Blockus
The GameFi sector is one of the most promising and rapidly growing areas in the crypto industry. Currently, 62% of all decentralized application activity is attributed to gaming projects.
As of 2024, nearly 42% of the global population, or approximately 3.32 billion people, play video games. In Southeast Asian countries like the Philippines and Indonesia, over 90% of internet users are gamers.
It's evident that β gaming sector is a prime source for bringing a large number of users into Web3 games, potentially sparking mass adoption of crypto technologies worldwide.
According to many industry experts, GameFi is expected to be the narrative of the next market cycle. By 2030, the volume of Web3 games is projected to reach $600 billion, driven by the active engagement of Web2 users.
However, few gaming projects show a stable trajectory for their game tokens. The in-game economy of most games fails to demonstrate long-term stability. As a result, major investors generally avoid gaming projects, even promising ones.
The exception lies in infrastructure projects within the GameFi sector, which have the potential to show excellent results. With the increasing number of Web3 gaming projects, the growing interest in games with integrated crypto economies, and the rising demand for quality GameFi infrastructure from game development companies, these infrastructure projects are poised for success.
Blockus β innovative project at the intersection of gaming and blockchain technologies. It tackles the significant challenge of attracting a large number of users by seamlessly connecting the Web2 and Web3 spaces.
For any user, regardless of whether they have a crypto wallet or know how to mint NFTs β the gaming experience remains unchanged. All payments can be made directly with a bank card, just like in Web2 games.
The Blockus platform assists game development studios in attracting players and easily creating Web3 gaming tools that are seamlessly integrated into the gameplay.
The company's "wallet-as-a-service" model, NFT marketplace, and payment processing for both fiat and cryptocurrencies allow game studios to focus on game creation rather than on blockchain infrastructure development, in which they may lack expertise.
What challenges does the project solve?
Blockus provides a unified entry point for both Web2 and Web3 users, offering gaming projects:
- Accessibility: instant access to all Web2 users, totaling over 3 billion people.
- Seamlessness: invisible multi-network crypto wallets for Web2 users to support blockchain and cross-chain needs of game developers.
- Immersive gaming experience: in-game transactions and confirmations are no longer distractions, allowing players to focus better on the game.
Blockus allows users to purchase in-game assets directly with their bank cards, without requiring their direct involvement in Web3 transactions. - Payments: invisible to users, integrated multi-chain wallets for all in-game needs.
Blockus provides comprehensive coverage in Europe, North and Latin America, and Southeast Asia. The platform supports 173 countries.
Blockus provides comprehensive NFT management.
For example, the gradual introduction of NFTs, seamless for Web2 users:
- Issuance of NFT characters that will be used in the game.
- Use of NFTs to access exclusive content.
- Use of NFTs as entry tickets to tournaments.
As users immerse themselves in the gameplay, they begin to smoothly interact with the Web3 wallet.
Game developers will be able to:
- Use the "in-game NFT marketplace" service without the need for its development (fully equipped).
- Mint and transfer NFT assets using gasless transactions.
- Use the mechanism of burning multiple NFTs to obtain a new higher-level NFT.
- Utilize API tools for NFT locking and staking to earn in-game rewards.
Blockus enables integration with L1 and L2 gaming blockchains, allowing game developers to attract users from new networks to their gaming projects.
The project provides the ability to easily integrate exciting gaming solutions from third-party developers, similar to how modular website-building platforms like Tilda or WordPress allow integration of ready-made blocks into a project.
- 100% security: users must be confident that their assets are safe. Blockus is created by those who have managed multi-billion dollar payment systems such as Airbnb and institutional-level crypto asset custody in projects like Coinbase. Smart contracts are fully audited by the industry's leading auditors.
- Scaling as a service: created by those who prioritize scaling the gaming audience. The Blockus platform toolkit offers game studios the ability to easily scale up to 100 million players from the start while maintaining full security and regulatory compliance.
- Full legal compliance: the platform allows for the release of fully Web3-compliant games without the risk of violating any regulatory requirements. Blockus collaborates with 4 independent legal advisors, ensuring that all solutions provided by the platform fully comply with legal requirements in the USA and worldwide.
The project already has a demo version launched on the Polygon and Sui blockchains.
Team
An American team with a solid resume, based in New York.
Strong portfolio: centralized exchange Coinbase, leading DEX exchange on the Ethereum network Uniswap, online gaming platform Roblox, home rental service Airbnb, the world's largest retail company Walmart.
Co-founders and key names in the company:
- Jess Zhang β co-founder and CEO.
An experienced data analytics expert with a background in the gaming industry (Roblox), travel (Airbnb), and social media (Kik). Formerly a senior data specialist at Roblox, she contributed to the development of their analytics department and the entire analytics stack for developers.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jezzthez/ https://twitter.com/jessziyuezhang - Linglong Zhu β co-founder and CTO.
Former software developer at renowned global companies such as Airbnb and Walmart. At Airbnb, she created a unified payment interface for all company products, and at Walmart, she worked on optimizing search engine performance.
https://twitter.com/0Linglong0 - Michael Wei β co-founder and head of production.
An engineer by profession with experience in product and software development. Michael previously held leadership positions as Product Director and Senior Software Engineer at Tagomi (a digital asset brokerage acquired by Coinbase), and later served as a Senior Technical Specialist at Coinbase.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelywei/ - Samuel Mao β senior software engineer.
Has extensive experience in software-related roles in both Web2 and Web3 companies. Previously a Senior Software Engineer at Genie, and after its acquisition by Uniswap, transitioned to the role of Senior Software Engineer at Uniswap.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/samuel-mao/
Investors
Strong investor base led by legendary fund Andreessen Horowitz (a16z).
Blockus has gone through the 2023 crypto startup school by a16z crypto β world's most prestigious crypto startup accelerator.
- Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) β most renowned venture capital fund globally, known for its expertise and quality of investments. Based in Silicon Valley, it invests in early-stage tech startups in sectors like AI, bio and healthcare, consumer, cryptocurrency, fintech, gaming, and infrastructure. a16z manages assets worth $42 billion across multiple sector-specific funds.
In the Web3 sector, its a16z crypto fund created this incubator for crypto startups and became a personal mentor for Blockus.
Getting into the accelerator was challenging: over 8,000 startups applied, but only 26 were chosen. Blockus was selected outside the usual selection process. Two of the most successful accelerators β Ycombinator ΠΈ a16z crypto, competed for collaboration with the project.
a16z showed great persistence and speed, convincing Blockus founder Jess Zhang to join their accelerator program.
Throughout the program, the a16z team extensively supported the project's development, provided access to mentors and consultants, helped the startup expand its Web3 industry connections, and connected it with potential investors. Upon completing the crypto accelerator, the project received a $500k investment from a a16z crypto.
- Pre-seed round led by angel fund Maple VC, which supports founders with Canadian roots and develops Canadian Web3. Its most notable crypto investments include Ethereum, Binance, and Roblox. The fund is also famous for investments in high-tech Web2 startups like Uber, Slack, Notion, and OpenAI.
- Bryan Pellegrino, founder and CEO of LayerZero β a major project recently invested in.
- Venture partner at BlackRock β Paul Taylor.
- Former CTO of the stock trading app Robinhood β Johan Kerbrat.
- Co-founder of the gaming metaverse Sandbox β Sebastien Borget.
Token Utility
- Participation in management and voting. Token rewards will be distributed among active community members.
- Staking: token holders will receive rewards for staking.
The $BLK token will be subject to burning and deflation.
Tokenomics
The tokenomics are still being finalized. The round conditions we are participating in are the same as those for the lead investor of the Seed round. Two top funds, Spartan and ABCDE, are competing for the lead investor position.
Social networks & links
π Website: https://www.blockus.gg/
π Documents: https://docs.blockus.com/docs/getting-started
π¦ Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/HelloBlockus
π» Youtube: https://youtu.be/0MuBfn1jhWk
π» LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/helloblockus/
A large number of representatives from tier 1 venture funds such as a16z, Spartan, and Arrington Capital, as well as ecosystem projects related to the GameFi direction like the Sui blockchain, follow Blockus on Twitter/X.
a16z also follows the personal Twitter/X account of the project founder, Jess Zhang.
The Blockus platform allows game project developers to focus on game mechanics and graphics by providing them with a wide range of blockchain tools and numerous integrations with useful GameFi modules to create more immersive gameplay and an efficient game economy.
Blockus is the project that will ensure the mass adoption of crypto technologies. With a strong team of developers experienced in major Web2 and Web3 companies and powerful investors led by the legendary a16z, we highly recommend adding this highly demanded, potentially leading project to your crypto portfolio.