Parisian fashion house Maison Margiela has launched a gamified Web3 coin experience based on the famous numbering system of its physical collections. Although it doesn’t seem to have an official name (other than Numbers, as is listed on OpenSea), ‘blockchain bingo’ seems a particularly apt description.
There are 24 digits linked to tokens, numbered from 0 to 23, up for grabs. Over the course of the coming weeks, multiplayer game participants will compete against each other coin them all to move on to the next stage of the experience. According to the brand, the activation will “lay the foundation for Maison Margiela’s future Web3 community.”
The rarity ranges from 15,000 zeros to 742 digits 23: the higher the number, the greater the rarity of the token. The number currently in play is indicated by a circle and fully struck numbers are marked in black. The game ends when all 24 numbers have been hit by the first 100 users “or at the sole discretion of the Maison.”
All ERC-1155 tokens, minted on the Polygon network, are soul-bound (as in, non-transferable) and each wallet can only mint one of each number. Minting is free (there is no gas fee) and each transaction is allocated the same amount of gas to each user.
All of the above considerations are intended to give players an equal chance at success, rewarding perseverance and strategic thinking. However, dedicated first movers will have an advantage over the competition.
Margiela’s gamified coin concept is strategic in itself. Although the NFT market has been experiencing a slowdown lately, gaming continues to grow exponentially. According to IPSOS, its current value is $385 billion and will exceed $522 billion by 2027.
For the uninitiated, the clothing label of every physical garment from Maison Margiela features the numbers 0 through 23, one of which is circled. Each number designates one of 23 different collections, with the circled number corresponding to the collection to which the item belongs.
In fact, the house’s legacy has many parallels with Web3’s decentralized ideology. In the early years, eponymous founder Martin Margiela was rarely seen in public, with statements made by the entire design team.
Margiela was acquired in 2002 by OTB Group, founder of the Aura Consortium alongside LVMH, Prada Group, Mercedes-Benz and Cartier (part of the Richemont Group).
Earlier this year, Margiela introduced on-chain certificates of authenticity and traceability, accessible via Near Field Communication (NFC) chips embedded in its signature Tabi shoes.
