered so players who do not care about crypto never meet a wallet prompt.

## Problem

Golden Tides is a real-time multiplayer combat game with a live, retention-driven economy. The publisher wanted to bring the asset economy on-chain, with tokenised skins, ERC20-backed in-game currency, and a marketplace, without breaking the existing game loop or shipping a UX that asked players to learn crypto.

## Approach

We engineered the on-chain layer as a substrate, not a feature. An ERC20 contract for the in-game token, an ERC721 skin standard with off-chain metadata caching, an in-game store that hides wallet plumbing behind a familiar storefront UI, and a custodial to non-custodial bridge so players who do not care about chain can still trade. Real-time multiplayer kept its existing performance budget; the chain ran in the background.

## Outcome

Players buy and trade skins like they would in any AAA game. No wallet prompt, no gas estimate, no signing modal in the default flow. The publisher gets a real asset economy with marketplace fees, royalties, and player-driven liquidity. Shipped with $10M+ in publisher-side engineering and live-ops investment behind it: production-scale, not a proof of concept.

## Tech stack

Blockchain, ERC20, ERC721, NFTs, Web3 Gaming, Steam

## Key facts

- KRAFTON: Publisher
- $10M+: Build investment
- ERC20 + ERC721: On-chain stack

## Links

- [Play Golden Tides](https://www.goldentides.gg/)
- [View on Steam](https://store.steampowered.com/app/3650580/Golden_Tides/)