AnimeChain, announced Wednesday by the Arbitrum Foundation in partnership with the Weeb3 Foundation and Chiru Labs, aims to be a blockchain-powered one-stop shop for anime creators and fans.
The three organizations form the AnimeChain consortium, which says AnimeChain will provide an online anime ecosystem that is managed by the community. The network includes original and third-party anime content, games, merchandise, and NFTs.
“As a launch partner of AnimeChain, Azuki evaluated existing Ethereum scaling solutions with the Weeb3 Foundation,” Location told TBA – Azuki’s pseudonymous president – Declutter. “After meeting with several teams, Azuki and the Weeb3 Foundation felt that Arbitrum was the best fit for AnimeChain.”
Offchain Labs launched Arbitrum in August 2021 as an Ethereum scaling solution that uses optimistic rollups to accelerate transactions and reduce fees. It can process up to 40,000 transactions per second (TPS), which the group says will allow AnimeChain to quickly onboard millions of Anime fans.
In February, more than 50% of the ApeCoin DAO voted to use the Abritrum network for the upcoming “ApeChain.” That same month, Proof of Play, the studio behind the blockchain RPG Pirate Nation, said it would use Arbitrum for its upcoming games.
According to Location TBA, the idea for AnimeChain came about after they noticed that transactions on traditional networks were taking a long time and saw companies like Meta – where they claim to have worked – deploying entire teams to shave milliseconds off files. With block times of 250 milliseconds, TBA explains, Arbitrum will help bring web3 closer to parity with web2 for anime enthusiasts worldwide.
“After completing the technical due diligence, it was clear that Arbitrum is the highest performing scaling solution,” they said. “That’s why Azuki was an advocate for the Weeb3 Foundation to move forward with Arbitrum for AnimeChain.”
AnimeChain will be maintained by the Weeb3 Foundation, which developed the anime-focused network.
To ensure inclusivity and accessibility for anime fans new to the Web3 space, Location TBA said that AnimeChain will provide an intuitive user interface that simplifies interaction without requiring in-depth knowledge of blockchain technology, similar to more commonly used apps like Crunchyroll does not require any coding skills.
“We are excited to partner with the Weeb3 Foundation and Azuki to introduce AnimeChain,” Arbitrum Foundation Head of Ecosystem Development Nina Rong said in a statement. “With the most advanced blockchain scaling technology in the industry, Arbitrum will enable AnimeChain to redefine the anime experience for fans and creators around the world.”
The Abritrum Foundation launched in March 2023 to support and grow the Arbitrum network and community.
Azuki was launched in January 2022 by Los Angeles-based Chiru Labs. The collection of 10,000 anime-themed NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain currently has a minimum price of 4,868 ETH, or approximately $17,583, on Magic Eden.
“Launching its anime productions, games and physical products on AnimeChain, [Azuki] provides a blueprint for other top-tier anime IP that can be built on-chain,” said Location TBA.
Edited by Ryan Ozawa.