Whitepaper
VS Protocol
A skill-based multichain shooter with player-owned equipment.
Abstract
VS Protocol is a shooter built in Unreal Engine 5 in which equipment recovered during play belongs to the player who recovered it. Components found in-game may be assembled into unique droids and weapons, minted as non-fungible tokens on the blockchain of the world they came from, and traded on any marketplace on that chain. The protocol issues no native token. The game is in alpha. It operates on existing chains, currently the XRP Ledger, Solana and Avalanche, and derives revenue from a share of competition entry fees, a minting fee, royalties on secondary sales, cosmetic items and sponsorships. No item that affects gameplay is sold by the protocol. Competitive outcomes are determined by player skill and recorded on public leaderboards that rank players, teams and chains.
Contents
Introduction
Blockchain games have generally taken one of two forms. The first attaches a native token to a game and ties the perceived health of the game to the price of that token. The second sells items that confer an advantage in play, so that spending substitutes for skill. Neither form has produced a competitive shooter with a durable player base.
VS Protocol takes a third position. The game is a shooter first, played in first or third person, in which aim, movement and decision-making decide outcomes. The blockchain layer performs two functions only: it records ownership of equipment a player has recovered, and it settles prizes for competitions in the currency of the chain community that funded them. The protocol does not issue a token and does not sell power.
VS Protocol is one game containing several connected modes rather than a single mode. A roguelike dungeon crawler, an extraction mode, a battle royale named Collapse, and a guild mode share one player identity, one droid, one set of components and one economy. Equipment recovered in one mode is carried into the others. A guild's standing in one mode affects its position in the rest. The modes are described in outline here and specified in the build log as each one ships.
This document describes the ownership model, the economic model, the current state of the build, the Midway, and the protocol's commitments to players.
Design principles
2.1Fun first. A mode that is not enjoyable without its economy is not shipped. The economy rewards play; it does not replace it.
2.2Skill decides. No purchasable item alters a player's combat effectiveness. Every item that affects play was recovered in-game by a player before it existed anywhere else.
2.3Ownership is real. Recovered equipment may be minted as a non-fungible token and traded on any marketplace on the relevant chain. The protocol operates no mandatory marketplace.
2.4No native token. The protocol uses the currencies players already hold. Prizes, fees and royalties settle in the currency of the relevant chain.
2.5Chains are worlds. Each participating blockchain is represented by its own world, with its own competitions and its own community. Chains compete against one another on a shared leaderboard.
2.6Runs on the hardware people have. The game is optimised for previous-generation hardware so that the largest possible number of players can run it well.
2.7Fees are a percentage. The protocol takes a percentage of competition entry fees. The percentage is set per competition.
The ownership model
3.1Recovery. During play, players recover components. Each component carries three properties fixed at the moment of recovery: a manufacturer, a rarity tier, and a technology tree.
3.2Manufacturers. Manufacturers are in-world makers of components. A manufacturer defines how its components look, how they behave, and which technology tree they unlock. A manufacturer may build for one chain or for several. Manufacturer names are published when the component system enters play.
3.3Assembly. Components are assembled into droid segments, and segments into a complete droid. Weapons are assembled from components in the same way. Assembly, identification of unknown components, adaptation of a component to a different chassis, and technology tree progression are paid for with ore, an in-game resource recovered during play. Ore does not convert to any currency. The cost in ore rises with rarity.
3.4Rarity is immutable. No expenditure of ore or currency raises a component's rarity. Rarity is determined by recovery and by nothing else.
3.5Minting. An assembled segment, droid or weapon may be minted as a non-fungible token on the chain of the world in which its components were recovered. Minting is optional and carries a fixed fee. An unminted item functions identically in play.
3.6Trading. A minted item may be sold or transferred on any marketplace operating on the chain on which it was minted. An item minted on one chain cannot be listed on another. The protocol receives a royalty on secondary sales where the chain's token standard permits enforcement. The in-game workshop displays a player's holdings and links to external markets; it does not intermediate trades.
3.7Cosmetics. Colours, decals, skins and team stands are the only items sold directly by the protocol. Cosmetics confer no advantage in play.
The economic model
4.1Revenue. The protocol's current revenue streams are a percentage of competition entry fees, a fixed fee on each minting, a royalty on each secondary sale of a minted item, the sale of cosmetic items, and sponsorships. Further streams may be added and will be disclosed in later versions of this document.
4.2Competitions. A competition may be free to enter or may charge an entry fee. Its prize, its duration and its rules are published before entry opens.
4.3Crystals. Crystals are an in-game item that converts to the currency of the world in which they were recovered. They appear in certain modes and not in others, and their supply is balanced against the player economy of the mode in which they appear. Crystals are the only in-game item that converts to currency.
4.4Skill earns. In competitive modes such as Collapse, prizes go to the players who win. There is no participation reward. A player who wants to earn must be good enough to do so.
4.5No promise of return. The protocol makes no representation that any player will profit. A player owns what they recover; the market determines what it is worth.
4.6Absence of a token. Because there is no native token, there is no emission schedule, no vesting, no treasury of protocol tokens, and no mechanism by which the protocol's operators benefit from token price. Revenue is the only source of operator income.
Current state
5.1Hackathon build. In September 2025 the founders entered the Solana Cypherpunk Hackathon, organised by Colosseum, with an unbuilt concept and a 23-day window. The submitted build supported live multiplayer combat, mining of crystal deposits and extraction of mined value, and was played by 211 participants. It placed third in the South African regional bounty.
5.2Engine and backend. A procedural dungeon generator is running in Unreal Engine 5.8, optimised using previous-generation rendering methods so that it performs on older hardware. The leaderboard and competition backend is live. Players authenticate through a wallet, currently Xaman, or through Discord, X or email. Further wallets are integrated as each chain is added. Competition eligibility is evaluated as a query against the relevant ledger, so that adding a chain is a configuration change rather than a new system.
5.3Workshop. The workshop is under construction. In it, players assemble components into droid segments, segments into a droid, and components into weapons.
5.4Epic Fury and the first competition. The first collection associated with the protocol, Epic Fury, comprises 600 tokens on the XRP Ledger issued in collaboration with xSPECTAR. Holders funded the current phase of production. The protocol's first shooting competition, open to Epic Fury Holders for the prize, is planned for September 2026.
5.5The Range. The first playable release is a timed marksmanship course with a public leaderboard. It is free to play, requires no wallet to participate, and requires a wallet only to claim a prize. Competitions on the Range reward one chain community at a time, beginning with the XRP Ledger and continuing to the Solana and Avalanche communities. Each competition is announced with its prize, duration and rules at least 48 hours before entry opens.
The Midway
6.1Definition. The Midway is the hub through which players move between modes, and the venue in which teams and chains are ranked against one another.
6.2Teams. A team is either a guild or a project. A guild's members are verified by membership of its Discord server. A project's members are verified by holding its non-fungible token or, where a project has no NFT, its token. Verified members carry the team's tag on every leaderboard entry.
6.3Scoring. Every scored run counts three times: for the player, for the player's team, and for the player's chain. The Midway leaderboard therefore ranks players, teams and chains simultaneously.
6.4Stands. Projects and guilds may apply for a stand in the Midway. A stand carries the team's logo and colours and gives players in-game access to its website.
6.5Onboarding. Participation is free. Teams onboard through a dedicated website by supplying a Discord server identifier or a token contract address, and a logo. The protocol builds the remainder.
6.6First Midway. The first Midway is planned to run concurrently with Colosseum's Crypto World's Fair hackathon, with the XRP Ledger, Solana and Avalanche communities present. The protocol intends to approach Colosseum about carrying the hackathon's broadcast inside the game.
6.7Purpose. The Midway is the mechanism by which a chain community demonstrates the case for its own world. Chains that bring their communities receive their own world in time.
Roadmap
The protocol publishes no dates beyond those already met. Items are listed in order of intended delivery.
- Range competitions for each chain community, beginning with the XRP Ledger.
- The Midway, concurrent with the Crypto World's Fair hackathon.
- Roguelike dungeon crawler mode tests.
- Component system.
- Droid and weapon workshop.
- First chain world.
- Collapse.
- Extraction.
- Guild mode.
Not on the roadmap: a native token, and any date for items not yet in development.
Fair play
8.1Anti-cheat. The protocol has selected Cyberlete as its anti-cheat provider. Cyberlete detects cheating by analysing player behaviour rather than by scanning for known software. Integration has not yet begun. It will be tested across the competitions the protocol hosts so that it is proven under real conditions before modes carrying larger prizes go live.
8.2Enforcement. Bans apply to the account, not the device. A new installation does not reset a ban.
8.3Appeals. A disputed result's prize is held, not distributed, until a human reviewer has ruled. A reversed ban is refunded in full.
8.4Transparency. Detection, ban and appeal figures are published once anti-cheat is live.
Early supporters
9.1Epic Fury Holders. Holders of Epic Fury tokens receive access to the protocol's first competition and carry in-game cosmetic items identifying them as founding participants. Holder status confers access and cosmetics only. It confers no advantage in play. The same rule applies to every collection associated with the protocol.
9.2Early players. Limited edition skins are distributed to players who have taken part since 2025.
Team
VS Protocol was founded by Paul Prinsloo and Albert Barry, who co-lead game direction. Prinsloo leads economy, community and partnerships. Barry leads engineering, with more than ten years of shipped work in Unreal Engine. The project began on 1 April 2025.
Commitments
The protocol commits to the following. Any change to a commitment will be recorded in the version history of this document, and superseded versions will remain available.
- No native token will be issued.
- No item affecting gameplay will be sold by the protocol.
- Rarity is fixed at recovery and cannot be purchased.
- Every competition's prize, duration and rules are published before entry opens.
- Minted items may be traded on any marketplace on the chain of minting.
- Anti-cheat detection, ban and appeal figures are published once anti-cheat is live.
- Every appeal is reviewed by a person.
Version history
| Version | Date | Changes |
|---|---|---|
| 1.0 | September 2026 | Initial publication. |
This document describes software under development. It is not an offer of any financial instrument and contains no representation of financial return.