Dark energy crystals are the official in-game currency of Splinterlands. Splinterlands is a digital trading card game that lets players own their cards and other assets. The HIVE blockchain powers the network, and every Splinterland is an NFT that a player owns. This allows the players to do anything they want with their cards, such as holding as collectibles, battling for rewards, burning_ _to obtain tokens, trading on the peer-to-peer market, etc.

According to their official document, in the other trading card games, when they go digital, the player ownership of their assets is lost. The companies owning the cards that are supposed to be owned by the players tend to withhold information, reprint cards, or entirely delete a player's collection due to inactivity or a violation of terms. Therefore, the Splinterland ecosystem aims to resolve these issues by making digital trading cards scarce, transparent, and giving ownership to players.

Unlike in other trading card games, Splinterlands battles are fast, and instead of being turn-based, players in this game have to assemble a team of up to six cards from their Splinterlands collection once an opponent is found.

Dark Energy Crystals or DEC are the ecosystem's native digital token. The tokens are earned as a reward from Ranked Battles. There is a pool of token rewards which is constantly divided among the players who win. Thus, the number of tokens that can be earned fluctuates. Other factors affecting the token's earning include how big the league is, number of players (the fewer the number of players, the higher the share of rewards) in the game, win streak (5 percent bonus), etc. The daily DEC reward pool in ranked battles is one millioon.

Further, the number of tokens is limited by the Energy Capture Rate. The ERC of a player gradually lowers each time they play a Ranked battle, and then it replenishes over time. 

The platform was started during the mid of 2018. The platform was founded by blockchain innovators who shared the same concern with mainstream digital trading card games.