[DAO:61bde0c] Gamified captcha services: secure & easy for builders, funny & smooth for users

Governance
1

by 0x598f8af1565003ae7456dac280a18ee826df7a2c (pablo)

Should the following $18,733 grant in the Platform category be approved?

Abstract

  • Service to add security and fun
  • Easy to integrate into scenes.
  • Presentation on the Decentraland Summit (slides 7 to 10): SDK - Google Slides
  • We had some captcha services but those weren’t fun
  • If we add a normal captcha to the game player his experience is frustrated
  • On many years of Decentraland projects, with millions of dollars spent, it’s still easy to bypass the experiences and claim the rewards on most of them
  • Will provide transparency with hours work log reports

Grant size

18,733 USD in MANA

Project duration

3 months

Beneficiary address

0x6e6322d2820FC3C14121140718233b5f34095e00

Email address

estornut@gmail.com

Description

Problem

We want to solve a problem that has been present since the launch of Decentraland and still today is present.
Sometimes this kind of effort is not directly visible to normal users, who see only the surface of an experience. Still, we should take care of the new problems an open metaverse brings when delivering items with limited supply.
You can see how I cared about this problem and how it worked when we made a game that provides Mythic wearables but only 2 players could reach these for months.

You must be aware that I have never abused a vulnerability, in any case, if I found a problem I have always reported it in private.

Therefore, these are the reasons for wanting to contribute to this kind of solution about “gamified captcha service”.

Solution

We bring a solution to solve those problems while also providing a funny or gamified and smooth experience.

We should also make it easy for devs and builders while trying to make an easy integration or collaboration with any other Decentraland creator teams.

Some use cases where it could have been used are:

  • Events where a limited supply of wearables were delivered, being abused by bots or scripts.
  • POAP machines with boring captchas.
  • Games about fishing, mining, etc.
  • Pretty sure, many more cases can arise when we want to avoid bots or abuse.

The ideation of this service was shortly presented at the Decentraland Summit (see slides 7 to 10):

Project specs

The key idea is that the client code never knows the answers, It’s the authoritative server/backend infra who validates the user actions.

Examples could be:

  • A moving bar that the player has to stop at a certain point. This could work for example for a fishing game.
  • Mining targets the player needs to hit, this could work for example for a mining game.
  • Balloons move around a 3D space that the player needs to shoot.
  • Questions about logic, culture, web3 or decentraland knowledge, etc.
  • Etc. With creativity, a lot of applications using this methodology can be done.

It will consist of a backend generating images that will be used on the front-end of the client.

Regarding Frontend or client side, the images can be used on different kinds of components:

  • 2D UI
  • 2D in 3D plane
  • 3D dispositions of 2D planes

The backend service will be provided as on-premise software at first MVP as the commitment of this proposal. It can be provided as a cloud serverless software though. Also, there is the possibility to use IPFS and have a more decentralized backend infrastructure or even be integrated into catalyst software.

Roadmap

Month 1: Ideation and the start of development.

  • Start of backend services
  • Defining first cases/components
  • Weekly reports with hourly and daily work logs.

Month 2: Development.

  • UI components
  • 3D components

Month 3: MVP with Testing, then bug-fixing or improvements.

Extra Month 4: Integrations and support on-demand.

Milestones

Vote on this proposal on the Decentraland DAO

View this proposal on Snapshot

2 Likes
2

Some facts why we can deserve the support of the DAO community:

  • Came to create and contribute in 2019, not for the speculation but for the creative possibilities and the passion for a metaverse project with web3 aspects.
  • Several workshops were held within the Ambassador program and also at the Decentraland Summit.
  • Made Beeple draw and sign next to the DCL logo, think about how much it would cost, but I’m a DCL citizen with the will to push and work for this project from different fields: x.com
  • Left a good job position to dedicate more time to Decentraland, own economic situation would be a lot better if I never did that (not because of volatility but because of income).
  • Worked on experiences without any grants, including Golfcraft, which was started when grants didn’t exist.
  • Long trajectory building multiple interactive experiences, always trying to create something good above average scenes: Decentraland work by Pablo.dcl.eth & Co. (2024-02-08) - Google Slides
  • Being an ambassador brought the interest to skilled programmers and inspired them (maybe more as a kind of Developer Advocate):
  • Always in a position to help any other builders and to welcome them without any fear of bringing skilled and talented people and letting them work on their own without any lobbyism or token gates.
3

Captcha are useful, but considering current DCL state I don’t know if that’s really what we need the most right now.
I’d love for you to work on a DCL project, but I don’t think this is the one, it’s relatively costly for something which is not really needed at the moment.
I doubt people are leaving Decentraland because of a not super pretty captcha on a POAP machine

4

POAP machine case is the less important, I think is more important in the case of games, because I know you know what I’m talking about, It’s a contribution that is useful long term.

If your concern is people leaving Decentraland, most platform grants won’t fix that, because this category is to bring utility, I think it is good to have the right tools when it’s the moment to bring more people.

Case apart, if it’s important for you the amount of users, maybe it’s better to be optimistic. I think are the creators who have the potential to attract more people. For each creator we cancel support to, we are rejecting the entrance of many potential users.

Anyhow, thx for the feedback :wink:

5

People have left because of free claims being claimed out straight away due to bot. This would be good to have BEFORE people are onboarded by the masses

6

I don’t think that’s a big problem to solve in Decentraland right now.

1 Like
7

Since Decentraland’s inception, we have seen it’s common to reward players.
Gaming is a key aspect of the success of Decentraland.
ofc, it’s obvious I say that because that’s why I want to contribute with something worthy.

So, @ArtReYou Why do you think it is not necessary?
Why do you think it’s better to not invest in security and gaming?
Why do you think it’s better to have frustrated players?

8

As HP said, its not really what we need the most right now.

9

These ppl will never engage in DCL anymore, and its not because of the captcha thing

10

This doesn’t seem needed at the moment. In the future definitely possible…

11

I don’t think “as HP said” is an answer to “why”.

I think it’s a problem present since some time ago, since events like Moonshot till today.

I think the best moment is yesterday, please try to answer the questions about the reasoning for your statement so that I can understand your position saying why it’s not a good moment.

Regarding Dual Arena, I have no idea why you are linking that to this proposal, but it could be a good example of why this proposal is necessary, ask those players you mention what they think about bots in games, … @Gamer? is it important for the players to avoid bots or not?

Same for @Tudamoon or @HPrivakos, help me understand why it’s a bad moment when it has been a problem always present, since Moonshot until today, that can frustrate previous, current, and future players in Decentraland.

I think it’s important to value the player’s time before the new client is released. From the current voting, I think it’s pretty clear that the “gamers” (the ones we still have) are supporting this proposal.

12

We can use ugly captchas for the moment and save 18k.
Captchas already exist in DCL and work well, they just need to be added to more services.

13

Hi @HPrivakos , from your comment I can conclude that:

  • You don’t have read the proposal
  • Or I didn’t explain it well

apart from if it’s worth 18k or 100$ being asked from the owner of the authorship of this idea, if it’s worthy or not, let me try to explain it so that we are on the same understanding…

Really, You cannot add a captcha in a gameplay, have you seen any game with captchas ?

This is about having the same or even better security than regular captchas while the players still playing a game without frustrating their gameplay.

Let’s see if I can explain it better with an image:

Captura de pantalla 2024-07-14 a las 14.37.59
Captura de pantalla 2024-07-14 a las 14.37.59749×617 51.1 KB

(in the example an image is generated by a backend and each time is different, only the backend knows the answer)

This can be a too simple example, but to let you understand how it would work, the method can be applied to more complex and gamified experiences.

Apart from what I expose here, this service also can be expanded as a service out of Decentraland with de “powered by dao” stamp.

If you have any doubt or need more examples just let me know.

14

If it’s such a big problem for your game, where you’ve already received several grants, then I wonder why you don’t implement it. It should be in your personal interest to close this “exploit”. Start with your game and if it’s really that good, then you should be able to sell it to others.

2 Likes
15

Hi . Tbh i dont think bots are main issue in dcl at this stage i am active in dcl i dont see bots in dcl. what isee is players with muti accounts . If it was few years ago i would suggested that dcl should limited their activity .but right now consider the number of active users in dcl i think dcl need muti accounts .becuase dcl lost alot of its active users in last year . We all can see this drop effect in the platform and also in the market .the market activity is really low i didnt sell anything for months .not even a offer for my listings even now that price of mana is low , and the price of nfts are keep dropping . So i agree with @ArtReYou and @HPrivakos in this case.
But this just my opinion ,so you do what ever you think is right

2 Likes
16

No game or contest that allows bots to accumulate prizes has any meaning or respect for its real users. As a player I have avoided participating in events where I feel this way for years and that includes a large part of decentraland. From my perspective, it is mandatory from minute 1 to avoid these unfair situations for real users and these situations where bots monopolize most of the prizes have unfortunately been an unpleasant constant in Decentraland for all those users who have participated. Not only have I felt bothered by these issues, but also all my friends who stopped participating a long time ago, this being one of the reasons that caused the most frustration. The prizes stop having value when you see that the majority are destined for bots!

2 Likes
17

This is a very good idea, in events or games the bots accounts usually take all the prizes, nft or gifts leaving out real people who are participating and even new players.

18

No better than 1 person with alt accounts cheating the system.

1 Like
19
  • A moving bar that the player has to stop at a certain point. This could work for example for a fishing game.
  • Mining targets the player needs to hit, this could work for example for a mining game.
  • Balloons move around a 3D space that the player needs to shoot.
  • Questions about logic, culture, web3 or decentraland knowledge, etc.

All of these are actually rather easy for an AI to learn to do :thinking:

20

Why would you even want to ? Captchas are for after the gameplay, when it comes time to claim the reward !