Author: HappyChain
Translation: MetaCat
Typesetting: MetaCat
Today, we are excited to announce the launch of HappyChain, a simple chain for happy games.
What is HappyChain?
HappyChain is an Ethereum L2 blockchain that brings free games and zero-friction on-chain onboarding experience.
On HappyChain, you can start playing games in seconds, not hours. No wallet to install, no gas fees to pay: you can log in with your social account and play games instantly. Even your mom can do this.
We take this a step further with Universal Happiness Income: Every day players can earn some $HAPPY tokens that allow them to try games with real value for free. Free games? Or rather, free to play!
For developers, HappyChain aims to be the ultimate onboarding and distribution channel: the easiest way to get players to try your game.
Free games were the primary player acquisition channel for Web2, and it’s hard to imagine that this model doesn’t exist in Web3. Asking users to pay $50 to try a game is simply ridiculous. We’re here to solve this problem and attract Web2 users in the process.
In addition, HappyChain provides a first-class experience for developing innovative games and social applications. Here are just some of the features on our roadmap:
Synchronous randomness: Math.random() in Solidity is more than just a request-response scheme that generates latency
Private information support: avoid the problem of disclosure when the submitter fails to disclose
Event- and state-based automation, but with a smooth on-chain user experience
Anti-sybil technology: providing additional benefits and targeted airdrops to verified players
Good support for off-chain computation and zero-knowledge primitives
In terms of technology stack, HappyChain will use the OP stack and be part of the Optimism Superchain. We will use Celestia for data availability. These are two of the most reliable infrastructure projects in the space, and they generously provided us with funding to support our happy vision!
Working with them enables us to be decentralized and secure from day one, with support for chain upgrades through Optimism governance. We will also benefit from rock-solid, battle-tested infrastructure, thanks to our partner Caldera.
Now you know what HappyChain is building. But why did we decide to build it?
HappyChain was born out of a conversation between me (Norswap) and Mr. Small of Small Brain Games at the Komorebi hacker house in Denver. Small came up with the name just for fun, but we wondered at some point: what would we like to see in a gaming chain?
We loved our answer to this question, and HappyChain was born that night. I was responsible for creating the chain, while Small continued to focus on his studio, producing initial content for the chain as our first partner and advising on the direction of HappyChain.
I can neither confirm nor deny that Small definitely looks like this.
Today, three months into the Hacker House, the HappyChain team is assembled and we’re ready to start hacking and making this happen!
But what do we see in the idea of this new chain that inspires us?
Many chain reactions, mini-games, what have we unlocked?
It seems like there’s a new L2 being released every week. And many of them seem very interested in entering the on-chain gaming market. Why do we feel the need to jump into this crazy race?
The reason is simple: No one else is solving the right problems. There is too much infrastructure, too little content, and too many solutions looking for problems. We want to focus on the real problems that builders face right now.
Rather than reinventing the entire stack or locking users into unproven new technology solutions, we take a proven approach and solve one problem at a time. Builders want solutions to problems, not new paradigms.
So let's focus on question 1.
The fundamental problem of all-chain games is distribution: existing games are too difficult to play, including many very interesting games (Words3, Primodium, Skystrife, forceprime.io, darkshuffle.dev, Realms.World).
The technology to solve these problems exists: we have social login providers and gas sponsorship infrastructure. But these alone are not enough.
These technologies need to be integrated into a coherent whole, and the right level to integrate these technologies is the blockchain layer.
Let’s consider what a non-crypto native user would have to go through to play the social login game on L2:
Install a wallet like Metamask (are there instructions on how to do this?)
Protecting Your Seed Phrase (What is it and why is it important?)
Open a CEX account
Transfer money to CEX account
Exchange the gas token of this chain (what is gas? what is a gas token?)
Withdraw gas tokens back to the chain
1> If the chain is not supported, withdraw to another chain: Don’t forget the gas tokens!
2> And find the cross-chain bridge from this chain to the target chain.
Transfer the tokens to your game wallet (don’t forget to keep a little on-chain so you can withdraw!)
play games
How many users are able and willing to do this?
The average Web2 user experience in Web3, according to Happy Labs’ user focus groups.
On HappyChain, the experience is like this:
Register using your social account
play games
Make easy in-game purchases using the built-in fiat on-ramp or our canonical cross-chain bridge, or claim your universal happy tokens to start playing real-value games for free.
Another satisfied HappyChain user.
We believe this will lead to a wealth of interesting new games and experiments for everyone to play and build. The new technology we provide to on-chain game developers will further help achieve this goal.
Different paths, different cultures
We don’t think that frictionless onboarding is a novel idea. We are not going to revolutionize gaming or on-chain social networking, we just want to bring a fun experience online and on-chain: secure, trustless, and easy to use.
More than any other product, we embrace permissionlessness and experimentation.
HappyChain is a place for everyone: we welcome big-budget studios and indie developers trying to create new things. We strive to make HappyChain a hotbed for experimentation.
We are very excited about the new experiences that blockchain brings, especially the new experiences that fully on-chain games bring. These open source games will not be eliminated, can be forked, but still provide creators with a clear path to profit. They also make it easier for user-generated content.
HappyChain is completely permissionless, and the same applies to integrating our wallet SDK. User-centric gas sponsorship can be targeted to any project, and additional gas sponsorship can be provided to our partners. We do not control the experience: any project can easily set up their own gas sponsorship.
But honestly, HappyChain is about so much more than that. I don’t think I could have said it better than Mr. Small, who contributed the following in the initial pitch for HappyChain:
HappyChain is a non-serious light chain with very attractive content.
Our focus is on a relaxing and fun experience.
This is significantly different from existing chain stores.
Chains focused on DeFi are all about making money through yield farming and speculation, whether their tone is serious (such as Arbitrum) or decadent (such as BeraChain). On HappyChain, making money is only a secondary consideration.
Existing chain game companies try to cater to serious gamers with ambitious games. While we see the value in doing so, we believe the first step should be to focus on casual, small-scale game experiences and social interactions.
Finally, HappyChain will have its own unique, exclusive and engaging content. This sets it apart from many copycat chains that only contain clones of popular DeFi applications and are playgrounds for airdrop farmers.
The existing chain is dark, neon green and high-tech.
HappyChain is light, fluffy, soft and human.
Which path belongs to the full-chain gamer? (Yes, I know the correct picture is not neon green, but I couldn't find a better one, and we fired the intern, he wasn't happy enough.)
Finally, let me add this: We take our mission seriously, but we don’t take it too seriously. We always speak our mind.
Our biggest advantage is at the corner of your mouth?✌️
…Wait, there’s more!
This post is already quite long, but I can tell you in detail about our plans for HappyChain.
Stay tuned for more information on our vision for HappyChain, including:
Information about the various features we plan to build
Our marketing plan is to turn HappyChain into an unstoppable distribution machine that not only helps you attract users, but also helps you find them in the first place.
Our plans for $HAPPY token utility: it’s an on-chain gas token, but there’s more
We plan to distribute $HAPPY to the public (all I can say is “no bullshit”)
Our original permanent airdrop mechanic (which was honestly pretty stupid)
A Deep Dive into Our Technology
Spotlight on our gaming partners
Stories from the front lines and our journey so far
You can follow us on the Mirror, X/Twitter and Farcaster.
Until next time, stay happy my friends ?