Horizon Blockchain Games Inc., video game studio and blockchain distributed ledger infrastructure company, announced today a seed round of $3.75 million led by Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian’s venture fund.

This seed funding follows a global trend of blockchain technology being sought by companies to create secure digital assets that mimic real-life physical items. In this case, the virtual items are collectible and tradable cards for Horizon’s online game “SkyWeaver.”

The game is currently in private testing and the objective is to prove the value and capability of Horizon’s blockchain system to provide a secure platform for minting, issuing, owning and trading the virtual playing cards.

Using its own blockchain infrastructure and the Ethereum public blockchain, virtual trading cards in “SkyWeaver” can be minted in limited runs and retain actual rarity, players can also prove ownership of specific cards and securely verify trades with other users.

“Blockchain technology has given rise to the next generation of the Web: the Internet of value,” said Peter Kieltyka, co-founder and chief executive of Horizon. “This new Web marks the transition from applications as networks to applications as economies that share and exchange value with their users and co-creators, providing revenue sharing at a protocol level.”

Because the digital cards can be provably owned and traded, this provides them a value similar to physical counterparts used in trading card games with printed cards.

This tradability is the basis of numerous internal community economies for games such as “Magic: The Gathering” a wildly popular trading card game introduced in 1993. Cards such as a first edition “Black Lotus,” with artwork by Christopher Rush, in good condition, have been seen offered for sale for as much as $20,000.

According to Horizon, “SkyWeaver” blends the best aspects of online and physical trading cards and is designed to be accessible to both casual and competitive players. Players will be able to purchase cards in booster decks, compete in tournaments and win cards out of games that will become part of their virtual, blockchain-secured decks.

The players will then be able to play with, trade, gift or sell their cards on the Ethereum blockchain network for real-world value.

“At Horizon, we’re passionate about giving games blockchain super-powers by offering our players the freedom to own and trade their digital items across an open Internet,” said Kieltyka.

The game is expected to launch with cross-platform play – as a web-based game, it can run in almost any browser – and will debut with more than 300 unique cards of varying rarity.

“I cannot wait for people to play ‘SkyWeaver,’” said Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian. “It’s a brand-new gaming experience that resurrects all the fun of childhood collectible card games — in a browser — and with the ability to trade cards just like in the old days.”

Horizon’s “SkyWeaver” follows a trend of virtual trading card games taking advantage of the proof of ownership provided by blockchain technology. In 2016, the blockchain card game “Spells of Genesis” from EverdreamSoft SA launched with its own set of tradable cards on iOS and Android and earlier this month “Gods Unchained” from Fuel Games launched its own beta.

The cards from both of these example games can be traded in blockchain digital asset marketplaces between players and, due to rarity and card popularity, have real-world value. Blockchain technology has also been used to allow tradable digital assets from within video games, such as explored by cross-game marketplace DMarket and Gamania Group’s blockchain-based virtual item trading infrastructure.

Ohanian’s venture fund was joined by investors from Golden Ventures Partners Inc., Polychain Capital LP, Coinbase Inc., Digital Currency Group and Inovia Capital in this seed round.

“SkyWeaver” is expected to launch its public beta in Fall 2019.

Image: Horizon