#842 Pokemon Home's integrating web3 tech
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Given any public blockchain is just a fancy open source database with relatively expensive transaction fees and an interesting security model, it’s something of a surprise to me that more apps and games haven’t been messing around with the technology, at least in terms of potential backend efficiencies.
But maybe that’s about to change with the surprising news that Nintendo appears to be using Parasol Technologies in its Pokemon Home app.
Although not officially announced by either company, the news appears to be true in that Pokemon Home updated its Privacy Terms on 23rd April and these now include Parasol in the English, Spanish, French, German, and Italian versions of the game, but apparently not the Japanese, Korean and Chinese versions.
This is what I was signing off on when I downloaded the app today.
Note: ILCA Inc. is a Japanese studio which partnered with The Pokemon Company to create their joint venture The Pokemon Works.
Hence it seems notable that Parasol is listed alongside the two direct developers of Pokemon games, not in paragraph (c) alongside service providers. If nothing else it suggests it’s holding a higher level of user data.
As for Parasol itself, it’s a US-based outfit with some Japanese staff, which has been building out its own web3 gaming infrastructure since 2022 and which was acquired by Mysten Labs, the ex-Meta spinout — which operates the Sui blockchain — earlier in 2025.
It only works on web3 tech — an end-to-end platform enabling game developers to implement functionalities such as “in-game item tokenization, marketplaces, and on-chain gameplay without compromising game quality”.
(It’s also working on its own web3 games including a game based on legacy Sega IP Code of Joker.)
Of course, integrating a blockchain gaming tech company’s technology is not the same as launching NFTs in Pokemon Go, which is where the more needy SEO headlines have been going.
Equally, however, Nintendo integrating blockchain tech into one of its key apps shouldn’t be ignored, even if it seems highly unlikely it will be directly exposing blockchain to its users any time soon.
A more plausible scenario would be it’s experimenting with blockchain in the background to better manage asset security between accounts. This is particularly relevant in terms of the way Pokemon Home — the ecosystem’s cloud-based hub for managing digital assets — allows players to gift and trade pokemon characters and other game assets.
Indeed, today’s news was also positioned around a specific update to Pokemon Home, which introduces a new medal asset, which is only available for mobile users, not for Switch — perhaps a nod to its highly experimental status and first use in a lower risk environment.
Medals are “digital souvenirs that can be claimed by visiting real-life places with a connection to Pokemon or by participating in Pokemon events. These medals can be traded with other players or sent to them as gifts”, the blurb explains.
Like any other Pokemon asset, these don’t possess any overt financial value but that’s not to say they won’t have any value per se. As limited-edition assets, people will want to collect them, just as in a wider sense all pokemon characters are part of a complex in-game rarity ecosystem. That’s the point. Some pokemon are really, really rare and hard to find.
And that’s why — despite EULAs — millions of dollars regularly change hands via grey markets trading in pokemons, game assets and complete accounts.
Using a blockchain in the background — or even a forked permissioned version of Sui — to better understand, manage and control these informal economics makes complete sense, even if that information is never exposed to players.
But given that we’re also bullish that some form of blockchain technology eventually becomes standardized within the games market, I think we can also dream a little dream that this sort of news is exactly what we would expect to see more of over time.
So I don’t think allowing players to trade these limited-edition medals using a new in-game Pokemon currency that’s offchain to players but onchain for Nintendo isn’t totally out of the question — in other words, blockchain without the crypto!
N.B. Having used various LLMs in the writing of this article, it’s fun to point out that after all questions I asked it, Claude decided to end our conversation thus:
“That said, I should emphasize that I don't have confirmed information about Nintendo actually implementing blockchain technology from Parasol in Pokémon Home. This would be a notable departure from Nintendo's historically cautious approach to emerging technologies.”
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Calendar
The Lost Glitches TCG launches on Steam — 29th April
Sangokushi Taisen - Battle of Three Kingdoms launches — 30th April
The Sandbox’s latest land NFT sale ends — 7th May
Revolving Games’s web3 4X mobile game War of Nova launches — 8th May
The Sandbox Alpha 5 Season ends — 17th May
Moonfrost launches early access — late May
Last game of Soccerverse Season 1 — 28th June
One Year Ago: I wrote about social farming campaigns — citing MON Protocol, Zentry, Carv etc — and suggesting “all these peanut-incentivized programs are doing is generating an infinite amount of monkeys”.
Was I right, or was I right?
Ronin Flexes Its Muscles news
When it comes to shock news from Sky Mavis, COO Aleksander Larsen is the company hatchet man, and that proved to be the case as it announced it was cutting ties to Ragnarok Monster World and its Singapore-based developer 0x&.
Stating on X that the team “had ignored our advice” as well as breaching an agreement by “secretly signing a deal with a separate blockchain” — Cross Protocol as announced on Thursday — Larsen said “the trust has been broken to such a degree that we are ending our professional relationship with 0x&”.
As Ronin is now a permissionless blockchain, Ragnarok Monster World can still operate on it and even launch its forthcoming ZENY token there, should it want to.
Larsen also backtracked on his initial threat to stop its NFTs being traded on the official Ronin Market, instead saying the collection would lose its checkmark, “making it clear that this is not a Sky Mavis endorsed/related game any longer”.
As for the background, Ragnarok Monster World held a very successful closed playtest in August 2024, peaking at 120,000 DAUWs, but since the mobile RPG’s global launch in October 2024 this has fallen away spectacularly to less than 100 DAUWs today.
No doubt this performance was the one of the reasons for 0x&’s decision to talk to other blockchains and also look to expand its web2 audience beyond leveraging more web3 features. Equally, this performance is likely why Larsen and Sky Mavis felt they had the opportunity to go so public about the situation.
As for his other hatchet jobs, Larsen enjoys needling blockchain gaming competitor Immutable, and recently claimed Off The Grid “doesn’t utilize the full advantages of web3”.
He also took to X to announce the end of Sky Mavis’ relationships with developers ACT Games (Zoids) and Bowled.io in March 2024, albeit wishing them “the best of luck”, a pleasantry not extended to 0x&.
🔗 Additional Links 🔗
Find Satoshi Lab has launched its GMT Pay app, allowing users to spend their GMT tokens in the real world via prepaid virtual Mastercard cards.
Arbitrum has pulled out of its involvement with the Nvidia-backed AI Ignition accelerator program, claiming the chip outfit refused it permission to use its name in any public-facing crypto announcements. #NoShill
Coinbase, Fabric Ventures and Animoca Brands have partnered with Founders Factory to launch a 16-week web3 and AI accelerator program for UK companies, including investment of up to £250,000.
Pixelmon’s mobile idle RPG is called Nova Thera Chronicles.
Inflows into crypto ETFs hit $3.4 billion last week — the third highest ever — as investors left equities for less volatile assets. 😂
🤖 AI-ditional Links 🤖
Holders of Pudgy Penguins, Azuki, Miladies, Meebits and Bored Apes can now create their own onchain AI agents via Treasure’s AI Agent Creator.