The Gamers Guide to the Blast Network

With passive income for all users as a primary foundation layer, Blast has rocketed into the collective consciousness of the web3 world. But just because you've heard of something, doesn't mean that you know anything about it. So let's get to some explanations to help you out!

What is the Blast Network?

Blast is a layer2 blockchain created by the founders of the Blur NFT marketplace. They officially launched their mainnet in February of 2024.

Blast's primary selling feature is that they provide ongoing interest payments for holding Ethereum (ETH) tokens or USDB, the network's own stablecoin. No staking required. Just have the coins in your wallet and your rewards automatically accrue! Who doesn't love passive income!?

They are able to do this by using ETH staking and other protocols behind the scenes, passing those earnings back to their users. When you bridge your tokens onto the Blast network, you're locking them into a smart contract. Blast is able to leverage those locked tokens to earn interest. They then pass the earned interest back to their users.

Blast has their own stablecoin USDB. Other stablecoins bridged onto Blast are automatically converted into USDB. The Blast network uses a T-bill protocol from MakerDAO to generate interest for their stablecoin holders.

Both ETH and USDB are auto re-based, resulting in ongoing, compound interest, just for keeping funds in your wallet on Blast! And the interest rates for holding tokens is better than anything you will find with a regular bank account!

The Blast network currently has over $1.6 billion in tokens locked onto their chain, making them the second largest layer 2 network in TVL!

Getting Started with the Blast Network

To get started with Blast, you will first need to bridge some tokens over to the network. Bridging fees are relatively inexpensive (it cost me a little over $5). 

You can use the official bridge, which only allows bridging to and from the main Ethereum network at the moment. It also has a limited selection of tokens it will accept. Some other services offer additional bridging options. Fees vary based on the service used and the networks involved. Some  even offer incentives to use their bridging service through Blast Gold or other rewards.

Once you have your funds on Blast, you don't need to do anything else if you just want to earn airdrop points and accumulate your compound interest.

But if you're interested in interacting with defi protocols or trying to farm points from other projects, there are a number to choose from. In fact, many of them are running their own incentives program, with future rewards, including potential token airdrops!

We won't recommend any specific third-party services or dapps in this article. Many of them are new and/or available only in certain regions.

And, as always, be careful. And do at least some research into a project before you sign any transactions or trust your funds with them!

Use the following information to add Blast mainnet to your wallet.

Network Name: Blast
RPC Endpoint: https://rpc.blast.io
Chain ID: 81457
Currency Symbol: ETH
Block Explorer: https://blastscan.io

Blast Network Airdrop

Blast is currently in the midst of an airdrop campaign. Users can earn airdrop points by engaging with the ecosystem, and just by holding tokens in your wallet on the Blast network!

One of the main way to earn points is by bridging and holding assets on the Blast blockchain. Users earn Blast Points every time the Blast chain processes a network block. Points earned are based on their crypto holdings. The user interface shows how much you are expected to earn based on current wallet status.

And this interest is compounded! Meaning that as soon as you receive an interest payment, you start earning interest on those funds! And this, in turn, leads to more airdrop points, so getting in early is definitely advantageous here!

There are also Blast Gold points. These are distributed to various projects on the Blast Network, who then, in turn, can keep for themselves or give it out to their communities. As you might imagine, most of them have some sort of community campaign. You can see those who have signed up here (https://blast.io/en/airdrop?tab=DappAirdrops), but even Blast themselves say to do your own research DYOR!)

Visit https://blast.io/en/airdrop to get started. You will need to connect an Ethereum wallet and join their Discord server as well.

Gaming on the Blast Network

The gaming ecosystem on Blast is really just getting started. But with the rapid growth in users, and the lure of passive income, Blast is sure to draw increasing attention over the coming months.

And while there aren't any big name games yet on Blast, there are several that are already playable. Many of these games offer opportunities to earn Blast Points or Blast Gold as well. Check their social channels for any ongoing campaigns or offerings.

Gangster Arena

Gangster Arena is an idle game featuring players running gangs and using Gangster NFTs to fight for GREED tokens.

Crypto Valleys

Crypto Valleys is a farming and adventure game. Stardew Valley style, similar to Pixels and Sunflower Land. Free to play, though it does require a very small transaction fee to setup your profile. They paid out Blast Gold points to the players before and will likely do so again.

Blast Auto Club

Blast Auto Club is a racing game that claims to be the first web3 game build on Blast.

Of course those aren't the only games in development on the Blast network.

And though Blast still has a long way to go to they've already passed over 600k active users  and don't show any signs of slowing down. And where there are players, game devs are sure to follow!

The BLAST token

Blast has already released the first 17 billion of their BLAST tokens, with a total planned token supply of 100 billion. The community will receive 50% of the total supply over the next three years through a series of incentive campaigns, the first of which have already begun.

BLAST will function as a governance token for the network, though it's unclear what other use cases this token might have. 

The current BLAST marketcap is over $400 million.

Additional Thoughts on the Blast Network

Blast's native yield program is genius IMO. Whenever I get a significant amount of crypto in my wallet, I start having nagging thoughts in the back of my brain about how I should be earning passive income with my funds somehow. But generally that requires getting involved with defi, a daunting prospect for most newcomers. And defi also has dangers of hacks, contract vulnerabilities, sudden loss of liquidity, and transaction fees for getting your funds in and out of the services.

The other option is to send your funds to a centralized exchange like Coinbase or Binance who offer interest returns. But many don't trust these centralized exchanges, and for some, they aren't even available.

And like many blockchains, Blast has bold plans. Banked the unbanked is one of their mottos! And they want to create a ‘fullstack chain’, providing everything needed for both users and developers.

You can read more information about their plans and overall goals in a recent blog post titled, Blast Vision.

Blast certainly is doing what they can to attract users and developers to their ecosystem. And it seems to be working! We'll have to keep watching to see if they can maintain this level of excitement.

In the meantime, you can visit their website and follow them on Twitter to learn more. They also have quite a bit of documentation available as well.