Phantasma

About Phantasma (SOUL)

What Is Phantasma?

Phantasma (now branded Phantasma Phoenix) is a Layer 1 blockchain built for games, digital collectibles and real-time applications. SOUL is its staking and governance token: staking SOUL generates KCAL, the second native token that pays for transactions. The chain matters to builders because tokens and NFTs are native protocol objects, so a studio can create, mint, transfer and burn assets without deploying a custom smart contract for each one.

According to the official documentation, Phantasma has been live on mainnet since October 2019, is implemented in C# and C++, and describes itself as a certified carbon-negative blockchain.

Who Founded Phantasma? (History)

Phantasma launched its mainnet in October 2019. The current documentation and the official site at phantasma.info describe the network and its developer tooling, but the pages reviewed for this article do not name individual founders. The project's block producer documentation refers to "Phantom Force", described as a decentralized developer team partly funded by protocol inflation.

The "Phoenix" name marks the current generation of the chain. The project's public GitHub organization (phantasma-io) shows active work on SDKs for C#, Unity, TypeScript, Go, Python, Rust and C++, a block explorer, and the TOMB smart contract compiler.

How Phantasma Works

Phantasma separates two costs that most chains bundle into a single gas token:

1. KCAL gas Every transaction sets a maxGas limit in KCAL. Validators measure execution work, native operation fees and the data written into the block, then settle the bill and refund unused KCAL. Part of the fee can be burned under the current gas configuration.

2. SOUL data escrow When a transaction creates or expands permanent chain state, the fee payer escrows SOUL up to a maxData limit. The charge is based on rounded storage rows. Deleting or shrinking state can return escrowed SOUL.

Block production is handled by staked nodes called block producers. The documentation describes a rotational schedule per side chain, with a set of active producers plus standby producers, and community voting where voting power is the square root of the SOUL held. The same page notes that these parameters are governance-controlled and can change.

Key Ecosystem Components

• Carbon: the native asset runtime. Token creation, NFT series creation, minting, transfers, burns and infusion are built-in chain operations. NFT metadata is split into shared series data, immutable ROM fields and mutable RAM fields, and it is validated by the chain against schemas.
• SmartNFTs: NFTs with VM code attached so their content can change according to defined rules.
• Phantasma Link: the protocol that connects dApps to wallets for signing transactions.
• Token Deployment UI: a web tool for deploying tokens, creating NFT series and minting without writing code.
• TOMB compiler and SDKs: tooling for developers who need custom contract logic.
• Explorer: explorer.phantasma.info shows blocks, transactions, tokens and NFTs.

SOUL Token Utility

• Staking: SOUL is staked through the native stake contract. Staked SOUL must be unstaked before it can be transferred.
• KCAL generation: current mainnet metadata sets a base reward of 0.002 KCAL per staked SOUL per day, boosted by 5% per CROWN NFT held, up to 20 CROWNs.
• Soul Masters: accounts with at least 50,000 SOUL staked qualify as Soul Masters. Each month the protocol issues a fixed 125,000 SOUL shared equally among Soul Masters that held the threshold for the whole previous month.
• Governance and block production: staking 50,000 SOUL is also a requirement to run a block producer.
• Data escrow: SOUL pays for permanent storage growth on chain.

Supply is not capped. The docs describe monthly issuance on the first of each month: 0.25% of current supply (3% a year) plus the fixed 125,000 SOUL for Soul Masters.

SOUL has 8 decimals on Phantasma. Wrapped versions have existed on Ethereum (0x75858677e27c930fb622759feaffee2b754af07f) and BNB Chain (0x298eff8af1ecebbb2c034eaa3b9a5d0cc56c59cd).

What Makes Phantasma Unique?

• Assets as protocol primitives: fungible tokens and NFTs are native chain entities, not contract state.
• NFT infusion: every NFT has its own address. Sending tokens or other NFTs to it attaches them to the NFT, which allows nested ownership such as a game character that carries its own items.
• Two-token fee model: holding and staking SOUL produces the KCAL needed to use the network, so heavy users can fund activity from stake rather than buying gas each time.
• Separate charge for storage: permanent state growth is paid in escrowed SOUL, which is refundable when data is removed.

How Phantasma Differs from Similar Chains

Compared with Ethereum-style chains, where an NFT is an entry in a contract's storage, Phantasma treats NFTs as chain objects with their own addresses and schema-checked metadata. Enjin and WAX also target gaming assets with native NFT support, while Immutable is a scaling network built around Ethereum. Phantasma is a standalone Layer 1 with its own validator set and a much smaller ecosystem than those networks, which is the main trade-off for its specialized design.

Use Cases of Phantasma

• Game studios minting in-game items, characters and currencies without writing contracts.
• Evolving NFTs whose attributes update as a game or application changes them.
• Bundled assets through infusion, for example an NFT that holds tokens or other NFTs.
• dApps that want users to earn transaction fuel by staking instead of paying per transaction.
• The documentation lists ecosystem dApps including GhostMarket, 22 Racing Series, Blood Rune and Pavillion.

How Phantasma Is Secured

Phantasma uses a staking-based model in which block producers must stake 50,000 SOUL, run infrastructure, maintain uptime and be voted in. The docs say active producers were initially selected by the team, with community voting intended to decide the set over time. Security therefore depends on a relatively small producer set and on how decentralized SOUL ownership and voting become. The code is open source on GitHub.

Risks and Considerations

• Small validator set: the documented model uses a limited number of active producers, which concentrates block production.
• Inflationary supply: SOUL has no maximum supply and is issued monthly.
• Ecosystem size: developer and user activity is modest compared with larger gaming chains.
• Bridged tokens: the docs mark Ethereum and BNB Chain swaps for SOUL and KCAL as not recommended because cross-chain swaps are paused, so wrapped tokens may not move back to the native chain easily.
• Changing parameters: staking rewards, fees and producer rules are protocol configuration and can change.

Why Phantasma Matters

Phantasma is one of the older chains to treat NFTs as first-class protocol objects rather than contract entries. Its Carbon model, NFT infusion and staking-funded gas are concrete design choices aimed at games that create large numbers of assets and transactions. Whether that design wins adoption depends on getting studios to build on a smaller, specialized Layer 1.

Where Can You Buy Phantasma?

The project's documentation lists KuCoin (SOUL/USDT) as a main exchange. SOUL has also traded on decentralized exchanges on Ethereum and BNB Chain as a wrapped token, but the documentation advises against those pools while cross-chain swaps are paused. Confirm which network a venue supports before buying or withdrawing.

Storage Options After Purchase

Native SOUL and KCAL live on Phantasma mainnet and need a wallet that supports the Phantasma chain and Phantasma Link. Wrapped SOUL on Ethereum or BNB Chain can be held in standard EVM wallets, but it is a different asset from native SOUL until bridged. Always check the network before sending.

Related Coins

• Enjin Coin
• WAX
• Flow
• Immutable
• Ultra