What is this?

0xFable is a fully on-chain trading card game, in the spirit of Magic the Gathering and Hearthstone.

All the game logic lives on-chain and the game employs zero-knowledge circuits to hide private information (like the players' hands).

Fully on-chain?

By being fully on-chain (and of course, entirely open-source), the game ensures permissionless extensibility. Anybody can extend the game, change its rules, or create new game modes that are compatible with existing cards, or design entirely new cards that are compatible with the existing game contracts.

These are basic freedoms that exist in every physical card and board games but are usually lost when these games become digital. The blockchain optimizes for permissionless composability, and allows us to reclaim these freedoms!

For more: my EthDenver talk explains my enthusiasm for fully on-chain games.

0xFable & Rollup Infrastructure

0xFable will run on its own rollup appchain. The 0xFable team is committed to build infrastructure in the open to make operating appchains easier. These efforts, including simple-op-stack-rollup and an upcoming proposal for a modular shared sequencing standard, in consultation with industry leaders — we're in touch with everyone that works on shared sequencing (as far as we known), major enablers like EigenLayer and Celestia, as well as chains, bridges and DeFi apps that have a vested interest in shared sequencing.

As such, funding 0xFable also means funding open-source technology that will greatly simplify the deployment of rollapps in the greater Ethereum ecosystem.

For more: check out these two talks about why on-chain games should be rollapps, and this talk about some early shared sequencing design space explorations.

Team & Status

The 0xFable core team currently comprises Norswap, former Optimism protocol team & major Twitter complainer, as well as serial entrepreneur Kai Jun Eer, man of wisdom and wholesomeness. Everybody is welcome to contribute.

The game is nearing the completion of a tech demo which will demonstrate a functional but simplistic card game engine complete with contracts, zero-knowledge proofs and a polished frontend.

Our next focus will be on gameplay, the improvement of our engine, especially with regards to extensibility, and infrastructure (rollups & sequencing) aspects. We are hoping to open source even the game design process (at least, parts of it)!

Coda

We are deeply committed to the crypto ethos of transparency and openness, and would love your help in building a crypto game that will be actually fun, builds on a proven model, but takes full advantage of the technological affordances of the blockchain to recapture freedoms that are too often lost in digital games.

Thank you for your support!