Matt Van

cto at @ProofOfPlay, building @PirateNation fully onchain. prev: serial entrepreneur/many time cto, tech lead @riotgames

[Amitt @amittm]

We've begun shipping out 2nd laptops to our team

We found that folks, both eng and non-eng, were limited by how many agents they could run at once on their machines. To draw a music analogy, it's like adding another deck to mix on.

[Matt Van @mattvv]

@fern was awesome working with you ser! will never forget your undying hate for the polygon bridge forcing us to create something new in mirroring!

[Dongduru ✳️ @Dongduru1]

🏴‍☠️ Week 22 @AbstractChain @PirateNation POP Arcade Strategy Guide

✳️ Week 22 will run for 8 days to align with the holiday season. It ends on Friday!

The Boss Raid has returned to a shorter round format. Personally, I prefer this. It would be even better if the difficulty decreases and those curse cards disappear.

Round Composition
1-1, 2-1, 2-2(Boss), 3-1, 3-2, 3-3(Boss), 3-4, 4-1, 4-2(Boss), 5-1, 5-2(Boss), 5-3(Main Boss). There are a total of 4 Sub-boss rounds and 1 Main Boss round. The Main Boss is the ICE Queen.

Character Recommendations
Admiral Longhorn: Highly recommended! He has excellent Area Attack capabilities, and his Echo Shot is incredibly powerful.

Koa Nalu: Another solid choice, especially if you want to focus on Evasion.

El Fuego: If you are aiming for a "Best Run," choose him. He possesses powerful cards specifically tailored for boss encounters.

[Lazy Bull Club | MBA #00716 @LazyBullClub]

The “Alpha” V1 version of our casino is live!

Randomness secured by @ProofOfPlay

Sign in with an email / X, deposit @apecoin into the self custody wallet provided, then play frictionless on-chain games with ZERO signing or transaction interruptions

V1 has Roulette, Dice, Plinko, Lootbox, Hide the $HOES, Mines & coin flip

We will be building our slot games next and V2 is already being cooked up.

For now, bets are low. After our main collection mint we will jack the bets up ⬆️

Only 150 people will be allowed into Alpha.

Welcome to the Lazy Bull Club 🎰

https://t.co/EYFsDqSYop

[Matt Van @mattvv]

@misspurple @EFDevcon @FOCGERS @ProofOfPlay @awtnmy @wighawag @lordOfAFew I know these guys! Good group :)

[Fishing Frenzy @FishingFrenzyCo]

Building an onchain economy comes with great responsibility

We're excited to partner with @ProofOfPlay and use vRNG to power important parts of Fishing Frenzy

[Base @base]

This week on Base:
 ■ @Coinbase rolled out DEX trading to all U.S. users (ex. NY). Millions of assets, moments after launch, right from the app.
 ■ $200M of USDC is already earning ~10% APY on @Coinbase in just two weeks, powered by @MorphoLabs.
 ■ Base Chain hit a new all-time high: $5.3B in TVL, nearly 3x from last year.
 ■ @benjitaylor joined the Base team as Head of Design.
 ■ The 20 winners of the Onchain Summer Awards were announced, with $200K in prizes awarded.
 ■ ‘The Based 500,’ a short doc on BaseCamp by @pttrn_ntgrty, was coined on @zora.
 ■ Launch Groups by @flaunchgg are live, meaning any token on Base can now be imported to Flaunch.
 ■ @blupryntco completed its first international KYI pilot and demoed the tech before Brazil’s central bank and regulators.
 ■ @ProofOfPlay's Marketplace API went live on Base.
 ■ @ethos_network introduced Ethos Broker for OTC trading and hit 25K contributors, 450K monthly visitors, and $5M+ securing reputation.
 ■ @sportfun is expanding to American football and basketball.
 ■ @bballxyz's beta is live, letting you draft your all-star squad and hit the court.
 ■ @PistachioFi added one-tap crypto buys via Apple Pay.
 ■ The @baseapp beta leveled up group chats, add AI agents like @flaunchybot and @bankrbot to trade or send money in seconds.
 ■ @KeyboardCatBase hit the streets of Miami, SF, and LA with a new campaign.
■ Examples of new tokens launched this week on Aerodrome include $PHI (@phi_xyz) and $PLAY (@itplaysout)
■ @Cypher_HQ_ launched new initiatives powering decentralized rewards and payments
 ■ @blackbird's FLYNET volume is up 1000% since launch, with Denver and SF live and LA next.
 ■ @CalaxyApp hit 10K new users in its first week.

Based builders keep shipping. The onchain world keeps expanding.

[Proof of Play @ProofOfPlay]

Proof of Work (Edition #1): Our new bi-monthly product update.

🎯 Reminder: Our mission is to onboard millions of people to web3 through fun and innovative products. Our strategy is building revenue-generating games and layering in the best parts of web3.

⏪ In Case You Missed It (last 2 weeks)
💠 Engaged with our strongest PN community supporters
💠 Streamlined the PoP ecosystem around $PIRATE
💠 Powered 20+ vRNG customers across 7 chains
💠 Supercharged PN Arcade with new themes & features (130+ ETH in lifetime revenue!)
💠 Perfected the first time user experience in Shiba Story Go, our newest mobile title

⏩ What’s next up:
🔶 Arcade: More weekly comps, including an exciting new partnership
🔶 Shiba Story Go: Additional new features shipping daily ahead of scaling up growth
🔶 Marketplace API: Many dev convos lined up

⚡At Proof of Play, we’re busier than ever, energy is high and vibes are great. Hope you’re as excited as we are.

[Adam Fern @fern]

We've reduced session lengths by 64% in the Proof of Play Arcade to ~9m!

Early on, we got A LOT of feedback from time poor (but money rich) degens that the game was too time consuming and wanted quicker sessions.

Prize pool is up to $15k this week, what are you waiting for?

[Matt Van @mattvv]

@fern @icobeast @solsticefi Please make the code “pineapplepizza” just rolls off the tongue

[Pirate Nation @PirateNation]

Presenting the $PIRATE Shop in the Proof of Play Arcade!

As part of our commitment to embracing a single token ecosystem, we're excited to reintroduce sinks for $PIRATE.

Arcade players can now buy packs of Mystic Rerolls with $PIRATE.

[Crusader🛡️ @airdropcrusader]

🌍 Rep Your Region Event Live Now in Pirate Nation PoP Arcade (2 days left)

📜Breakdown:

You’ll pick your country or region, and your Total Runs + Best Run will be tracked — with your region’s PFP flag flexing beside your score. Your Best Run score decides which flag shows next to your name.🗺️

Rep one of the following countries: USA, Ukraine, Japan, Brazil, Korea, Vietnam, EU, Hong Kong, and World Stars (everyone else). The teams were picked based on top PoP Arcade traffic.🚗🏎️

🧮 Key Mechanics/Scoring:

• Prizes are individual only — no team-level scoring🤷‍♂️
• Everyone gets the same starting deck🃏
• Top 100 on each leaderboard get paid🏆
• Prize pool split: 85% for Total Runs, 15% for Best Run📊
• Pot seeded with 3 ETH (50% above usual)💰

🆕 Fresh Quality‑of‑Life Additions & Game Changes

• See your current payouts in both ETH and USD💸
• Must draft a card each turn — no more passing❌
• Stormfront Assault is now a damage card💢
• Affinities matter more — be careful with how many hits you take🔯
• Armor‑piercing attacks: half damage ignores shields🛡️

⚠️ Reminder: XP distribution is handled by Abstract. The XP displayed on Tuesday reflects last week’s competition results — not the ones you’re playing now.

Time to hoist your flag and jump into Week 9 — the seas await 🏴‍☠️ Can you beat the US?🇺🇸

Play now ➡️https://t.co/7ZQIJuNCyC

@PirateNation @AbstractChain @ProofOfPlay

[Matt Van @mattvv]

@DroegeDaniel @SamSteffanina @PirateNation @amittm Amitts numbers were for hardware only, this is cloud costs for nodes, sequencers, indexers etc. Labor cost was not included and these were raw costs pop was not charging pn.

[Matt Van @mattvv]

State growth - Blockchains have to store the history of every action on-chain and we had over 1billion transactions on the chain, creating terrabytes of data that each node had to run on. Not cheap!

Hopefully state growth problem is solved in next few years to make it viable again!

[Matt Van @mattvv]

@DegenJablko @PirateNation @AbstractChain That pic of cyclops shooting the crab is awesome

[Matt Van @mattvv]

@Bearycoin @Bassokarhu @ProofOfPlay Beary are serious about climbing!

[100x @100x_Official]

Play to Earn is Dumb & @fern is Here to Tell You Why

You saw & read the article that sparked the debate on X

Now we're talking about where he believes crypto gaming must evolve & how @ProofOfPlay is going to take us there

Listen now & tell us what you think👀

[Matt Van @mattvv]

@Hisu0x @ProofOfPlay What team are you playing ser!

[Matt Van @mattvv]

@fern I asked AI if this was the perfect pizza and instead of answering the question it just send me this image and said no this is the best pizza

[Pirate Nation @PirateNation]

It's TIME for Arcade Week 7 - Bagholder Brawl!

More than $25k in prizes up for grabs - with a twist! Only the top three teams win.

Choose your Team, run up your score, and claim your prizes - full details of this week's updates below 👇