Stronger Together — Building the Foundat

Stronger Together — Building the Foundation of Upland’s Future Community Governance

Upland has always been more than just a game, it’s a dynamic, player-owned economy built around the thrill of property trading, city building, and community-driven creativity. At the heart of it all is you: the Upland community. Your passion, your strategies, and your contributions have shaped Upland into the vibrant metaverse it is today.

Now, we’re excited to share a major milestone in our journey: Upland has officially launched and moved to its own dedicated Appchain!

This move is a foundational step toward increased independence for the Upland platform. By taking control of our own blockchain infrastructure, we’re laying the groundwork for even greater performance, innovation, and most importantly, community empowerment.

Tomorrow, Upland Co-Founder Idan Zuckerman will be joining the Hyde Park Ninjas to discuss this important move and answer questions from the community. Make sure to subscribe and get notified so you don’t miss it! The session goes live at 10:30 AM PT, click the link below to tune in.

Special Edition Live with Idan Zuckerman Upland Co-Founder

Why Move to an Appchain?

An Appchain is a blockchain specifically designedand optimized for a single application or use case, like the Upland platform. By moving to our own Appchain, we can better align the underlying technology with the unique needs of our platform, partners, developers, and players.

Just as importantly, this move lays the foundation for future community governance and decentralization, giving us the flexibility to design systems where the Upland community will have a meaningful say in how the platform evolves.

Here’s why we decided to make this critical move:

Governance: This opens up the most efficient way to achieve decentralization via the option for the community to own and run the chain through a DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization).
Cost Stability: Establish predictable and sustainable operating costs for the Upland platform.
Customization: We can fine-tune the infrastructure, including governance mechanisms, to support Upland’s specific requirements and align technological advancements directly with the community’s gaming needs.
Performance: Dedicated resources mean no competition with other applications, ensuring smoother gameplay and faster transactions.
Scalability: Higher transaction volumes can now be handled without the risk of network congestion.
Interoperability: Control over the ability to connect with other chains and ecosystems to facilitate the exchange of data and value.

Why Leave the EOS Blockchain?

The EOS Blockchain has been the right choice to build a platform like Upland and a foundational part of our journey, but its direction is shifting.

EOS, once led by Block.one and now governed by the EOS Network Foundation (ENF), has gradually shifted its focus toward financial services and Web3 infrastructure. This strategic pivot no longer supportsthe needs of platforms like Upland, which require a different kind of blockchain foundation.

EOS is rebranding to Vaulta and focusing on Web3 banking and finance. While we think this will be an amazing DeFi focused layer 1 blockchain, Vaulta is no longer aligned with the needs of Upland as a gaming platform (read more about Vaulta’s direction in this interview with Yves La Rose).

Additionally, the rising cost of resources on EOS and its removal from platforms like DappRadar (which was beyond our control) have limited Upland’s visibility and viability.

As Upland continues to scale and expand its vision of creating a robust virtual economy, it requires greater flexibility, technical independence, and resource predictability than EOS can currently offer. This strategic shift positions Upland to achieve long-term sustainabilityand growth, fully leveraging blockchain technology tailored to the needs of a dynamic, player-driven economy.

The Reason Behind The Timing of The Announcement

We understand that a change of this scale often brings up questions, especially around why it wasn’t pre-announced or put to a community vote.

We didn’t communicate this change beforehand as we understand that these types of announcements may create confusion and speculation. To ensure a smooth and stable migration, we needed to act decisively.

Additionally, this wasn’t a decision that could be put to a vote because staying on EOS simply wasn’t an option. With the network shifting its focus toward financial services under the new Vaulta brand, it no longer supports the needs of platforms like Upland. Rising resource costs and declining visibility for dApps further signaled that our future had to be built and run elsewhere.

This move had to happen, and now that it’s complete, Upland is in a much stronger position to grow and evolve together with its community.

A Step Toward Progressive Decentralization

This move is part of our ongoing commitment to progressive decentralization. Moving to our own Appchain is not the end goal, it’s the required next step in our journey toward this vision. While the chain is temporarily more centralized, this structure allows us to explore and develop better governance models, empower the community, and prepare for a more flexible, inclusive future.

Here’s what looks like:

DAO Governance: In the future, we envision the Upland community owning and governing the chain through a DAO. This is a more effective and tailored model for decentralization. We also envision this DAO gradually taking on more responsibilities in the Upland Metaverse.

Ecosystem Flexibility: We (in the future the DAO) retain the ability to migrate parts of the chain to other ecosystems if it benefits Upland.

Public Chain Potential: The DAO may one day decide to make the Appchain public to develop on as a way to empower further growth.

These options are not mutually exclusive, they reflect the flexibility we’re building into Upland’s future, for example, a potential future could include elements from all three options.

What This Means for You

While this is a major upgrade under the hood, the day-to-day Upland experience remains as seamless as ever. Our goal was to make this transition invisible to players and developers, ensuring that your properties, assets, and progress remain intactand uninterrupted.

For Players: Nothing changes. You can continue playing Upland just as you always have. Buying, selling, developing, and exploring without any disruption. Bridging of Sparklet works as before.
For Developers: Although the new chain is temporarily more centralized, this shift sets the stage for a more open and developer-friendly future. We’re laying the groundwork for increased access, interoperability, and eventually, community-driven governance through a DAO model. Where necessary, we will collaborate with our third-party developers to ensure that their applications continue to function as before the move.
For Blockchain Enthusiasts: You’ll still enjoy the transparency that comes with blockchain technology. All transactions on Upland’s new Appchain are publicly viewable at ledger.upland.me. Please note that the newledger app is currently in alpha and will continue to improve over time as we enhance its features and performance.

Looking Ahead

As we outlined in our roadmap, we’re excited to advance Upland’s user experience and, with this move, our infrastructure as well. This shift brings greater independence, improved performance, and the beginning of a new chapter where you have more influence over the platform’s direction.

Stay tuned, there’s more to come, and we can’t wait to build this next phase of Upland together.