This week's topic of conversation for the competition hosted by @swolesome is the pros and cons of enjin melting fees. I can see both sides of this argument, but also have my opinion on the matter as well.

As of right now, many devs are putting high melting fees on their items. This makes sense because if the item no longer exists, they can get some of that ENJ back in order to mint more new items, right? To an extent, I can see that. However, lower fees will guide members of that specific game to realize how much confidence the devs have in their product, and that is HUGE.

Everybody gets a weapon or item that maybe doesn't do what they want, and sometimes they can be hard to trade or sell. We all understand that. However, what's new in this world is our wonderful ENJ coin. We can melt down our unwanted items and get some currency for it! How great is that? It's slightly less great when you factor in melting fees. If I have an item that's backed for 500 ENJ, but it has a 50% melting fee, that means the dev will get 250, which is cool for them, but now I also only get 250. It makes melting feel a bit unwarranted.

So now we get to the argument of "true ownership" in regards to the currency. Do I truly own the item if in order for me to get what it's worth, I have to give up half of it? I don't know if I can bring myself to label it as "true ownership" if melting fees are so high. I understand and appreciate the hard work of devs, but if they're putting out a good game, the melting aspect should absolutely be a non-issue for them, and people will keep going back to them for more assets. This is my, personal, big point on the matter, and what I see as the largest con to melting fees.

If we turn this decentralized multiverse into a heavily melt-fee regulated society, it feels like things aren't really as much in the hands of players as what is advertised by the platform. I respect the option to allow these fees, but I personally believe any truly good game that is going to succeed in the multiverse won't need such high melting fees. I can understand a low fee like 2-5%, since you're getting rid of the dev's work, you should get a small fee tacked on for that in my opinion. Past a small fee due to melting away an item, I think high fees are unwarranted.

OPINION UPDATE/ADDITION: After some more conversation with members of the community, I'd like to make sure and add that I'm not against devs getting their share in melting fees for items that are given during any kind of air drop or giveaway competition. I think they are completely in the right to put a high melting fee on free items. If an item is a giveaway, melting it is lame, so it's ok that the devs only want to give you 50% of the item value if you're trying to farm value out of a free item. So, there's no set percentage that I see fitting this all perfectly, but I personally feel low melt fee values on loot box type items and high values on giveaway items should end up being the norm.

I hope this is something a lot of you also feel, and be sure to follow or keep in touch if you want to see any future write ups of mine!

~ Voltriph ~

Voltriph out