Insert Stonks from Poland is an innovative gaming platform where participants can win money without fear of their opponents cheating. Using blockchain technology resulted in a British investment fund valuing the company at $10M.
The challenge was to do it safely. It became possible only after the popularization of blockchain and WEB3 technologies, which allowed financial tokens to be embedded in online solutions. Previously, only top e-sports players had this opportunity. Przemysław Wierzbicki and Stanisław Frelek, founders of Insert Stonks, decided to democratize it so much that everyone playing their favorite games could earn money.
Investor for what?
From 2022, the company has an investor in the form of the London-based VC fund FunFair Ventures, which earned a lot of money from creating and selling online games. Since then, the number of platform users has increased to 23,000. Przemysław Wierzbicki previously specialized in game localization, but he became seriously interested in this market only under the influence of blockchain. In 2021, together with Stanisław Frelek, who had experience in the cryptocurrency market, they provided users the game “Road 2 Moon”, which used it. It is a retro racing game having an added monetization mechanism (Play2Learn). It enables the collection of tokens that could be exchanged for money.
When it turned out that the new technology could also be used in other games, the idea of building a platform was born. They were helped in finding an investor by Fred Thiel, head of Marathon Digital Holdings. It is a company with a capitalization of $3.7B that deals with developing the blockchain ecosystem. The other was Cole Diamond, co-founder of Coinsquare and Tetra Trust, two leading Canadian cryptocurrency companies. In addition to money, the company received much substantive support in marketing, reaching the gaming community and technology.
Different types of games
The new gaming platform had to have popular games to attract interest. So the priority was to develop open technology that would allow developers to quickly and easily integrate games. To begin with, the company released eight games, including “Counter-Strike: GO,” the fourth most popular online game in the world. Because of 1.4M players, it allowed to gain credibility on the market. Today, the number of games available on the platform is 54. The launch of the “Rocket Bot Royale” game was significant because it was the first multiplayer game on the browser. The complete migration of players’ accounts was also necessary. Thanks to it they can use their achievements acquired while playing this game on other platforms.
How to earn money?
You can make money on Insert Stonks in 2 ways. Firstly, by participating in tournaments financed by the gaming platform and sponsors who treat it as advertising. There are dozens of games weekly, with prize rates of up to USD 1,000. Small gratuities (up to $10) are also paid to those who frequently participate in competitions. The second way is to compete with friends when the players themselves decide on the potential winnings.
Safety of gaming
The critical challenge is to ensure the safety of the games so that participants cannot support themselves with bots. To combat this effectively, the company uses AI algorithms that profile players based on how they use the game. The system needs data from several dozen minutes of gameplay to create a unique participant profile. In addition, there is an identifying token using the user’s selfie. If the system detects that someone has used the bot at least once, it can block it.
Plans for future
The company is now investing in attracting as many players as possible to build the site’s critical mass. He treats Poland as a testing ground because the cost of acquiring another participant is relatively low here. At the same time, it improves the gaming platform’s operating technology. Of course, the company does not forget to acquire players from new markets, which is best in Turkey. And what does the company want to earn in the future? First, on small commissions from winnings and transactions on the platform. There are 2.7 billion gamers worldwide, so acquiring even a fraction can make millions of dollars in profits.
More news about Insert Stonks is here.
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