Hash Rush is a world first combining gaming with crypto mining. It’s a novel concept to bring together real-time strategy as well as genuine hashing, and I spoke to leads Kristaps Vaivods and Maris Ziedonis about this genuinely original project. Enjoy this interview, conducted just hours before their presale went live.
Note: Hash Rush has just entered Pre-ICO, and details of how to participate can be found here, with much more information in the discussion below.
Hey! How’s it going there?
Kris: Awesome – but busy. Things are really going crazy with the pre-ICO coming up!
Well, thanks for taking the time so close to this going live. To kick this off, I read your whitepaper and it would be great if you could clarify what the project is, as it appears you’re making a game, an ERC20 token and a mining pool.
Kris: Sure. What we’re doing is we’re creating a real-time strategy game, and while you’re playing, you will have a chance to mine mineable cryptocurrencies like Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, ZCash and Monero. To get all of this functionality out of the game, we will have our own mining pool which people can join and mine with Hash Rush.
They will distribute a percentage of their hashing power to the players, and players can buy hashing power from them. The economy of Hash Rush is powered by our own ERC20 standard token called Rush Coin. Every transaction that will be made in the game or between players and the Hash Rush mining pool will happen in Rush Coins.
Hash Rush has a great - and unique - graphical style thanks to excellent art direction.
Which of you is more on the gaming side and which of you is more on the mining side?
Kris: I am more on the mining side – that’s how I started out in this.
Maris: And I am more of a game designer and coming up with concepts and ideas.
Watch the first alpha footage of Hash Rush gameplay with commentary from Maris Ziedonis .
OK – so the game is a browser-based game, right? Does the act of playing the game actively mine currencies?
Kris: Yes, you will be mining, but you don’t have to be at your PC.
Maris: You don’t need to be there 24/7 – it will continue to mine even while you’re asleep.
And is it actually using the player’s PC hardware to mine? For instance, if I’m firing up Claymore, for example, to mine Ethereum, it uses my graphics card and PC resources to hash. Does playing Hash Rush do the same?
Kris: No - we’ve had a few people asking this question, actually. The game isn’t mining on your computer. It’s not using any of your hardware. The game brings cloud mining – basically, what you do is get the hashing power from people who have mining farms or special rigs for them, but not your own computer hardware in any way.
Early in-game footage - and it's shaping up beautifully.
So are you going to be running your own pool as with any other standard mining pool, such as Suprnova or MiningPoolHub? Will it be the case that anyone in the public can just join in and mine and contribute a small % as normal?
Kris: Yeah, that’s what we are introducing in Q1 2018 – we are introducing an open mining pool that anyone can join. They can then decide if they want to mine Ethereum or Ethereum Classic in the beginning, or they can sell their hashing power to the gamers who are playing.
To sell hashing power, is that going to be operating like NiceHash or something like that? How will that work?
Kris: It’s similar to NiceHash as a platform where you rent out your hashing power, only NiceHash doesn’t have the interactive elements to it.
Right – that makes sense. It does make me wonder how much a user can expect to earn, then.
Kris: Well, when you go to a cloud mining platform and you pay to rent some hashing power to make some money, it will be the same in Hash Rush. You will buy in-game miners that are equal to 100kh/sec of mining power. You can calculate how much you will make at whatever price the cryptocurrencies have at the time.
When I started mining, I didn’t really earn that much until after a few months when Ether really started hitting $50 for one, and then upwards. The same goes for mining: people need to understand that it’s a little bit of investment into the long run.
The Space Pirates - I've got a feeling they're going to be a popular faction.
So each mining character in the game equates to 100kh/sec of real-world mining power?
Kris: Yes, exactly.
OK cool. Who then is the target here – is it gamers, is it established miners… who in your mind is Hash Rush going to appeal to?
Kris: I think that at first we’ll be appealing to gamers who have heard of cryptocurrencies but haven’t really taken any steps to get into it. Hash Rush brings this to the table, allowing them to mine currencies and understand how this is happening.
They will be able to get Ethereum and Ethereum Classic to your wallet, and then opens up a whole new world you can explore after that. That’s our main goal – reaching gamers who have not yet really gotten involved in cryptocurrencies yet.
Will you be creating wallets for the different currencies within the browser interface so that newcomers don’t have to set up separate wallets for themselves?
Kris: Well, we’ve been giving this a lot of thought and are not certain yet. Having an in-game wallet will be much easier than sending the user to MyEtherWallet and having them go through all the steps themselves, but then of course there’s always the security concerns. We will have to see how that turns out, but we’re thinking about it.
The Highborn elves - adding a fantasy flair to the sci-fi vibe.
So as a gamer, what can I enjoy as a benefit of participating in the ICO?
Kris: First, you will get a bonus on payouts – a 25% bonus if you act fast. Second, you will get unique tradeable content such as a unique mining card that is going to be equal to 2MH/sec mining power. You will also get unique skins and titles in the game too.
People who participate in the presale and ICO can choose between the three factions we start with: Ernacks, Highborn Elves and Space Pirates. You can join the game early, and because we’re expecting a really high turnout early, we understand that every colony needs to be backed by real hashing power, so there’s a chance that people will have to queue up for the game. Thus, people who join the presale and ICO first will get to play the game first.
When will the game first be playable?
Maris: We’re finishing up the MVP now, and we’re expecting the MVP with Ernacks to be finished on the 1st of October. The two other factions will be finished in December right before Christmas. Pre-ICO participants will have the chance to try out the beta version and tell us their thoughts on it. That’s going to be even earlier – we hope to have it ready in the middle of September.
OK, so let’s say I am a newcomer and I am interested and I want to get involved in the ICO. Let’s say I send you my Ether… what then? I’ve shipped off my money to you – how do I get my tokens?
Kris: If you participate with Ethereum, you send your ETH to our smart contract which will automatically, when it receives the funds, will generate the Rush Coins and send them to your wallet. So you will get them right around the time we receive the money – it will happen automatically.
If you choose to participate with Ethereum Classic or Bitcoin, then when you go to our ICO page you will accept the terms and conditions and input your email address. We’ll then contact you about the Ethereum address we’ll send the Rush Coins to.
The Ernacks will be the first playable faction.
So are you going to create an Ethereum address, or will people have to have created one for themselves?
Kris: Everybody who participates and wants to hold Rush Coins should have an Ethereum address.
Which wallet would you recommend is the easiest for setting up and getting that address?
Kris: I would use an online wallet called MyEtherWallet. It’s the best out there. It’s really secure and it’s very easy – you just go to the page, enter a password and you get your Ethereum wallet file. After that you can easily go to the same web page and open it up with the same passwords, and you then have a wallet.
You also don’t have to download the whole blockchain, so that’s the easiest way. I don’t use any other wallets – I don’t trust mobile phone wallets and stuff like that. MyEtherWallet isn’t really an online wallet. They have created a great way to help people create wallets and easily see your tokens too.
Am I correct that at this point, anyone who wants to participate must send 50 ETH, 5 BTC, 1000 ETC or 1000QTUM at a minimum - but after September 13th, people can get in for as little as 0.1 ETH? Kris: Yes, that is right. We are having a pre-sale now. The funds will be send back if you send less then that
OK, well thanks very much – I’m definitely keen to discuss the gameplay side more once the pre-ICO has launched. Good luck with that, guys!
Kris: Thanks, it was nice talking to you!
Maris: Let’s keep in touch.
You can learn more about Hash Rush on the official site, as well as check out their Steemit presence by following @nume. I'll soon be posting a follow-up interview that goes into more details into the the gameplay itself. Thanks for reading!
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