Wallet / Token Recovery

This is a proposal for an official wallet and token recovery policy. This will not be implemented in game unless the community approves it through a governance vote.

Preamble

Token recovery is a critical and delicate topic. Blockchain gives players real ownership, free trade, cross-game utility and provable scarcity — but permanent loss through on-chain mistakes or losing a private key is an intrinsic part of the technology. The team is considering techniques which are possible to reduce this loss in certain circumstances, as long as it does not negatively affect other engaged players.

This proposal defines how limited recovery can be done in specific cases of token or wallet loss.

Recoverable

• Individual NFT tokens — The lost token is frozen on-chain, its metadata is turned to dust, and a new token is minted to the player's new wallet. No duplicate ever enters circulation.

• Infinite-supply account upgrades — New supply is minted directly to the player's new wallet.

NOT Recoverable

• Limited-supply / seasonal items — Re-minting would violate scarcity guarantees.

• Multiverse items from other collections — The team cannot freeze or re-mint assets it did not create.

• Sold, stolen, or transferred tokens — Recovery is only possible when a token is fully and permanently lost. If it was moved to another active wallet, recovery would create duplicate supply and will not be performed.

Out of Scope

• Virtual items lost due to death — Items lost through in-game death are out of scope for this proposal and will not be recovered, even if game issues such as server lag contributed to the death.

Enforcement Options

The community will vote on one of the following options:

Option 1 — No Recovery

All losses are the player's responsibility. No recovery is ever performed.

Option 2 — Recovery for Bugs Only

Recovery will only be performed in cases where the loss can be proven to have been caused by a bug in the game. Recovery will not be performed for player human error. The development team is responsible for investigating and determining whether a bug was the cause based on evidence provided by the player.

Option 3 — Recovery for Human Error

Recovery under this option is allowed for human error, including on-chain mistakes and lost private keys. To prevent abuse and benefit the broader community, the player requesting the recovery must make a deposit to the community wallet.

Recovery Type	Deposit
Single Token	500 ENJ
Full Wallet	2000 ENJ

The community wallet benefits the whole community by funding activities such as weekly reward pools and governance rewards.

FAQ

Does Option 3 break blockchain guarantees?

This is somewhat up to the interpretation of the user and how they view blockchain's role in the game. At its core, blockchain is the security layer which enables item ownership, secure trade and cross game interactions. However, the game is the source of authority that determines the utility of the item including its stats and use cases. This means there is an unavoidable trust relationship between players and the game and its developers. The players trust the dev team to operate in a trustworthy way that maintains the integrity and value of tokens.

Players in favor of option 3 generally believe it is beneficial for the community to exercise the authority of the game to minimize loss for players when accidents are made. Players against option 3 believe it reduces the value proposition of on-chain ownership which will reduce trust with players and cause them to leave the game.

For option 2, what constitutes a bug?

Bugs are defined as situations in which the dev team is able to prove that a system error occurred through using logging, backups and on chain data. If it cannot be proven, then the assumption is that human error is the root cause and a recovery will not be made. As part of this option, we will make a concerted effort to enhance our logging around on-chain activities to allow for the proofs to be done accurately.

What is the rational for not doing recoveries?

The community of Etherscape players are here because they love what blockchain brings to the gaming space. Etherscape is committed to realizing the potential of what blockchain has to offer for building game communities and economies. At its core, blockchain is a security layer that enables ownership. When the development team uses capabilities such as freezing tokens or changing token metadata it is not aligned with the immutability of the blockchain which backs ownership. Some players believe that maintaining that immutability of ownership is the most important pillar and thus best effort attempts at correcting human mistakes should not be made.

Will wallet recoveries take a lot of time from the dev team?

No. We will automate this process so that it can be kicked off with limited amount of human effort. The biggest effort will be the bug investigation which is required as part of option 2.

What is Sam's Perspective?

As the lead developer of Etherscape I do not vote on any governance proposals (even though all my Imperial Sovereigns are acquired fairly thorough purchases from other players).

My personal preference is for option 3, to enable best effort recoveries for all players with an ENJ penalty that benefits the whole community. While I understand the desire for a purist approach to blockchain immutability, I believe the reality is that there is an unavoidable trust relationship with the development team. The blockchain provides the security layer and we provide the authority of token utility. I think we should embrace that relationship with clearly articulate policies and disciplines which are voted on by the community and enable the developers to act on behalf of the players with integrity.

What is the most important objective for the Etherscape game and community at this point of time? The answer is player growth. As a community, we should be making decisions and building features that will attract new players. Blockchain offers a set of amazing capabilities that I truly believe improve the way that games can be built. However, the reality is that blockchain also comes with rough edges and learning curves which cause many players to avoid it. Where possible, we should use the tools we have to make engaging with Etherscape as easy and low stress as possible. Utilizing features like managed wallets are part of that process. However, providing services like limited wallet recovery can be the difference between losing a player or creating a grateful and dedicated fan.