RadQuest's initial launch generated significant demand and awareness within the Radix and broader Web3 community. Dozens of influencers, thought leaders, and DeFi users from other networks joined in to explore, resulting in over four million transactions processed by the Radix Network in the first week and 60,000 Radix Wallet downloads across iOS and Android. RadQuest NFTs, RadMorphs, achieved an impressive trade volume of over 1.15 million XRD on the Trove NFT marketplace.

However, there were some issues with the launch which required some recalibration to the approach. So, after analyzing the initial rollout, and discussing with the Radix community,  RadQuest is now being updated to be ready to relaunch for Token2049 Singapore. There will be several key adjustments, including the removal of XRD rewards and addition of a new “golden ticket” system, to ensure that the platform is both more resilient and effective.

The goal of RadQuest remains the same: to serve as a powerful onboarding tool for new users to the Radix Network and the broader Web3 ecosystem. 

Key Updates to RadQuest

1. Addressing Farming Exploits and Overload:

Challenge: While some farming was expected, and multiple sybil protection systems were in place to minimize it, the initial launch was overwhelmed by users “farming” the system for XRD rewards, leading to transactional overload and a poor user experience. 

Solution: XRD rewards for completing quests will be removed. This significantly reduces the incentive for exploitation and refocuses RadQuest on delivering a valuable educational onboarding experience for users while still giving incentives via the RadMorphs NFT system. By eliminating those per-user XRD rewards, it means the Twilio phone number verification – which was failing to provide the level of filtering desired – can be removed.

To ensure that high-value users still can get the first XRD to do transactions throughout RadQuest, however, a new “golden ticket” system will be introduced (see below).

General users arriving to RadQuest (without a golden ticket referral) will experience an updated quest flow that helps them get a small amount of XRD themselves through card purchase, exchange, or Maya trustless bridge. 

At the same time, RadQuest will switch to a professional fraud detection service that the team has benchmarked on the log data from the initial launch. With the removal of XRD quest rewards, this capability can focus solely on reducing the quantity of fraudulent users going through RadQuest purely for RadMorph NFTs.

In addition, the RadQuest backend system has been re-engineered to intelligently batch requests during high-load periods into fewer transactions, maintaining its ability to keep the user experience responsive.

2. A New Direct User Referral System:

Challenge: Minimize friction of needing to acquire XRD for high-value users while ensuring it isn’t being exploited by farmers. 

Solution: A new system, internally called a “Golden Ticket” referral link, is being added that can generate single-use referral links that grant users a small amount of XRD during their journey enough to experience RadQuest and the benefits of transactions in the Radix Wallet fully. This approach allows for targeted distribution at events like Token2049, where the “proof of human” is done by physically seeing the person. It also provides the team with a way to enable trusted third parties to request golden tickets referral links to distribute to their networks.

Users who join RadQuest via golden ticket link will also have exclusive access to quest rewards for referring other users that provide ultra-rare Morph Energy Cards, maintaining a high level of scarcity for the most exclusive RadMorphs.

3. Optimized Ecosystem Flow:

Challenge: While the initial version of RadQuest had some signposts to dApps in the ecosystem, these were presented within quest flows and could be easily missed.

Solution: A new top-level “Quest” to explore the ecosystem will be added to prominently direct users towards the wider Radix Ecosystem.

In addition, work will continue with ecosystem dApps to further integrate them into the user journey through new quests that can be added in the future.. 

4. Integration with Maya:

Challenge: Attracting crypto-savvy users who may already hold assets in other ecosystems and providing them with an easy entry point into Radix. 

Solution: Users will have a trustless way to easily swap their existing assets into the Radix Ecosystem, utilizing the recent Radix integration with Maya. This provides a smooth onboarding process for experienced users and will help highlight Radix's superior user experience.

Options Not Pursued

A number of other potential approaches to relaunching RadQuest were considered. For those interested in the reasoning, here are a couple of them.

Running RadQuest on Stokenet: Running RadQuest on the Stokenet test network was considered. However, that meant there would need to be a frictionless journey to get users on and off Stokenet within the Radix Wallet. That would open up problematic trade-offs like confusing users, introducing potential opportunities for bad actors to manipulate users into being exploited, and diminish the real-world value of RadMorphs, Elements, and RadGems etc. 

KYC (Know Your Customer): Putting XRD rewards behind a KYC system would most likely work in the long term and is likely a direction the industry is heading in. However, performing full document-based KYC is a high barrier for new users, undercutting the onboarding experience and sending the wrong message about Radix's open nature. Additionally, the necessary infrastructure to support a smooth KYC integration is not yet available, and there is a fiat cost to every KYC check completed. 

Looking Ahead

Radix will have its largest-ever event booth at Token2049 Singapore in September, and RadQuest is a key part of the offering there! Having RadQuest back up and running before then means golden tickets will be on hand, ready to onboard the thousands of crypto enthusiasts in attendance. 

RadQuest will continue to evolve, with plans to integrate quests from other dApps within the Radix Ecosystem.

For a full, detailed description of the challenges and solutions mentioned in this article, please refer to the YouTube video below by RDX Works CPO Matthew Hine.