Gamium Review 2024: Overview, Features, & Competitors

Gamium is an interesting new take on SocialFi – the crossover between social media platforms and decentralized finance. Trading “shares” in the social influence of creators is becoming increasingly popular. Gamium facilitates this, but may be the first platform to integrate it into a metaverse.

In this Gamium review, I’ll go over everything you need to know about the Gamium platform, how it works, its competitors, and more. I’ll also cover my first-hand experience using it to launch an “MST” for Milk Road – pretty fun stuff.

Let’s get right into it:

Gamium Overview

What Is Gamium?

Gamium is the lovechild of social media, web3 and the metaverse, enabling crypto users to invest in X (formerly Twitter) creator profiles.

Anyone can launch a social token on behalf of any other X creator – a type of token Gamium refers to as “MSTs”.

What exactly MST stands for isn’t specified anywhere on their website or social media, however their LinkedIn page shows that it’s an acronym for Metaverse Social Token. These tokens can then be traded and used for engagement with the creator/influencer themselves.

Gamium also boasts a former partnership with Meta in 2023, as part of its Metaverse Activation Programme. This was an accelerator for selected metaverse and web3 projects.

The current iteration of Gamium is Version 2 of the platform, in invite-only beta at the time this was written. 

How Does Gamium Work?

Gamium allows anyone with an X account and BNB address to launch an MST. This can be on behalf of any existing X user’s profile, including their own.

This automatically launches a token – known as an “MST” – associated with the designated X account. The MST represents “shares” in that account’s social influence.

Just under one-tenth of the MST’s total supply is allocated to the X account owner by default. A much smaller fraction of the supply is allocated to the token creator’s address. The remaining supply is used for public liquidity, added to the Uniswap V3 pool so anyone can trade it on a fair launch model. 

The features or benefits that each MST has depends entirely upon the X account owner themselves. Typically, this includes exclusive access and benefits, and even 3D immersive experiences in the metaverse.

Key Features

• Launch MSTs: Gamium lets anybody launch an MST, on behalf of any creator profile on X. This applies even if the user hasn’t signed up to Gamium.
• Build an Economy: Users can create an economy around their social influence and MST. This includes revenue sharing with token holders and offering exclusive access to content.
• Metaverse Integration: Gamium is integrated with its own 3D metaverse, providing a virtual environment for its users to participate in. This extends MSTs from plain token markets to an interactive experience.
• Exclusive Access and Benefits: Gamium MST holders enjoy benefits like exclusive access to VIP rooms, special viewing modes, and real yield earnings from the tokens they hold.

Gamium Review: A First-Hand Experience

Creating an MST

Minting a new MST is a fairly easy process. It’s streamlined nicely through an intuitive and Gamium onboarding UI, which is a piece of cake to follow.

You’ll begin by connecting your web3 wallet (funded with BNB on the Binance Smart Chain) to the Gamium app. Currently, you’ll also need to enter a referral code in order to get access to the invite-only beta (use the code w9vEpKP7 to join). 

Link your X account, and then you’re ready to start minting!

Click the “Launch your MST” button to launch an MST for your own X account. Alternatively, you can use the search bar to find another X creator that you’d like to launch an MST for. 

The first MST I minted was for the Milk Road’s X account. It’s a bit more costly to mint an MST for another account instead of your own – 0.09 BNB. This turned out to be around $60 USD for me, including gas fees at the time.

This worked out nice and quickly. From zero to MST, in just one or two short minutes. 

Since this wasn’t my personal X account, I was automatically allocated 0.25% of the MST’s supply. 9.75% is allocated to the Milk Road account if my bosses want to sign up and claim it – they better give me a piece if it takes off.

Buying and Selling MSTs

As you may have guessed, launching an MST isn’t the only thing you can do on the Gamium platform. The most popular thing on similar platforms has by and large been trading social influence, or as Gamium likes to call it, “swapping people on-chain.” 

A little dystopian-sounding? Yup. But also kinda fun? Heck yeah.

Gamium users can easily buy and sell stakes in existing MSTs, using the built-in Uniswap V3 interface. Each MST has 90% of its liquidity used to seed a Uniswap pool on Binance Smart Chain, which serves as liquidity for interested traders. 

You can use this interface within the Gamium app to easily swap between BNB and MSTs of your choice.

The app also includes a handy price chart, which tracks the market in real-time dollar value.

Unfortunately, there’s nothing that tells you the market cap of an MST while you’re trading it. On the other hand, it’s easy enough to calculate, since all of them have a 1 million token supply. It would be nice to have that reference, however.

The Metaverse

Perhaps the coolest part of reviewing Gamium was checking out the integration of the MSTs into an entire 3D metaverse of its own. 

Each MST is accompanied by an avatar and its own virtual house, where users can have virtual meetings. You can run around the metaverse like a video game, complete with actions like jumping and dance moves. It’s also chat-enabled (text only, I believe), letting you communicate easily with other avatars. 

Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like you can customize your avatar very much just yet, but it seems like that capability will be added in the future. Venturing outside your house and around the map isn’t yet available either, however I can imagine it will be pretty fun once (if) this is launched.

There’s a pretty cool token-gated feature for this metaverse too, which requires some $GMM holdings to check out. I’m not quite sure what these involve, but it does look interesting.

Gamium MST Pricing

The price of launching an MST varies, depending on whether it’s for your own profile or not. It’s also much more expensive if it’s a “top” unclaimed profile. This somewhat makes sense, since you get 0.25% of the MST’s supply for launching a token. 

On the other hand, I’m not sure where this money goes. A portion is likely costs associated with setting up a Uniswap liquidity pool, but that wouldn’t explain the extra fees paid when setting up an MST for another user. Gas fees are on top, so it’s not transaction costs.

Launching your own X profile’s MST costs 0.017 BNB, while launching an MST for an unclaimed profile is 0.09 BNB. I didn’t come across any pricing above this, but the white paper estimates the price to mint an MST for a “top unclaimed profile” to cost $500.

Gamium Fees

Buying an MST has no fees except for gas and Uniswap fees. Selling, on the other hand, carries a small cost of 1% on each transaction. This fee is burnt from the MST’s total supply.

Token-Gated Features

It’s also worth pointing out that there are token-gated features on the platform – some of which relate to MSTs, some relating to the $GMM governance token.

For individual MSTs, users that hold at least 0.05% of the MST’s supply gain access to VIP features. These include a VIP badge, VIP benefits, and a viewer mode.

Users that hold at least 0.25% of the MST’s supply get “Hero” benefits, including a hero badge, VIP benefits and real yield from trading activity on that MST.

Certain metaverse features and token-locked areas require you to hold a minimum amount of $GMM for access.

$GMM Governance Token

The platform’s native $GMM token was launched in early 2022 via DAOMaker (not to be confused with MakerDAO). $GMM holders get access to token-gated experiences and assets, as well as staking benefits.

Despite running an airdrop for Gamium users, the wider project already has an existing governance token, $GMM. At the time of writing, 92% of $GMM is already circulating. Around 45.7 million out of 46.6 million tokens.

The Gamium team is clearly a fan of deflationary tokenomics, working this into both $GMM and their MST models. The project performs quarterly $GMM buy-backs using income from Uniswap liquidity provider fees. There are also further token burns using penalties for early unstaking.

It also appears to be likely that some (if not all) of the remaining $GMM will be airdropped to active users of the platform via a points program. This will also be partially distributed to friend.tech users, in a bid to get them to migrate to Gamium.

Who Is Gamium For?

Gamium caters to a bunch of different needs and wants in the web3 social space. 

Whether it’s providing value to your followers, getting value as a follower of someone else, or just speculation on social influence – Gamium seems to have thought of it all.

This includes anyone who wants to:

Launch an MST

Any Gamium user can launch an MST for themselves, or any X user that doesn’t yet have a Gamium MST. 

As touched on above, there’s a clear incentive to create an MST: You get 0.25% of the supply, at the lowest possible price. If you mint an MST for an X creator and that MST gains traction, you stand to gain plenty of upside. 

Similarly, 9.75% of the supply is automatically allocated to the X creator (i.e. the influencer) themselves. This creates an incentive for them to join Gamium too – it’s essentially free money if their MST gets any momentum.

Invest in social influence

You don’t have to launch MSTs to use Gamium. If you’re not interested in the creators themselves, you can simply speculate on their MST prices, if you wish. 

You can “invest” in any X creator with an MST already minted. In a nutshell, tokenized people.

Get special access to a creator

Finally, there’s the utility of MSTs. What gives MSTs their value? The access and interaction with the creators themselves. 

For those creators that become truly active on Gamium, their MST holders stand to gain real benefits. Whether it’s the creator’s insight and tips, or just mere interaction with a web3 celebrity, the advantages of MSTs are in the hands of the person they’re attached to.

Once again, this isn’t just via regular old chat groups or channels – you get to hang out in avatar form in an entire purpose-built metaverse.

Gamium Alternatives

Gamium Vs. friend.tech

Gamium is based on the Binance Smart Chain, while friend.tech stays within the Ethereum ecosystem, on Coinbase’s Layer 2 network, Base.

Both platforms let users launch tokens that represent “shares” in X creators. The difference is, friend.tech users can only mint tokens for their own profile, whereas Gamium users can mint tokens for any X creator (even without their permission).

Buying friend.tech tokens gives the holder access to private group chats, run by the creator themselves. Gamium token holders get similar benefits, but this is augmented further with metaverse perks.

Fees collected from token transactions on friend.tech are distributed to the creator only, whereas Gamium fees are distributed to token holders (if they own 0.25% or more of the supply).

Gamium Vs. The Arena

The Arena is based on Avalanche, primarily using AVAX as its in-app currency. It doesn’t yet have web3 wallet compatibility, instead requiring users to deposit tokens into the platform for use.

Whereas Gamium is based on the influence that users have on X, The Arena is almost entirely its own social network – merely using X as an onboarding tool. This simply allows users to link their account and import their username, profile picture and bio. 

This somewhat levels the playing field, as users need to create fresh content on The Arena.

The Arena’s version of SMTs is “Tickets”, just another name for shares in a user. These are not minted like SMTs, but rather already exist for all users and are purchasable by visiting their profile. 

Similar to both Gamium, Tickets allow exclusive access for speaking more directly to creators.

Gamium Founders

Gamium was founded in 2021 by Spanish twin brothers, Alberto Rosas Garcia and Alejandro Rosas Garcia. 

Both of the brothers have Masters degrees in Mathematics from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia. 

Alberto had a brief background as a blockchain developer, going on to found FreePlaton, a non-profit for promoting scientific literacy and analytical thinking via social media. Alejandro worked as a data scientist at Oracle for one year, before both brothers reunited to create Gamium Ltd. 

The Gamium SocialFi platform and metaverse above is just a slice of Gamium Ltd. The company also launched Didit, a platform designed to simplify online identity and payments. 

It provides individuals with a digital identity to securely share data and make payments, as well as enable businesses to streamline identity checks and payment systems.

How Much Money They’ve Raised

Gamium has raised a total of $2.6 million in funding, across two seed rounds. 

The first of these was an initial offering of its $GMM token via DAO Maker, the popular launchpad platform. 

Gamium also received investment from Telefónica, one of the largest telephone operators and mobile network providers in the world. This contribution was made through its open innovation initiative, Wayra. 

It’s unclear how much each funding round contributed to the total amount raised.

Final Thoughts On Gamium

Overall, Gamium is an intriguing new take on the web3 social sector, combining social tokens with an entire Metaverse world. 

Onboarding is easy, simply requiring a web3 wallet with BNB and an X account. Launching an MST is just as simple, needing nothing more than a few clicks and a reasonable fee. By weaving an immersive element into its MSTs, Gamium provides an experience that goes beyond the simple trading of social tokens. Users can buy into their favorite creators, as well as meet with them and share insights in a 3D world.

Gamium also does a clever job at incentivizing users to create MSTs for themselves and others – giving itself the momentum it may need to succeed. 

Notice that your favorite X creator doesn’t yet have a Gamium MST? Simply mint one for them, and get an automatic stake. Are you an X influencer yourself? Mint one for yourself and get a 10% stake, or claim your existing stake if someone already minted one for you.

Competition in the social token space is heating up, however, with some major players in the space. Will Gamium’s metaverse and token incentives be enough to capture a solid market share? Or will users flock to the highest-volume SocialFi trading platform, regardless of fun extra features?

Frequently Asked Questions