On Sunday, a very strange thing happened in the crypto world. In fact, the SAGE Labs game by the Star Atlas team, based on Solana, single-handedly surpassed the entire activity of the entire Polygon network.
Specifically, SAGE Labs activity accounted for 15% of all activity on Solana.
Summary
Solana and Polygon: news from the crypto world
Solana and Polygon are two distinct networks.
The former is a first-layer independent blockchain with its own native cryptocurrency (SOL).
Polygon, on the other hand, is a second layer of Ethereum, i.e. a service that provides additional functionality to Ethereum’s first-layer network, in particular faster and cheaper transactions.Â
In theory, the two networks should not be compared, but in this specific case the comparison serves to give an order of magnitude to the boom of SAGE Labs.
According to polygonscan.com, around 2 million transactions were recorded on Polygon’s blockchain on Sunday.Â
In contrast, more than 360 million transactions were recorded on Solana’s blockchain on the same day, according to data from solscan.
SAGE Labs’ boom
In an amazing sequence of events, the browser-based game alone recorded over 2.29 million transactions on Sunday 8 October 2023.
SAGE Labs alone managed to outperform the entire Polygon network in a single day. But then things stabilised.
Since its launch about a month ago, SAGE Labs has already recorded over 16 million transactions, not least because it is a completely on-chain game. In fact, it requires its players to authenticate almost every in-game action with their Solana wallet, generating a small fee for each verification.
Although the number of active players per hour is not large (less than 1,000), they generate an average of about 150 transactions per hour each, which adds up to millions over the course of a day.
On 8 October, the total of 1,442 players generated 2,293,210 transactions, compared to 2,037,330 for the entire Polygon network, or an average of 1,590 transactions per player.
Transactions generated by SAGE Labs on 8 October also accounted for approximately 15 percent of all transactions recorded on the Solana blockchain.
SAGE Labs offers players a simulation of managing a 2D space, with simulated resource management and data analysis.
Star Atlas
The game was developed by Star Atlas, which is opening up its toolkit to developers.
In fact, the creator of Star Atlas, ATMTA, is granting developers access to its toolkit on the Solana blockchain, and this initiative started with the SAGE Labs game. The toolkit provides developers with a comprehensive hub of links, documentation and free access to a wealth of resources, Unreal Engine tools, APIs and more.
According to a Star Atlas representative, SAGE Labs is a unique, very special game because it works entirely on chain. It also requires players to have a Solana-compatible wallet and SOL or ATLAS tokens to fully participate in the game.
However, while SAGE Labs is enjoying success, Star Atlas faced financial difficulties earlier this year and laid off up to 73 per cent of its staff in July. According to company CEO Michael Wagner, the layoffs were necessary to adapt to market dynamics and ensure the future of Star Atlas is sustainable.
