Age of Bitcoin - Playthrough. Balancing Economy and Assets Like in Real Life.

We are going to dip our toes in the water of investment, Bitcoin, gold and other investments and some cash of course. >> Yes, this is age of bitcoin. This is an investment worker worker placement worker movement game but it's largely an economic investment game uh which is intended to represent the burgeoning world of Bitcoin investment, Bitcoin as a currency.

A lot of interesting things here uh about what we're seeing as the developing world of Bitcoin >> and the designer is Bit Tune. The publisher is four comma game plays one to four players. And hi everyone, it's Taylor >> and Tarant here. Welcome to Maple University. >> We are going to do a few rounds of play through of Age of Bitcoin.

So we're going to start with the overview of the game and then get into playing and explaining to you what we'll do. Now we might actually skip to the next round. So first round and then the next round so you can see what's happening in the later stage of the game. >> Yeah, this is a game where the investments and the price is really uh you can really see it shift over the course of the game and you're going to see a lot more uh volatility and interesting things happening.

So, we'll show you the first round to give you the flavor of how this uh how the mechanisms play and then we'll jump ahead a little bit and show you a little more chaos in one of the later rounds. >> That's right. And this is like investment board. So, you'll be able to put this this is really cute, right?

You'll be able to put these things going up and down. It looks like a financial stock market >> to track the price. Yes, these will and I'll just quickly show you. These will uh usually sit on a >> on an incline stand when you play the game. Uh but of course, overhead cameras. We're going to show you these from above.

>> And just disclaimer, this is not in any any form financial advice from us. >> Not at all. >> Although it feels like that, right, Karen? >> This is all cardboard. >> This all cardboard. It's not real coin. But let's get to the game. >> Yes. So, here we have the game as set up for two players. Uh we each have one worker.

And turn by turn over the five rounds, we're going to go in turn order, placing and taking an action and then ultimately moving around. This is the two-player side of all the boards. So there are more action spaces when you play at higher player counts, but you will keep taking various actions to do investments or learning about investments until ultimately uh we rest, which determines bonuses for the end of the round and turn order.

There's really three there's five main actions and there's three core types of actions. So three of the actions are all about investments. There's investment in Bitcoin, there's investment in gold, and there's investment in uh real investments, whether that's real estate or luxury stuff. And all of this is about gain accumulating wealth.

So, accumulating things as the prices go up and then ultimately at the end of the game holding things which generate wealth points, which are these cups, >> which is how we win. Who's got the most wealth point wins. >> Yes. So when you take one of those three investment actions, you either buy as much as you want or sell as much as you want based on the price.

But either way, this track here, this is called the FOMO track, is going to go up. >> Fear of missing out, of course. >> Yes. And as those tracks go up, the prices will go up, but then when they reach the top, it's going to crash and that's going to keep things volatile. The second uh major type of action is this one here.

This is called the learning action. And this is about increasing your capacity to hold investments. So if you look at the way the board is set up here, I've got one open slot to hold a Bitcoin. I've got one open slot to hold a gold. And I've got one open slot to hold one of these investment cards. As it would be for any investor in real life, you've got to have trust in an asset before you're willing to hold a lot of it.

And so this action here is called the learning action. you're going to learn about real investments or you're going to learn about Bitcoin. And as you gain those icons, you're going to be opening up more slots to hold things. So, you can uh you can go all in on one or you can diversify on a lot uh depending on how confident you are.

But ultimately, it's that trust that lets you hold that gives you capacity to hold things. And then the third action, this little one up here, brings us back to the early days of Bitcoin. It's a mining machine. So early Bitcoin in particular, I guess it's still going on, but mining of Bitcoin is getting computers to go digging through numbers somehow and find Bitcoin.

I'm no expert on this subject, but you can buy more machines that will hopefully generate Bitcoin for you. Uh there's a die roll, so you don't know what it's going to do, but it may generate new Bitcoin rather than you having to get it from the market. >> Yeah. Speaking about the Bitcoin mining machine, we do have a short and sweet video for this where Taran is claim to be the expert of mining machine.

>> Yes, >> didn't go that well. Spoiler alert. >> Yes, as I just uh as I just revealed, it was all uh lies and smoke screens. >> Yes, we'll put it in the link below. >> Right. So, let's uh retrieve our workers. Uh we have each we each are investors. We start with $30. Stella gets an extra two because she's second in turn order for the first round.

And we each get to choose one trust that we're going to increase as part of setup. So, I want to get on Bitcoin early. I'm going to increase my trust in Bitcoin. >> And I'm going to go on gold, >> right? So, let's take actions. I'm going to start by buying some Bitcoin. I know the price is going to go up for a little while, so I will uh jump in early.

I have space for two, so I'm going to buy two. I buy them one at a time. Uh, this one is at the current price of three. And there's no modifier on here. So, that's going to cost me $3. And then the second one is likewise. They're both going to cost me $3. So, I collect those. I pay six to the bank. And then the FOMO goes up for Bitcoin.

And that's it. I knew that you're going to go straight to Bitcoin and I will go to gold. So, I will go to this one here and we just ignore this for now. And I'm going to buy two gold with the cost of four each. So, that's eight there. I can only hold two gold. So, similar first action here. And I pay eight.

Just give me two change, please. >> And that is my turn. And increase the formal track of gold. >> All right. Time for me to do some learning. So, I'm going to take the learning action. And >> I wanted to go there. >> Well, you could have gone there first. So, there's a couple of options here. This one is going to cost me $5.

This one is going to cost me $7. And they will give me increases on the investment track, which gives you a little more cash income at the end of the round, as well as trust in the assets. So, I want to build up trust quickly because I want to play the market. So, I'm going to get this middle card. It's going to cost me $7 6 plus one.

So, let me get 13 in change. >> And then you get this card. >> So, I shall take this card. I'm going to gain gold trust. I want to be able to diversify. So, this gives me two gold trust and two increases on the experience track. >> Yep. >> This slides down and gets replaced. And FOMO, FOMO even goes up for learning when lots of people are going to uh investment seminars.

It drives up the interest in that. >> Very good. Well, in that case, I could go there now that the spot is open, but instead I'm going to go to investment. Now, I have two gold and this is probably going to be good for me. So, this is going to cost me 11. So, please give me 10 change. And what it is is that means that.

So, I'm going to put it in here. I have only one slot. Means that if I have four trust in gold, I get $2 at income. And I think I'm going to do the gold strategy. I might as well do that. So, the formal goes up by one. So, I'm going to quickly explain this. Uh, as Taran mentioned, this is going to be the endame point, which is one.

And the cost I paid was 11, which is it was 10 + 1. So, that's 11. And then this little one here which is one is is not applicable at the moment. >> Yes. So all of these investment cards are also increased by the inflation rate. That's this track here. But at the start of the game that is sitting at zero.

That's the base value. >> Yeah. Now this get replenished by going down and then revealing level one card. So uh at later on it'll be level level two. >> All right. Now that I've got space for gold, I'm going to buy some gold. >> I'm not going to fill up all three of my slots at once, I don't think. Cuz I want to have some Do I want some money left for other things?

>> You know what? I will fill them up. I'll pay 12. I'll take three gold. One, two, three. >> Cuz the current price is four. And increase FOMO. >> Yay. I was counting that that spot is Oh, it will be open because you have to move. Yes. So, I go there and I want to get this one. So, 5 + 2 is seven. >> So, give me three change and I'll take this one.

And this is the one that is either bitcoins or gold. Now, I have the investment card that gives me money if I have high trust in gold. So, I'm going to get this one. So, two to the right and one of this track up. And that's it. And this gets revealed the next one. >> Yes. And we increase the learning FOMO.

All right. I will use the opportunity while it's there to purchase a mining machine. So three to increase this. My next one costs three. As you'll see, there's this dice die value here. So each round you get to roll the dice once. And if you can get under your highest mining machine number, that's what generates a bitcoin.

So, the more you got, the higher the chance. >> I have $6. So, I could either go here, Bitcoin, or gold. But I'm going to go to gold and just get one. And that is still four. One, two, three, four. And I could take one more, but I don't have enough money. And the formal strike goes up. Now, this actually increased the price of gold now.

>> Yes. So, it goes up by one step, which means we take one of these little green pieces and place it here. And for gold, most steps are worth $1. See, there's a couple that are worth two, but for this case, it's worth one. So, all of our gold has just gone up to $5 in value. >> Now, I'm going to do something which might seem counterproductive, but there's a couple reasons for it here.

So, I'm going to go back to the Bitcoin space, and I'm going to sell one of my Bitcoin. Sell it to here. And the current price is still three. So I spent three, I hung on to it, I gained three. So it feels like I achieved nothing. But the F theot track will go up. So that means the Bitcoin price is going to go up.

And you are holding no Bitcoin. I'm holding one. So it's still slightly beneficial for me. >> True. >> And you see immediately for the first time, Bitcoin is way more volatile than gold because it's gone up one step, but it's gone up $2. So, Bitcoin is now worth five instead of three. The other benefit this gives me is that I now have space on my Bitcoin trust track to mine Bitcoin into.

>> That's right. >> Because if I don't actually have enough space to hold it, I can't mine it. So, >> all comes down to the dice roll for that one, Taran. Yes, >> Bitcoin mining. >> And I have a little more money to do something with. >> Just don't cause any electric blackout, Taran. >> I will try not.

>> All right, I will pass. I have $2. I don't want to sell gold and I'm in gold anyway. Um or I could go there, but I don't have time. I don't have enough money. I'm going to go and that space. Yes. So, this action is called resting. It's your final action. Uh whoever rests first is first player next round gets a little bit more income.

And I am now the only one left. I can have at most two more actions and then rest. That just means I can't bounce around buying, selling, manipulating the markets indefinitely. I do have a limitation. >> So, I'm going to come down to learning. I'm going to learn more about Bitcoin. I think I'm not going to go into the real investments yet.

I'm going to spend my $5. >> Get this one >> to buy this bottom one here. >> Now, this is going I'm going to choose the Bitcoin on this time. So, I'm going to increase one of my Bitcoin trust. And there's another icon here, which is global Bitcoin trusts. And what that means is I rotate this icon here one step.

This is its own track. And we haven't spoken about this one yet, but as global Bitcoin trust goes up, this goes off the actions of everybody. Early on, Bitcoin's very fringe, right? You can't it's not certainly it's not treated as a currency yet. um people are unsure about its value and so you can kind of use it as an investment but not very much.

>> But as global Bitcoin trust goes up once it hits level two for example, you can see there are certain actions here that you can actually pay Bitcoin as a currency at its current value instead of >> having to sell it first and instead of using cash. So, it sort of goes from investment to currency and then as you get to the really high value, it increases the final scoring for all players for Bitcoin.

So, it has this really interesting uh interesting play depending on how players go on Bitcoin, >> but right now trust trust is quite low globally. So, it's still uh an investment of its own. I get three steps on the investment track. Not quite enough to push me up to the next level for income. And there we go.

So, we'll slide that down. We will increase learning FOMO by one step. And then I think I will just rest from there. I'm going to hang on to my gold assets. I'll rest. And that's the end of the round. So, we go through a few steps. First, we draw a FOMO card. So, this is going to bump up a few more FOMO tracks.

So, learning goes up by one, Bitcoin goes up by one, and gold goes up by two. Like, so, >> wow, it's going to crash soon. >> Yes, there's a fair chance that gold is going to crash next round. So, we'll discard that. We each gain our cash incomes. So, I own I have 18 from this row of my experience track plus one for up there.

So I get $19. >> Mine has got 18 from this track plus my investment on gold that's two plus passing two. So that will be $22. >> There you go. >> 20 >> do here. >> All right. Now it's Bitcoin mining time. So I need to roll under a three to successfully mine. I have failed. >> And I have to roll under two.

>> Must roll a one. Yeah. F. >> No Bitcoin from >> No Bitcoin. No. >> All right. And then we sweep out the bottom card from learning and from each of the real investment rows. >> Real investment is the other one's not real. Unreal. >> Well, it's real in the term of real estate, right? They are just called investment cards.

We are investing throughout. So yes, >> sometimes I call it that. >> Property insurance, single house and town home. >> Yeah. These are the type on the the icon in the top right corner. Yes. And then we go to the start of the next round. So I'll demonstrate these steps as well. So learning limit goes down.

So we have these little blocking tokens here. Each round and each time learning FOMO reaches the top of its track. The track gets shorter. And when this track reaches its top, it's going to cause some market volatility. So that's going to start to happen more frequently as the game goes on. then the inflation rate goes up one step.

So by default every round the price of all of this stuff is going to go up by one. So if you do want to sell out uh that's going to give you that's going to be where the value comes from. And then we draw a breaking news card and this will have some sort of effect on different markets. In this case, Bitcoin is h havinging.

So, we're in rounds one to three. And in rounds one to three, the Bitcoin price goes up by two steps. >> Wow. >> So, we put one of these bigger tokens tokens on here. All of a sudden, Bitcoin is worth $9. >> Oh, >> it's gone up a lot >> from three. Wow. >> Yes. And global trust in Bitcoin goes up by one notch.

So, we go. There's a number of those in the game. >> All right. And when we retrieve our uh turn order workers, advance those ones to the turn order track. And now we would go to the next round. And now we would start taking actions in round two. So that is the general flow of play. And now what we've done is we've jumped ahead to round four and we've got some more investments and things are more set up.

And I'll just point out a couple of things here. So now we've gone from the level one real investment cards to level two uh much more heavily geared towards final scoring and some much higher priced investments there as well. You can see the prices of gold and bitcoin and what they've done over the first three rounds.

Gold like in real life very stable investment. It's gone through one little crash but basically it just keeps accumulating up. Bitcoin is all over the place. Very volatile. It's gone through several highs and lows through the courses of the actions we've taken. We've both got a lot more Bitcoin trust now.

And globally, Bitcoin trust is at level three. That means that we can buy learning cards or investment cards with Bitcoin as a currency. So, those are the things that have changed since uh over those last couple rounds. So, let's jump into round four. You are the first player. First, I'm going to do learning spots.

I'm going to pay the first one with cash, which is seven here. And I'm going to choose out of the two, I'm going to choose investment. So, I get rid of this. And I'm going to get three track up. So, from 10 to 13, push me up to the next level. So, higher income. >> Okay. Then we replace. And then learning FOMO goes up.

So this is the first time we've seen learning FOMO hit the top of the track. Doesn't crash in the same way that the others do. We go through a sequence where each other investment moves up in FOMO. So Bitcoin moves up by one, gold moves up by one, which is going to increase its price based on the track and investments are going to go up by one.

Then this marker comes back to zero and we place a blocker onto here. So it gets shorter and shorter and we discard the bottom card from that track. And there we go. So you'll see we're very close to a crash on a couple of investments. >> And once an investment has crashed, it stays the price drops.

Some various things happen, but it stays crashed for the rest of this round. And taking actions there is going to cost two extra dollars to do. So looking out at the board, there's now a couple of investments which are not very far from crashing. And so I've got to figure out which of those actions do I want to take before it crashes cuz gets a little bit more expensive.

So I'm going to go to Bitcoin and if the price is going to fall, I want to sell out of Bitcoin right now. So my first sale here is going to be at 11 + 2 is 13. My second sale is for 12, so that will give me 25. And my third sale is also at 12. So I'm going to get $37 out of that. >> Woo. >> So I can see a crash coming.

I want everything in money, >> which is now. >> Then this will come up and we resolve a Bitcoin crash. So there's a number of steps here uh which are outlined on this card. So, Bitcoin will drop two levels in its price. So, it's crashed all the way down. The next Bitcoin anyone sells is seven. So, that's it got out at the right time.

>> Gold price goes up by one. >> So, this is this is how gold has continued to move up and up and it's very much like the normal global markets. >> If anything else is struggling, gold goes up and that's why gold will just gradually rise and rise. That was a good step for gold. gold went up $2 >> to certain point.

It is true in the financial world. Again, this is not advice for financial at all, but it's yeah, it's kind of like true in real life to a certain degree. >> Yes. All right. Now, everyone loses one Bitcoin trust. So, we both drop down one there. And global Bitcoin trust is reduced by number of players minus one.

So, in our case, it goes down by one step. We've dropped from level three to level two. That means we can no longer buy top row cards with Bitcoin as currency, but we've still got access to the second and bottom row cards. Then this remains crashed for the rest of the round. So nothing else happens with Bitcoin FOMO.

But if anyone wants to take the Bitcoin action, have to pay $2 to do it. I guess to find a uh in to find a broker who will even touch it at the moment. >> Yeah, I'm going to sell my golds. Gold price is 13 at the moment. I'm just going to sell one measly one for $13. >> Okay. And the FOMO goes up by one.

I need to create some space to purchase some of these cards. It's I I really can't buy one of these right now because when this crashes, much like we lost Bitcoin Trust, I would have to discard one of these. I need another space really before I can do that. So, it's learning time for me. I'm going to come down to learning as I'm getting towards the end of the game.

I want to make sure I get these last five steps cuz there's two points on offer there if I can buy enough learning to get there. So, I'm going to cumulative. >> Yes. So, I'm going to buy this one. It's going to cost me eight. >> Uh, and I will pay in cash. >> There we go. That doesn't go there. Sorry.

Um, I will increase two steps on investments and I will move up three steps on my experience track and FOMO up one. >> I'm going to get another investment here. Now, this is a good point, but I can't afford Arthur crashes. You can see that it's almost crashing. So, I'm going to just get the artificial private island.

How's that sound? Huh? >> Just Oh, I'll just casually get an artificial island. Yeah, just casually, you know. So, the cost itself is 27 plus zero here because this one's extra. So, 27 plus the inflation, which is three, which is 30. I have 30. And I will put it here in my empty slot. I mean, I could have paid this with Bitcoin in the bottom row or bottom two rows, but I don't know.

The price is pretty crashy at the moment. >> Yes. All right. So, we'll slide those down. Oh, it's art. puts the banana tape to a wall art. And these investments have crashed. So we go through the crash steps for these. Gold once again goes up. Gold is the beneficiary of anything else crashing. And if global Bitcoin trusts were at four, so if Bitcoin were as well respected as gold, it would also go up in price when these crash.

That's not the case. So this stays in its volatile quandry. We each lose one trust. So, bring back one of these cards to fill the slot. We have to pay maintenance at this point. So, each of these cards has a little cog on it, which is the maintenance cost when it crashes. So, I have to pay a total of three maintenance.

>> So, do I. >> So, you've just got enough to stay liquid. And then we sweep out the bottom rope. >> What do you mean just? have two dou. >> I have I have a lot. I have $48 at the moment. >> Oh, for selling those bitcoins. Hey. >> Yes, Margo. I'm going to head back to Bitcoin. Even though it's going to cost me $2 to just go there, >> having crashed the market, I can now uh try to invest straight back into it.

So, base price is seven plus one. So, this would cost me eight. This would cost me eight. That takes me to 16. This would cost me 9. Takes me to 25. This would cost me 9. That takes me to 34. So, let me pay the 34. And see where the chips land. 34. 4 Bitcoin. Now, because this track is empty, Bitcoin price goes up by two.

two steps, meaning $4. And we put six bitcoins back on this track. So now the base price is 11. And I could buy one more. I have 12. It's not going to crash again anytime soon. So I'm not going to lose trust. So let's do it. There we go. I am full up with Bitcoin. >> Very good, Terren. Well, I'm going to go back to go uh gold now.

And I'm selling one again. It's 14 at the moment. So that's it. That's my turn. And then it goes up one. >> Getting close to a crash. >> Uhhuh. Just slowly selling my gold before it crashes. >> Now I've locked myself. Well, you've partially locked me into a very tricky position here because I only have $1, which means I can't pay the uh $2 price that I need to go there.

That bit I can't pay with Bitcoin. And you can't even sell investment because you can't even go there. >> Yes. It means the only nonrest action that I can afford to take is a rather inefficient spend down here at learning. So I'm going to do that. I'm going to go to learning. I'm going to I need the I've got a lot of Bitcoin here.

I want Bitcoin trust to be high so it's worth a lot of points at the end of the game. So I'm going to purchase this. We're at level two. So I can buy this with Bitcoin. I return one bitcoin to the board to pay it. The cost here is or the value here was 11. If you pay with bitcoin, you don't get change.

That's the bad thing. That's why I say it's an inefficient spend. >> But I'm going to increase my Bitcoin trust two more steps. I'm going to move up three. So I've maxed this track out. Unlock these two points. We'll slide this down. And the learning FOMO goes up by one. I'm just going to quickly go um go and get mining machine.

So, it cost me five now. And you know, I've got the solar panel. I've got the normal electricity. Taran suggested some hamster wheels. So, I'm going to get that. Very good. All right. I will jump over to sell some gold. So, I need uh some amount of cash here. Gold. Gee, it's a good price at the moment.

It's about to crash. 14. Let's >> sell two. >> You know what? I think I'm only going to need to sell one. I'll sell one gold. Grab $14. [Music] And it's one step away from crashing. Everything could crash at the end of this round. >> Depending on what comes out on the FOMO card. >> Well, I don't know if this is a good idea, but I'm still doing it anyway.

At least it's a show. So, I want to in on the Bitcoin craze, right? So, I'm going to get this one with that gives me two trous bitcoins. Plus, I've got this mining thing as well. And I'm going to have to pay $10 for that. So, that one. And then this one is go up by two. And then that is a good four points.

So, one, two, three, four, four. Sorry, almost cheated. >> So, four. Just one more until I maxed out on that point. Oh, and looking at that, I think I forgot to increase global Bitcoin trust back when I did learning earlier in the round. So, >> yes. So, we actually didn't need to do that just for learning.

>> Supposed to go up too as well. >> Oo. And this one goes up. >> So, we go through the steps. You saw them all before. This will come down to zero with a blocking token. So, this track is now as short as it can possibly be. And each of the other FOMOs moves up by one step. Most of them are locked. But gold now crashes.

So when gold crashes, its price goes down by two steps and we all lose one trust in gold. >> That's fine. >> Now, it hasn't happened to either of us, but if you now hold more of an investment than you trust in, you have to immediately sell one off at the crash price minus a further two. So you don't want to get caught in that situation.

All right, I will come and invest here. So, I pay the two extra dollars because it's crashed. And then I'm going to buy this one. It's a high points card. Land on Mars. So, the cost to do that is 29 plus in plus three is 33. Sorry, 32. And I will buy this with largely with Bitcoin. So, the first one is worth 11.

The second is worth 10. So 21. And then I can make up the rest with cash because I do think Bitcoin will keep going up. So I'll get out of cash. Gee, that will put me in the position I left myself in last. That's all right. I'm about to get income. >> Oops. So my remaining 11 is with cash. >> And we slide these down.

And it's your turn. I'm going to go to rest. >> Okay. And I am also going to go to rest. So that's the end of round four. We would go through the end of round steps, but we're going to finish the play through there. I'll quickly explain the scoring. We've kind of alluded to it, but you're ultimately getting wealth points in the game.

And when the game is over, you get one wealth point for each gold. You get the wealth points printed on all of these cards. you get one wealth point per bitcoin or one and a half per bitcoin if global trust is four or higher. So that's where that will start to increase in value. You'll see that some of these investment cards, by the way, they're just raw points and some of them are objectives for meeting certain combinations of other investments and so on.

Uh you get one point for every 20 leftover cash. Cash is not really king in this game. No, >> but for each of those four investment types, whoever has the most also gains a bonus two points, and second most gains one. So, you want to pick some and win majorities on them. >> Uh, then there's points for reaching the top of this track.

So, you add all these up, I'll get four points for that, >> and I have two points for that. >> Yep. And if you build all of your mining machines, there's another point. >> Yeah. And if you like some parody and skits, please do check out our short and sweet video for Age of Bitcoin. And thanks for watching and check out the project page on I will put that down below in the video description.

And until next time, thanks for watching. Bye.