Gala Games, one of the premier Web3 gaming ecosystems, has announced the introduction of $GALA(v2) to replace the current $GALA token.
Gala Games was an early force in the space, catching our eye several years ago, and we have followed their progress ever since. With the flagship MMORPG, Mirandus, edging ever closer to player testing (we’ve had mini-game testing recently), Gala Games is nearing an inflection point where the vast potential begins to be realized. As a result of this, as well as the fast-moving nature of Web3, Gala Games has opted to update the ecosystem’s native token, $GALA.
Now, this announcement has caught many Gala Games fans a little off guard, and after reading pages and pages of discussions with Gala representatives on the Gala Discord, I can confirm a few areas of confusion. Firstly, the v2 token is still ERC-20, and thus, on Ethereum — there is no change in that regard. Secondly, holders of $GALA (that is, the v1 token), will receive a 1:1 airdrop of the v2 token. However, you need to make sure your holdings are not staked, in liquidity pools, or hidden elsewhere to receive the drop.
NOTE: You must remove your $GALA from any liquidity pools or smart contracts before the snapshot on May 15th, as we cannot guarantee that $GALA dropped to liquidity pool contracts will be recoverable. It’s better to be safe than sorry.
— Gala Games
As for tokens being held on an exchange, such as Binance, a Community Manager said “We are working closely with Binance throughout the token upgrade and ideally your tokens would be replaced properly by Binance,” but then insisted it’s safer to move it to a personal wallet by the time of the snapshot, 15th May 2023. Jason “BitBender” Brink, a senior figure at Gala, did echo this advice:
Thirdly, the original $GALA(v1) token will no longer be supported or have any utility from the moment the v2 token drops; this isn’t a hardfork situation, so I wouldn’t expect some GALA Classic to emerge.
So, if the token is remaining ERC-20 and being airdropped 1:1, what are the benefits of this upgrade? The upgrade is to the Ethereum contract for the $GALA token and the improvements are threefold;
- Enhanced Burn Mechanisms
- Security Enhancements
- Future Upgradability
Presently, there is no further information on what those upgrades will entail or how they improve those areas, but the overall goal appears to be future-proofing the ecosystem’s native token. With Web3 moving at a rate of knots, it isn’t all that surprising to see token contracts overhauled, particularly if they are several years old at this point.
