Published on: 05/08/2022
Halliday raises $6 million to develop BNPL platform for P2E NFTs
Web3 startup Halliday has raised $6 million from Hashed, A.Capital, SV Angel, as well as several angel investors in a seed round backed by Andreesen Horowitz to develop a “buy now, pay later” platform for play-to-earn game NFTs to make the genre more affordable and accessible to a broader audience.
The company, founded by Griffin Dunaif and Akshay Malhotra in 2021, aims to make proof of ownership and other blockchain-related transactions more affordable by giving players an option to access NFTs while paying over time.
Halliday believes that rather than a high upfront cost, a payment plan with smaller increments would make purchasing items in an NFT marketplace more accessible. It would therefore allow players access to the NFT from the moment the payment plan starts, rather than only at the end, unlike traditional layaway services.
“We want to make game and metaverse NFTs a lot more accessible to players, and you should not see a very high price tag,” said Malhotra. “We [allow] players to pay over time and access the NFT, playing while they’re paying.”
The company will be testing the feature with its new blockchain game, League of Kingdoms, within the next few weeks, with a full rollout coming later in the year. Players can access the NFT marketplace in-game and either buy a digital collectible in one go or use Halliday’s payment plan.
“After that, you just click Checkout, we buy the asset, and give access to [the player]. We hold ownership while you’re paying it off. Eventually, in the end, we’ll transfer ownership,” said Malhotra.
About Halliday’s payment plan
The company plans to accept a variety of traditional payment methods, such as credit cards as well as crypto. Individual details will have to be worked out on a case-by-case basis with each marketplace or game, but Halliday is dedicated to keeping the core experience intact. Players will be able to play or use their NFTs the instant they start paying, not after all the installments are complete.
To address concerns of players taking advantage of the system, Halliday uses a repo structure. If a player defaults on the payments, access to the NFTs is revoked. A player that consistently defaults on their payments will find it harder to make use of Halliday’s payment plan, though unlike a bank loan, this would not affect their credit score.
Halliday is looking to be player-first and minimize the risks a player takes when spending money on a blockchain game or product and hopes that by lowering the barrier to entry for blockchain gaming, players who were on the fence will be willing to give the genre a shot.
The company has also dedicated itself to transparency by avoiding hidden fees, promoting long-term community interaction, and creating organic growth in the blockchain ecosystem by working with developers to empower the players.
“We see ourselves as building economic infrastructure to facilitate the emergence of this digital civilization. Any sophisticated and mature economy needs a service like this to facilitate growth and let people jump into worlds and gain items more quickly,” Dunaif said.
