Enabling Real-World Game Bets with Neo X Smart Contracts (Market Melee)

[grantshares-dapp]

Abstract

Market Melee is a physical card game that combines the fast-paced fun of UNO with the strategy of cryptocurrency trading. Players buy, sell, or hold crypto cards each round to build the most valuable portfolio—navigating wild market swings via action and event cards. The first player to reach $1,100 in crypto value wins (stablecoin cards don't count). We aim to integrate Neo X into our tournament site so that players can place bets, vote on game winners, and have prize pools auto-distributed via smart contracts on Neo.

Proposal Information

Description

Market Melee is a physical crypto card game paired with a Web3-powered tournament platform. In the game, players collect and trade crypto asset cards—like BTC, ETH, DOGE—to grow their portfolios while facing unexpected market events (like a crash or halving) and sabotaging opponents with strategic action cards. It’s a “UNO meets crypto” experience built to introduce blockchain concepts through engaging, real-world gameplay.

Our tournament platform brings blockchain utility into the physical world. After playing the game IRL, players can lock a wager into a smart contract, whitelist participating wallets, and vote on the winner. Once the match ends, the community (or players) vote on which wallet address won the match, and the system automatically distributes the winnings to the verified wallet. This allows physical games to settle disputes, distribute prizes, and verify outcomes using immutable on-chain infrastructure.

With Neo X integration, this system will be extended to support any game that wants to use smart contracts for match resolution, betting, or tournament mechanics—not just Market Melee. Our platform will serve as an open tournament layer that others in the Neo gaming ecosystem can adopt.

Motivation

We are seeking this grant to bring our proven smart contract tournament system into the Neo X ecosystem. Neo X’s EVM compatibility and enhanced security make it ideal for secure, trustless game payouts. Our platform is already live on SKALE and can be ported quickly with minor contract adaptations. We want to showcase how physical and digital experiences can be bridged via Neo smart contracts—and open this system to other Neo-based games looking for tournament infrastructure.

Goals

Our goals consist of the following:

1. Deploy Neo X smart contracts that power our tournament website and allow users to:

   • Lock bets in escrow before a match
   • Whitelist the wallet addresses of participating players
   • Vote on the winner after the game ends
   • Automatically send the prize pool to the winning wallet

This not only brings new utility to the Neo X chain, but also invites players who may not have wallets yet to engage with blockchain in a low-stakes, gamified way.

Deliverables & Roadmap

Specify deliverables in detail, including the following info for each:

• Total Estimated Duration: 25 days
• Full-Time Equivalent (FTE): 3
• Total Budget: 2000 GAS

Deliverables

• Smart contracts deployed to Neo X testnet (first) and then Neo X mainnet (last) that allow users to:
  • Lock wagers before a physical Market Melee match
  • Whitelist wallet addresses of players
  • Submit votes for the winning player after gameplay
  • Automatically release funds to the verified winner’s wallet
• Tournament website updated to support Neo X wallet login (e.g., MetaMask or other Neo-compatible options)
• Frontend + backend UI for viewing match history, locked bets, and payout confirmations on Neo X
• Documentation for other developers and gaming projects to integrate with the same system

Roadmap

• Days 1–7: Adapt smart contracts for Neo X EVM compatibility and deploy to testnet
• Days 7–14: Implement wallet connection, bet-locking UI, and voting logic on the tournament platform
• Days 14–21: Backend integration and payout verification mechanisms
• Days 21–25: Final testing, documentation, and public demo release

Deliverables Verifiability

Deliverables Verifiability

• GitHub commits and deployed Neo X contract addresses (testnet & mainnet)
• Public staging site for the tournament platform with Neo wallet support
• Demo video walkthrough showing live IRL match and smart contract payout flow
• PDF/Markdown technical docs showing how third-party games can use the same infrastructure
• Usage analytics (e.g., # of matches logged, transactions triggered, wallets connected) shared via dashboard or DappRadar

Budget Plan

• Total Requested: 2,000 GAS
  Use Case: Integration of Neo X smart contract infrastructure into the Market Melee tournament platform, enabling players of the physical card game to place on-chain bets, vote on winners, and automate payouts. The same infrastructure will be made accessible for other Neo-based games in the future.

🔧 Budget Breakdown

1. Smart Contract Development (40%) — 800 GAS

• Write contracts for:
  • Bet escrow
  • Whitelisted wallet validation
  • Vote-based payout logic
• Deploy to Neo X testnet and mainnet
• Align with EVM and dBFT governance standards

2. Frontend / Backend Platform Integration (25%) — 500 GAS

• Integrate Neo wallets into our existing site
• Create UI/UX for placing bets and voting
• Backend API to fetch contract states and push match results

3. QA & Onboarding Documentation (15%) — 300 GAS

• Simulate gameplay scenarios for bug testing
• Ensure vote-based payout logic cannot be exploited
• Build technical docs and walkthroughs for future dev partners

4. Developer Support Tools & Open Access Kit (10%) — 200 GAS

• Build a code snippet repo
• Provide other gaming projects with plug-and-play use of the tournament system
• Includes whitelisting logic, frontend components, and voting templates

5. Project Management & Operations (10%) — 200 GAS

• Team coordination, timelines, community comms
• Legal and accounting review for handling on-chain funds
• Ongoing support for Neo X ecosystem integration

About You / Your Organization

• Individual/Entity Name: Market Melee
• Website: https://marketmelee.xyz
• GitHub Organization (if applicable): https://github.com/marketmelee

Short-Bio

• Howard Campbell (CEO): Previous IBM employee who began Web3 journey in 2017.

• Arsenii Ovsianykov (CTO): Technical Lead and Web3 Full-Stack Developer with 4+ years of experience building…

• Teresa Nadya (CDO): Game designer and UI UX designer

Portfolio of Projects / Past Experience

1. Market Melee has secured a grant from SKALE to integrate them into our physical card game and tournament website
2. Market Melee was a finalist in the Blockchain Gaming Alliance x Lamina1 Demo Day

---

Proposal Info 📋

• Proposal Type: request-for-funding

• Amount Requested: 2000

• Token: 0xd2a4cff31913016155e38e474a2c06d08be276cf (GAS)

• Receiver Address: (0x8e40de64ec955172f1ec2233500eb26fcb9714e8)

• Created by: @marketmelee 🚀

• Proposal : https://grantshares.io/app/details/ee2a57518894a44119fa03429f583ad7

• Raw Intents: 👀

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---

👇 React with 👍 if you liked it, or 👎 if you think this proposal can be enhanced!

[snakeyrob]

First of sorry for the late response,
Do I understand correctly you propose a framework for games to use or is it basically the UNO game you describe with the possibility to use as a framework?

It's interesting, but unfortunately Neo X currently doesn't really have projects that can use this so as a framework I'm a little bit cautious as I'm not sure where it will be implemented and what projects could be waiting on it, so would love to hear your view.

Do you perhaps have some videos on how your game works? I'm not using skale myself at this time.

Besides that it looks like the proposal is for a 1000 Neo while the description says 1000 gas. Please change to the correct amount in GAS as big Neo proposals are not preferred.

[grantshares-dapp]

🚨 This proposal was edited by the proposer.

[marketmelee]

Hello @snakeyrob,

To answer your question, yes, we will be deploying an integration ourselves, not just proposing a framework. The Market Melee tournament platform is already live on SKALE, where players deploy smart contracts, lock funds, and vote on winners in real-life matches. Our proposal for Neo X is to replicate and extend that functionality, allowing Neo users (and future games on Neo X) to host tournaments, lock wagers in GAS, and have smart contracts automatically distribute rewards to the winning wallet.

While the framework could later be used by other games, our immediate plan is to implement and showcase the integration directly through Market Melee as a working example of on-chain wagering for physical and digital games. This will serve as a model for future gaming projects that may join the Neo X ecosystem.

We’ve also updated the proposal to reflect the correct request: 2,000 GAS, not 1,000 NEO - and reviewed the document to ensure there are no missing sections or inconsistencies.

Please let us know if we’ve overlooked any details or if additional clarification would be helpful.

[lllwvlvwlll]

This is a great opportunity to have "something to do" in the ecosystem. Do you have any plans to scale? How do you plan to acquire users?

[marketmelee]

Hello @lllwvlvwlll,

Great question. First, we’re scaling through the physical Market Melee™ game itself. We’ve already conducted playtests with over 1,500 players across NYC and are now partnering with local game shops, coffee shops, and toy retailers to stock and demo the game. The next step is to host official playtests and community tournaments with cash or token prizes, leading into a full retail expansion by Q2–Q3 2026.

Secondly, we’re expanding the reach of our Web3 tournament platform beyond Market Melee. We’re in active discussions with other Web3 gaming projects to use our platform as their tournament infrastructure, allowing them to create contests, lock prize pools via smart contracts, and automatically distribute winnings to verified wallets. This positions us to onboard both Web2 players through real-world gameplay and Web3 users through competitive, on-chain tournaments.

Let me know if you have any other questions. Thanks!

[snakeyrob]

I'm also liking the concept and could be great activity for Neo X these type of games often have potential and it's often mentioned on discord people would love to see competitive betting games on Neo.

I'm also seeing some possibilities to apply this to our game War on Bugs in the future.

[marketmelee]

Hello @snakeyrob,

Thanks much for the feedback! We’d love to connect with other gaming projects in the Neo ecosystem — especially if they could leverage our tournament platform for matches, prize pools, or on-chain betting.

When do you recommend we move the proposal on-chain for review? Happy to make any final adjustments before doing so.

[snakeyrob]

Hello @marketmelee,

I would recommend to get a little more input from seasoned members before putting the proposal on chain.
I for one would love to hear how @gsmachado or @DylanNNT view this proposal.

And if possible I would love to see a demo video showcasing how it works on SKALE to get a better insight.

The idea of putting it on chain is that you are fairly certain the proposal will be endorsed and also important it doesn't need any edits anymore.

[marketmelee]

Hello @snakeyrob,

Thanks for the clarification. Below is a demo video to see how the application works on SKALE:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/10an1VUitsuBeN7tFvcni0fJhm2qkY0AA/view?usp=drive_link

In the meantime, I will wait for the other evaluations to decide how best to proceed. Looking forward to next steps!

[deanragnarok]

Hi @marketmelee

Thanks for the proposal.

From what I understand, growth of the platform you demoed above is strategically tied to your physical card game - but I haven’t been able to find much information about the game itself. I'm looking for information on gameplay, but also how you plan to approach manufacturing, distribution, etc.

I’m also curious to know: why Neo X? Have you applied for grants from any other platforms? And how multi-chain are you aiming to go with this project? Is there anything Neo or other platforms provide/could provide that would make it easier for your users to choose that chain over another?

[marketmelee]

Hello @deanragnarok,

Great questions. Thanks for taking the time to review our proposal in detail.

First, below is our pitch deck, which outlines Market Melee’s core gameplay, how the mechanics work, and how it bridges the gap between physical and on-chain gaming:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FaccrWZVE7GU6Vfrtivfv3CG1lMhbSO9/view?usp=sharing

Second, regarding production: we’ve already begun manufacturing. The first physical samples were completed in February 2025, and since then we’ve refined the game through over 1,500 playtests conducted around New York City. We are now finalizing mass production with Whatz Games and Lijia Game, two reputable board game manufacturers, after initially using MakePlayingCards for early prototypes.

For distribution, we’re building a Shopify storefront to sell decks directly, which will be paired with our tournament platform, where players can wager, vote on winners, and receive payouts automatically via smart contracts.

We’ve already received a grant from SKALE, who we integrated into both the game and our tournament website (now live). We also received support from Polygon, which we’re using to include Polygon-branded cards and ecosystem interactions in the next edition of the physical game.

Our goal with Neo X is to power the tournament infrastructure. Its EVM compatibility, speed, and governance make it ideal for our smart contract wagering system. By integrating Neo X, players can lock wagers, vote on verified match results, and have winnings automatically distributed, while tournament organizers can host competitions fully on-chain.

Beyond Market Melee, our long-term goal is to establish a reusable framework that other Neo-based games and GameFi projects can adopt for their own tournaments. We’d love to collaborate with teams across the ecosystem to help them leverage this same infrastructure, creating a shared, on-chain competition layer that adds real activity and utility to Neo X.

[DylanNNT]

GM @marketmelee the concept sounds really interesting, and it seems like you've already put in a ton of groundwork locating manufacturers and distributors. Kudos on getting your vision off the ground!

I've represented Neo at several booths over the past few years where we had on-the-ground activations using physical cards as part of a pvp battle game (think a very simple version of Pokemon-like battles). And these activations have been a hit with the people who played at the conference booth, but then they're left without opportunities to use their cards or participate in the game again.

I'm really curious to see how Market Melee plans to address this "re-activation problem."

From what you've included in your grant proposal, it seems like the game is largely reliant on in-person events. And while those are really fun, a) global community members don't get to participate in the gaming experience and b) local community members are left without ways to re-engage unless they attend another local event.

What would make this proposal standout is an element that incorporates an asynchronous ability for the Neo community to participate and play against other users across the world, without having to be in physical presence of one another. Are there plans to expand Market Melee beyond in-person events, and enable global communities to play in a digital forum as well?

[marketmelee]

Hello @DylanNNT,

Nice to be connected and great point about the “re-activation problem.” That’s exactly what our tournament platform is designed to solve.

Market Melee starts as a physical “UNO meets crypto” card game, but the real engagement engine is our on-chain tournament website, which allows players to host or join games anywhere in the world, wager with smart contracts, and vote on verified winners using Neo X. Once deployed, any project in the Neo gaming ecosystem can also use this same infrastructure to create their own tournaments or contests — effectively turning it into a shared, open framework for Neo-based GameFi.

For individual players, engagement continues long after their first match. Users can purchase decks through our Shopify store (linked below) and then use the tournament site to organize games, log results, or join online prize events. This gives both physical and remote players a unified platform that connects their real-world gameplay with Neo’s digital ecosystem.

Long term, we plan to develop a digital version of Market Melee so players can compete asynchronously across regions. We’ll begin fundraising for that expansion in Q1 2026, once physical distribution and gameplay refinement are complete.

In short, Market Melee serves as a Web3 onramp that bridges physical play and blockchain participation. Each match introduces new users to the Neo ecosystem in a fun, tangible way, while the tournament platform ensures the experience scales globally.

Shopify link -
https://pdybd8-xg.myshopify.com/ (password: sheimp)

Tournament website -
https://marketmelee.xyz

Tournament demo -
https://drive.google.com/file/d/10an1VUitsuBeN7tFvcni0fJhm2qkY0AA/view?usp=sharing