Every time a player races in real money racing, they receive a small amount of $CROWN, whether they win or lose. $CROWN is a utility token that currently lives on the Solana blockchain. The contract address is GDfnEsia2WLAW5t8yx2X5j2mkfA74i5kwGdDuZHt7XmG.

$CROWN is unique from many other tokens that circulate on the market in that $CROWN Tokens are utilized for in-game utility. These tokens were not released until the Photo Finish™ LIVE game / platform was fully operational, and as such, players were immediately able to use their $CROWN for consumptive purposes like Track Ownership. Disclaimer: None of the below information should be construed as financial advice. Read more below!

Many experienced companies and teams within the gaming industry have been very slow and hesitant to build within web3, and a large part of that fear is because of tokens. There have been nearly an infinite amount of projects that have utilized tokens in a way that has been detrimental to the game, to the players, or just outright as a scam.

However, we at Third Time look at tokens through a much longer term lens. Having a trustless and transparent item that can be utilized within a game ecosystem for reward and interesting game design, you can align the incentive structure of what the team wants and what the players want. Look no further than mobile games, where free-to-play has built a very combative relationship between the builders and the players, where developers have to in essence try to annoy players *just* enough into spending (by waiting or by forcing social interactions) without losing them.

Web3 and integration of tokens provides an extremely compelling new frontier by which the players own their assets, and can use their skill to create entrepeneurial opportunities for themselves.

Every few minutes in Photo Finish™ LIVE, a race is run. This exciting world of virtual horse racing provides a platform by which players can either race for free, or choose to spend their in-game currency (called $DERBY) to register for higher stakes races. In these races where $DERBY has been put on the line, the total purse of the race is determined ahead of time, often averaging out to be around 80% of the total entry fees collected. The remaining 20% is allocated to the platform, importantly, the owner of the track!

Third Time Entertainment owns the majority of the tracks, while Churchill Downs owns one as well. The unique feature that Photo Finish™ LIVE provides however is that you can utilize your $CROWN to acquire an officially sanctioned "Operator's License" from Third Time. Track operators compete every season to determine how much percentage of the track they would like to own. They compete here in an open market by staking their $CROWN. The more $CROWN you stake, the higher percentage of the track you will own. For each track, there is only one Majority Owner, who has special rights and abilities. You can see the current track owners here!

Players that stake the most amount of $CROWN on a track become the official majority owner for that season. These players will have special abilities that other minority track owners do not have. These features will be delivered in the coming seasons: - Track Customization
- Naming Rights
- Special Races
- And more!

Astute crypto enthusiasts will be interested to read the tokenomics of the $CROWN token. 250,000,000 $CROWN tokens (max supply) were minted and are controlled by Third Time Tokens, LTD (a BVI corp), and the whitepaper can be accessed here:

Tokenomics Whitepaper

The executive summary is:
o Total supply (fixed): 250,000,000 $CROWN
o Staking Rewards: 125,000,000 $CROWN (50%)
o Team & Investors: 70,000,000 $CROWN (28%)
o Ecosystem: 55,000,000 $CROWN (22%)

$CROWN is freely traded out on the open market, Third Time does not sell it or offer it. It is not currently listed on any exchanges, so the most common place it is purchased is via a DEX (Decentralized Exchange) like the Jupiter Aggregator.

Yes! $CROWN can be earned in two ways:

RACING
Nearly every single race awards $CROWN tokens to the horses in the race. This comes from the Ecosystem fund of 55,000,000 $CROWN, which you can see in the wallet on the right.

STAKING
Owners of Photo Finish Digital Collectibles can also earn $CROWN over the course of a special emission period. You can learn more about this program here.

As mentioned previously, from the start Photo Finish™ LIVE aimed to be different. The $CROWN token is not meant to be a pump and dump ponzi whereby early investors can dump on retail. This token is built into the ecosystem to LAST while still rewarding early believers and most importantly supporting racing!

Though there are tokens emitted regularly due to staking and racing rewards, unlike most projects there is a very strong utility to the $CROWN token with track ownership. You can always take a look at the Dune dashboard which transparently shows the activity of CROWN out and USDC in on the blockchain to see the flow!

With that being said, Third Time is actively researching and working on more and more ways to sink and burn $CROWN. We already allow players to rename horses and scratch them from races using the $CROWN token. More features may be added within the $CROWN ecosystem such as:
- Stable / Track Customization
- Race Creation
- Advanced Reports & Analytics
- VIP Systems / Rewards Programs
- Wagering
- etc.

Head over to our Support Portal if you need anything!