Blockchain gaming startup Proof of Play raises $33m seed round

Blockchain gaming startup Proof of Play, led by former Zynga head of software development Amit Mahajan, has raised $33m in seed funding.

Introducing Proof of Play, an onchain game studio & technology company.

We are delighted to announce our $33m seed round led by @a16z and Greenoaks, with participation from incredible angels & founders incl. @naval @balajis @justinkan @jtwald @immad @nikil @gabusch & many more. pic.twitter.com/c2BPShTdik

— Proof of Play (@ProofOfPlay) September 21, 2023

\n\n\n

The round was led by venture firms a16z and Greenoaks. Among the participants: former Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan, Twitch founders Justin Kan and Emmett Shear, and a number of other investors.

\n\n\n

Proof of Play positions itself as both a game-development studio and a technology company.

\n\n\n

\n

«Our mission is to create entertaining, accessible online games and, in the process, develop new technologies that make it easier for everyone to implement such applications», — said co-founder and CEO Amit Mahajan.

\n

\n\n\n

According to him, players do not care which platform — AWS or Ethereum — their favorite game is built on. Yet many blockchain products are perceived as complex and requiring expensive purchases. Therefore, Mahajan says, Proof of Play aims to provide users with «a simple and free gaming experience».

\n\n\n\n

Among the advantages of using decentralized solutions, he cited securing ownership of in-game items and the persistence of created applications, whose existence does not depend on the server owner’s decision.

\n\n\n\n

\n

«As one of the creators of FarmVille, I saw this firsthand: 300 million players spent more than a billion hours on their digital farms. In 2020, FarmVille was shut down due to the shift from web technologies to mobile gaming, and billions of hours of gamer investment were lost forever. There had to be a better way», — noted Mahajan.

\n

\n\n\n

He stressed that any data not stored on the blockchain is essentially ephemeral.

\n\n\n

According to the statement, Proof of Play will focus on developing its first product Pirate Nation, which exists in beta. It is a fully online role-playing game in which participants assemble their pirate teams, fight fantastical creatures and compete with each other.

\n\n\n

In May 2022, a16z launched a fund worth $600m to invest in ‘gaming infrastructure and metaverse technologies’.