Sokipiriye Dokubo
Amitt Mahajan, the creator and CEO of Proof of Play, the company behind the crypto game Pirate Nation, envisions a world where various specialized blockchains support different applications. This vision comes from his experience dealing with scaling challenges while developing Farmville, a well-known Facebook game.
At Zynga, Mahajan and his team managed around 64 databases to prevent Farmville from crashing due to its peak of approximately 30 million daily active users. He sees blockchain technology as an evolution of these traditional databases.
Pirate Nation initially operated on the Polygon network but later switched to Arbitrum Nova due to rising gas fees on Polygon. The project faced issues with shared networks causing increased gas fees for all users. Pirate Nation explored creating its chains and supporting other developers using Arbitrum in a project called Multichain.
Currently, Pirate Nation runs on its custom application-specific chain, Apex. Mahajan believes this approach will be crucial for other applications in the future.
Mahajan predicts that as projects transition from shared layer-2 networks to application-specific chains, thousands of chains will emerge. This trend is already visible across various blockchain networks with games like Shrapnel and Off the Grid on Avalanche using dedicated subnets and Treasure developing its own chain.
Pirate Nation has experienced rapid transaction growth on Apex, necessitating the consideration of additional chains for support.
In managing multiple chains, Mahajan sees it as a natural progression from his experience in Web2, emphasizing the significance of scalable architecture for game growth.
When Pirate Nation was on Polygon, the company faced high daily gas fees, prompting them to explore multiple chains to mitigate costs. Mahajan sees potential benefits in this approach.
Referring to his Web2 experience, Mahajan highlights the importance of concepts like load balancing and caching in developing successful products.
Pirate Nation’s multichain strategy aligns with the philosophy of enabling other developers to create their networks using Arbitrum Orbit.
Involvement of Dedicated Players
Pirate Nation launched its PIRATE token in June, gaining value after being listed on Coinbase. Mahajan focuses on the high percentage of staked PIRATE tokens as a sign of community confidence and long-term commitment.
An upcoming World Boss event in Pirate Nation will allow players to team up, defeat bosses, and compete for rewards, including a unique NFT. This event will be a testcase for the network’s capacity, considering the addition of a second chain for transactions.
“Will it push Apex to its limits? We’ll see,” Mahajan commented optimistically.