Amitt Mahajan – founder and CEO of Proof of Play, the developer of crypto game Pirate Nation – predicts that there will eventually be thousands of dedicated blockchains, each supporting individual applications.
This comes after his experience building the viral Facebook game Farmville. During its time developing the casual farming simulator, Zynga managed approximately 64 databases simply to prevent the game from crashing. For Mahajan, the blockchain is just an advanced database.
“At the height, [Farmville] amounted to approximately 30 million daily active users. So to adapt a game to this, we had about 64 databases,” Mahajan shared Declutter‘s GG. “In this world, the blockchain is our database. We actually use the chain as our data storage. So to scale to a certain number of actual applications, we need to distribute transactions across chains.”
Previously, Pirate Nation built on the Ethereum scaling network Polygon, but moved to Arbitrum Nova due to rising Polygon gas rates. However, the project saw a problem with relying on shared networks, as the launch of a new project could increase gas rates for everyone in the chain.
In FebruaryPirate Nation explored the possibility of launching chains for itself and other developers using Arbitrum – in a project called Multichain.
The on-chain role-playing game Pirate Nation is now sailing on its own application-specific chain, Apex, and its founder believes this is the only logical future for other apps as well.
“Once you are an application at any scale, you need to be able to control your gas costs predictably,” Mahajan said Declutter. “My prediction is that there will be thousands and thousands of chains as people branch off from these shared layer 2s into application-specific chains.”
A screenshot of Pirate Nation. Image: evidence of play
We have already seen this trend in several blockchain networks. Several games that build on Avalanche use their own dedicated subnets, such as Shrapnel and the upcoming Off the Grid with its GUNZ network. In another example, Treasure is building its own Arbitrum-based Treasure Chain, which will include a web of ‘Infinity Chains’ or special gaming networks.
Since launching its own app-specific chain, Mahajan says Pirate Nation has started filling the chain with transactions, with the team already looking for a second chain for support.
“We have essentially reached Apex’s capacity,” Mahajan explained. “To scale the game further, we need to add the B chain, C chain and D chain,” he added. “We will be adding more chains in the future so we can continue to add and scale the number of users in the game.”
The Proof of Play Apex chain is now live with Pirate Nation!
Pirate Nation is now the first fully onchain game to be deployed on its own Mainnet chain.
This is the beginning of the Multichain: an infinitely scalable constellation of chains that will allow us to deliver onchain gaming to millions. pic.twitter.com/tlVFPWlAeS
— Proof of Play (@ProofOfPlay) February 29, 2024
Needing multiple chains may sound strange or concerning. But for Mahajan, who has experience building games in the world of Web2, this is nothing new. It’s just another riff on the same premise: needing scalable architecture to support growing games.
Mahajan worked for Zynga from 2009 to 2011, during which time he led the development of Farmville. In the Web3 space, developers aren’t worried about popular blockchain games crashing, but about rising costs due to network congestion.
When Pirate Nation was still on Polygon, the company said it paid up to $4,000 a day in gas fees to take them away from players, but that wasn’t sustainable for a startup. While it may seem like a big hassle to launch four or more chains to run just one crypto game, Mahajan sees a benefit from the extra power.
“It was difficult having to manage 64 databases for Farmville,” he said. “It’s difficult for us because we are the first to do it. But then it becomes a product.”
Welcome to Pirate Nation, an on-chain RPG from @ProofOfPlay, built at the intersection of casual gaming, web3 technology, and shared ownership and incentives.
A thread 🧵 discussing what you need to know about our game, our ecosystem, and our team.
Let’s jump in. 👇 1/many pic.twitter.com/aS9e4OvAuJ
— Pirate Nation (@PirateNation) July 5, 2023
Mahajan uses Web2 again to put this into perspective. Concepts like load balancing and caching had to be invented, the founder explained, before a product like Facebook could be built.
If we can make a game that reaches a million daily active users (DAU), that means you can build another dapp or a photo sharing site, or anything else that can also reach a million DAU.
—Amitt Mahajan, founder and CEO of Pirate Nation
This is part of Pirate Nation’s multichain offering, with Apex being the first network to launch. Multichain plans to open up to other game and dapp developers to launch their own networks, powered by Arbitrum Orbit, a Ethereum scale technology.
“It’s coming. There has definitely been interest,” Mahajan said. “We have to solve our own capacity issues before we take it off on others.”[issuesbeforewetakeonothers”[issuesbeforewetakeonothers”
Dedicated players
Pirate Nation’s expansion plans come after the game’s release PIRATE token in June. Are listing on Coinbase saw the value of the Ethereum token rise, but the price is not what the founder is concerned about when it comes to the launch of the token.
Instead, he wanted to focus on the 80% of claimed PIRATE tokens currently staked by users, according to a Dune dashboard. By staking these tokens, users earn Proof of Play (PoP) points that promise to unlock additional benefits within the ecosystem. In part, this high percentage is due to the fact that PIRATE tokens are not locked when staked, meaning users can still spend without penalties.
For the founder, the high percentage of tokens staked is a sign of community trust and a sign that the game isn’t attracting farmers who just want to dump the token.
“Striking is really an opportunity for people to reaffirm that they are in it for the long haul,” Mahajan explained, “so the fact that so many people, in such large numbers, have done it is encouraging.”
And for the dedicated gamers, the biggest on-chain event is just around the corner.
The second World Boss event will take place next month. This sees players join forces to take down bosses together, but also compete for their trade as the kill shot. Players would be rewarded for the damage dealt and receive a 1-for-1 NFT if they hit the kill shot.
This event will be the largest in-game event Pirate Nation has ever seen. This will likely put pressure on the network, especially since developers are already eyeing a second chain to split transactions. Will it stretch the Apex chain to its limits?
“We’ll see,” Mahajan replied, smiling.
Edited by Andrew Hayward