New services are being developed to reduce the cost of playing play-to-earn. Web3 startup Halliday has raised $6M in a new seed round. This was led by a16z, who aims to transform the way gamers purchase and use digital assets in virtual environments.
Halliday cofounder Griffin Dunaif said in an interview that “We started working back November.” So we created our demo, a pitchdeck, and pitched it to Andreessen. They liked what they saw.”
Hashed, A.Capital and SV Angel join a16z for the $6 million raise.
Akshay Malaya and Griffin Dunaif launched Halliday in November 2021. This service, which shares its name with Ready player One protagonist James Halliday, offers gamers a “play now/pay later” option. Halliday’s goal is to make in-game purchases for NFTs and proof of ownership easier for gamers who are frustrated by the high price of non-fungible tokens.
NFTs, cryptographically unique tokens, are linked to digital content (and sometimes physical content), providing proof of ownership as well as in-game purchases.
Co-founder Malhotra stated that “we want to make metaverse and game NFTs more accessible to players, so you shouldn’t see a very expensive price tag.” “We allow players to pay over time, and they can access the NFT while they play.”
Halliday claims it will launch its beta with blockchain game ” League of Kingdoms” within the next few weeks. The official rollout is expected later in the year.
Malhotra explained that Halliday allows players to access in-game NFT markets. Players can choose the digital collectible that they wish to purchase and either agree to a payment plan or buy it directly from Halliday.
Malhotra explains, “After that you just click Checkout. We buy the asset and give access [to the player]”. “We own the asset while you pay it off. We’ll eventually transfer ownership.”
The new play-to-earn industry is booming with buy-now-pay-later projects. DeFi lending platform Teller recently launched its NFT service Ape Now and Pay Later. It runs on Ethereum scaling platform Polygon.
Halliday allows you to integrate directly with marketplaces and games as an alternative payment option when you checkout. Halliday, however, allows the player to access the NFTs immediately after they are purchased.
Dunaif states that payments will be accepted in many [crypto] currencies as well as traditional payment methods such credit cards. This depends on the game and chain and how those NFT access right are actually created. No matter what system it is, you can play immediately while you pay.
Halliday employs a repo structure. If a player defaults in payments for the NFT the rights to access NFT are revoked.
Malhotra states, “Our entire system is designed to play first and we want it to be as riskless as possible to join.”
He stated that players who default on their payments may find it harder to use Halliday’s services in the future, and less likely to get approved. He said that defaulting on payments would not affect a player’s credit score in the same way as a defaulted bank loan.
Dunaif stated, “We see ourselves building economic infrastructure to enable the emergence of this new digital civilization.” A service such as this is essential for any mature and sophisticated economy to allow growth, and enable people to jump into new worlds and gain more items quickly.
