According to Foresight News, blockchain gaming startup Proof of Play, founded by FarmVille co-founder Amitt Mahajan, has raised $33 million in funding. The investment round was led by a16z and Greenoaks, with participation from Mercury, Firebase, Zynga, and Alchemy. Individual investors included Ravikant, Balaji Srinivasan, Twitch founders Justin Kan and Emmett Shear.

Proof of Play aims to create fun and easy-to-use blockchain games. Its first game, a social role-playing game called 'Pirate Nation,' released a test version in December last year. In the game, players can battle, craft, trade, and explore while searching for digital tokens marked with PGLD. Amitt Mahajan, CEO of Proof of Play, has an extensive background in the gaming industry, having not only created FarmVille but also held executive positions at Zynga and founded Toro, which was later acquired by Google. FarmVille has over 300 million players and is ranked as the number one game in Facebook's history.