a16z interprets why it led the investment in the blockchain gaming company Proof of Play with $33 million

a16z led $33M investment in Proof of Play, a blockchain gaming company.

Author: LianGuai0xjs

On September 21st, a16z announced that it led a $33 million seed round financing for the blockchain gaming company Proof of Play. Chris Dixon, a partner at a16z, and a16z Games Fund One explained the investment logic behind leading Proof of Play in a blog post.

Composability is one of the most powerful forces brought by blockchain: for the first time, users can obtain code, assets, and items from one application and use them in another. This was not possible in the previous era of the internet because each social network, marketplace, exchange, and game engine had its own closed server system. But in web3, everyone shares the same open database. On-chain developers can build new smart contracts to enhance existing protocols; artists can create derivative works; anyone can create new front-ends to present code in different ways.

These advantages extend to on-chain games: permissionless scalability, new clients, forking code, and opportunities for artists are all possible. For decades, many of the world’s most popular games have benefited from modding and user-created plugins: Counter-Strike was originally a mod of the 1998 game Half-Life (which itself was developed on the Quake II game engine in 1997). Sid Meier, the creator of Civilization, once said, “The power of the modding community is actually the fundamental reason this series survived.”

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On-chain games bring modding to the forefront – the entire community can own it.

That’s why we are excited to announce that we led a $33 million seed round financing for Proof of Play. Proof of Play is a blockchain gaming studio and technology company led by Amitt Mahajan. Amitt is an outstanding founder with unique expertise in both gaming and cryptocurrency: he co-founded MyMiniLife (acquired by Zynga), co-created the Zynga game FarmVille, and was the co-founder and CTO of the early NFT marketplace Rare Bits.

Proof of Play is dedicated to creating fun, complex, and innovative games that challenge the limits of modern blockchain. Its first on-chain game, Pirate Nation, is a social role-playing game (RPG) that was launched in December 2022. At first glance, Pirate Nation may appear similar to other RPG games, but it is fundamentally different at the core. Its on-chain game contracts provide developers with the building blocks to create their own games or expand the core world of Pirate Nation. Whether you want to create an RTS shooting game for Pirate Nation NFTs or a dynamic simulation game for one of the pirate characters, you can do it.

Amitt and the entire Proof of Play team are dedicated to the future of gaming, where composability, interoperability, and permanence are at the core: you own your assets, and anyone can create their own games based on other games. They are expanding their studio and technical team to create immersive new games and establish decentralized infrastructure that allows players to create and expand their own worlds.

We are delighted to support the realization of the Proof of Play vision.

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