Zoonies is one of the latest projects to come out on the Solana network this summer. Following a successful mint, the project has been able to maintain a stable floor for holders.

Looking deeper, the project’s success shares some association with its partner Opensea, who helped launch the project instead of Magic Eden, the preferred marketplace for Solana projects.

What is Zoonies

The Zoonies collection is a project which aims to develop an ecosystem around alien-inspired artwork in an expanding universe. The tokens also allow access to the Planet Zoon dashboard where utilities for the token are housed. 

These utilities include a staking ability for holders to earn $POTION tokens which are used to fund apartments for the Zoon characters. These apartments come as free mints for holders. Apartments can also be created by using Builder Kits which come in a variety of different plot sizes. 

Leftover apartments and building kits will then be available for public sale before moving towards secondary markets on OpenSea. 

Game Mechanics

One highlight of the project is that it offers a collection of games for holders to enjoy. This function will allow holders to use their $POTION tokens for access to games that offer rewards. 

One caveat to this is that these games are gambling-based utilities. The only game currently stated on their website is a variation of roulette where the holder must play against the house. While GameFi is an exciting prospect for many in the crypto world, the reality of pure gambling holds less appeal to many who are looking for true gaming experiences. 

Fortunately, this gambling mechanic only accepts the $POTION tokens, so any personal issues that users might have with gambling are slightly mitigated. Hopefully, the project will pan out better over time and incorporate games which don’t mimic a casino. 

What are launchpad projects

The most interesting aspect of Zoonies however, is that it is the first Solana project to be featured on the Opensea launchpad which is generally reserved for Ethereum-based collections. 

By being the first project from Solana on the platform, Opensea is showing their commitment to cryptocurrency as a whole. This type of support will be necessary going forward considering the currently bearish NFT market. 

It’ll be interesting to see in the future if Opensea chooses to adopt more networks to their marketplace such as Algorand, Avalanche, or Cardano. Although Ethereum is the preferred network for most NFT trading, adopting more networks on the platform has the potential to expand the market.

You can read more about Magic Eden here. 

Opensea vs Magic Eden

While Opensea might be a growing marketplace for a variety of networks, Magic Eden is still the number one platform for all Solana-based projects. It features the most robust launchpad for Solana based projects. 

However, as Opensea continues to expand and now promote more Solana-based projects, Magic Eden will need to step up their own offerings in order to compete successfully against the largest NFT marketplace. 

Fortunately, while Opensea remains the most popular market, it is not considered the best. With a commitment to efficiency and an enjoyable user experience rich with features, Magic Eden has already solved many of the major criticisms that users hold against Opensea. 
You can read more about Solana’s growing network of NFT utilities here.