Curio Research raised $2.9 million in seed funding as it sets out to change the mechanics of how users interact with blockchain-based games, beyond the financial incentives it says have driven the space so far.

Founded in 2022 by engineers and gamers Kevin Zhang and Yijia Chen, Curio’s on-chain games are powered entirely by smart contracts. These enable a new way of multiplayer computation that allows all participants to contribute to what they call a "shared universe" of code and data. This, they say, leads to games built almost entirely by players.

The round was led by Bain Capital Crypto, with participation from TCG Crypto, Formless Capital, Smrti Lab, Robot Ventures and various angel investors, according to the release.

The money will be used mainly to expand the team, with a focus on hiring blockchain engineers, a micro-economist, game designers and a client engineer, who will work on how the game looks and feels. Curio will also look to hire an art director and a community manager. Zhang and Chen are both fluent in Chinese, so there is the potential for expanding their search beyond the English-speaking market and into China.

(By Lucy Harley-McKeown)

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