There are two different financial pools of UPX that make up the Upland game metaverse economy. The “Upland pool” and the “community pool”. Each one started with 50 billion UPX. The Upland pool exists to fuel in-game activities and fund operator (Uplandme Inc. -the company behind Upland) development. The community pool exists to sustain the game economy. When someone buys UPX from the store, that fiat money goes to Uplandme Inc., and the Upland pool pays the player the equivalent amount of UPX. The Upland pool is the exchange that will convert your fiat/crypto to UPX. As more money flows into the game, the amount of UPX in the Upland pool will continue to decrease. With that newly bought UPX, you can now mint properties or other assets in the game. With these purchases you will be paying the community pool. All of the property yields and rewards (such as collection bonuses, treasure hunting rewards, etc.) are paid out to the players from this pool. If you purchase/sell assets on the secondary market (from another player), each player pays a 5% fee to the community pool. If the asset is sold for USD, the 5% USD fee is paid to Uplandme Inc. and the UPX equivalent is deposited to the community pool from the Upland pool.
Players who are able to create value (or perceived value) from certain assets are able to demand increased prices for these assets, and sell them for profit. Similarly, Uplandme Inc. has also created value by developing , operating, and maintaining this platform. For this value they have created, they also expect to be compensated.
As indicated above, the Upland pool depletes when players inject fiat into the game, with that fiat going directly to Uplandme Inc. They also seek regular payments in UPX to cover their ongoing general operating and development costs. This UPX will replenish the Upland pool enabling the Upland pool to exchange more UPXf or players fiat. According to the white paper, this payment will be done by minting new UPX to the Upland pool, and an equal amount of UPX to the community pool in order to balance the flow of funds. The amount to be minted each month is a function of the number of monthly asset mints, blockchain transactions, and user activity.
In August 2022, Upland proposed an alternative way to transfer funds to the Upland pool. As written in the official Upland update, the proposal “optimizes the flow of UPX while supporting the in-game economy and the operator’s funding needs to grow Upland as a platform. Even more exciting, this path provides the foundation for the economic loops needed if Upland is to shift to a more decentralized platform.” Read more about the proposal here and how the Upland pool is funded.