Today, we are thrilled to announce HappyChain, the simple happy game chain.

Happy what now?

HappyChain is an Ethereum layer 2 blockchain that brings free-to-play and zero-friction onboarding onchain.

On HappyChain, you can start playing games in seconds, not hours. There is no wallet to install, and no gas fees to pay: you can log in with your social accounts and play straight away. Even your mom can do it.

We push this even further with universal happy income: every day players can earn some $HAPPY tokens which lets them try out real-value games without spending a dime. Free-to-play? Try free-to-pay-to-play!

For builders, HappyChain aims to be the ultimate onboarding and distribution channel — the easiest way to get players to try your games, bar none.

Free-to-play is the major player acquisition funnel in Web2 — it's crazy it doesn't exist in Web3. Asking users to pay $50 to try a game is absurd. We're here to fix that, and bring in the Web2 users while we're at it.

Additionally, HappyChain provides a best-in-class experience for building innovative games and social apps. Here are only a few of the features on our roadmap:

• Synchronous randomness: Math.random() in Solidity, not only request-response schemes that incur latency

• Private information support: avoid issues with commit-reveal schemes when the committer fails to reveal

• Event and state-based automation, but with a buttery smooth onchain UX

• Anti-sybil technology: grant extra benefits and target airdrops at verified players

• First-class support for offchain compute and zero-knowledge primitives

On the stack side, HappyChain will use the OP stack an use Celestia for data availability. These are two of the most legitimate infra projects in the space, and we're glad to be building on the shoulders of giants.

Working with them enables us to be decentralized and secure from day one. Thanks to our partner Caldera, we will also benefit from rock-solid battle-tested infrastructure.

Now you know what HappyChain is building. But why did we decide to build it?

HappyChain was born from a conversation that I (Norswap) had with Mr. Small of Small Brain Games fame at Komorebi's hacker house in Denver. Small came up with the name as a joke but at some point we wondered: what would we like to see in a gaming chain?

We liked our answers to that question, and HappyChain was born that very night. I was to build the chain, while Small would keep focusing on his studio, build initial content for the chain as our first partner, and advise the direction of HappyChain.

Today — three months later — a team has been constituted and we're ready to start cracking and build this out!

But what did we see in this new chain idea that motivated us so?

Many chains, little games — what we unlock

It seems like these days not a week passes without a new L2 being announced. And many of these L2s seem very interested in going after the onchain gaming market. Why do we feel we need to throw ourselves into this mad rumble?

It's very simple: nobody else is solving the right problems. There is too much infra and not enough content, too many solutions in search of a problem. We want to focus on real problems that builders are having, right now.

Instead of reinventing the whole stack and locking users into new unproven technical solutions, we take what works, and solve one problem at a time. Builders want solutions to problems, not new paradigms.

So let's focus on problem number 1.

The fundamental problem of onchain gaming is distribution: it's too hard to play the games we have — many of which are pretty fun.

The technology to solve these problems exists: we have social login providers and gas sponsorship infrastructure. But in isolation, these are not enough.

These technologies need to be integrated into a coherent whole, and the right level to integrate them is the chain level.

Let's consider what a non-crypto-native user has to go through to play a social-login game on an L2:

1. Install a wallet like Metamask (Are there instructions on how to do this?)

2. Secure your seed phrase (What is this? Why does it matter?)

3. Open a CEX account

4. Wire money to the CEX account

5. Swap for the chain's gas token (What is gas? What is the gas token?)

6. Withdraw the gas token to the chain

   1. If the chain isn't supported, withdraw to another chain — don't forget the gas token!

   2. … and find a bridge from that chain to your target chain.

7. Transfer the token to your game wallet (Don't forget to keep a little on the chain so you can withdraw!)

8. Play

How many users are able and willing to do that?(Don't answer, it's a rhetorical question.)

On HappyChain, the experience looks like this:

1. Sign up with your social account

2. Play

3. (optional) Use built-in fiat onramps or our canonical bridging hub to easily make in-game purchases… or claim your universal happy token to start playing real-value games, for free.

We believe this will unlock a flourishing of new fun games and experiments for anyone to play and build upon. The new technical affordances we make available to onchain game builders will further help towards this goal.

A different path, a different culture

We don't claim that zero-friction onboarding is a novel idea. We're not revolutionizing gaming or onchain social — we just want to bring fun experiences online and onchain: safe, trustless, and easy to use.

Compared to other offerings, we embrace permissionlessness and experimentation.

HappyChain is a place for everyone: we welcome both big-budget studios and independent builders trying to create something new. We endeavor to make HappyChain a hotbed for experimentation.

We're very excited about the new experiences made possible by the blockchain, and in particular by fully-onchain games — these open-source cannot be killed and can be forked, but still offer a clear path to monetization for their creators. They also make it much easier to enable user-generated content.

HappyChain is entirely permissionless, and so is integrating our wallet SDK. User-centric gas sponsorship can go towards any project, with additional gas sponsorship for our partners. We don't gatekeep 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 put it better than Mr Small, who contributed this to the original pitch for HappyChain:

HappyChain is an unserious light chain, with engaging content.

Our focus is on fun lighthearted experiences.

This is meaningfully different from existing chains.

DeFi-focused chains are about making money with yield farming and speculation, whether the tone is sober (e.g., Arbitrum) or degenerate (e.g., BeraChain). On HappyChain, making money is only a second-order consideration.

Existing gaming chains try to cater to serious gamers with ambitious games. While we see value in this, we believe the first step should be to focus on casual bite-sized gaming experiences and social interactions.

Finally, HappyChain will have its own unique, exclusive, and engaging content. This sets it apart from a score of copycat chains that only feature clones of popular DeFi apps and are glorified playgrounds for airdrop farmers.

Existing chains are dark, neon green, and hyper-technological.

HappyChain is light, fluffy, pastel, and humane.

And finally, I'll add this: we take the mission seriously, but we don't take ourselves too seriously. And we'll always give it to you straight.

Our biggest upside is on the corner of your mouth 🤠✌️

… wait, there's more!

This article is quite long already, but I could talk your ears off about what we have planned for HappyChain.

Stay tuned for more information about our vision for HappyChain, including:

• Information about the various features we have planned, as we build them out

• Our marketing plans, to turn HappyChain into an unstoppable distribution machine that not only helps you onboard your users, but also helps you find them in the first place

• Our plans for the utility of the $HAPPY token — it's the gas token of the chain, but there is so much more

• Our plans to distribute $HAPPY to the public (all I can say is “no bullshit”)

• Our initial perpetual airdrop mechanism (not going to lie, it's pretty dumb)

• In-depth explainers about our technology

• Spotlights on our gaming partners

• Stories from the front, and about our journey so far

You can follow us here on Mirror, on X / Twitter, and on Farcaster, or subscribe to this mailing list.

Until next time,

Stay Happy my friends 🤠