The gaming-focused blockchain platform Enjin has raised almost $19 million to develop a next-generation blockchain on Polkadot for non-fungible tokens.
In a March 31 announcement, Enjin introduced Efinity, a next-generation blockchain built for NFTs on the Polkadot ecosystem. The firm raised $18.9 million to finance the new venture in a round led by Crypto.com Capital, DFG Group, and Hashed. To date, the 2009 founded company has raised $37.8 million.
Other participants included Hypersphere, BlockTower, Blockchain.com Ventures, Fenbushi, Iconium, HashKey, Arrington XRP Capital, DeFi Alliance, and a number of celebrities and individuals. The funding, which was raised by selling Efinity tokens called EFI, will be channeled into the development of the new network.
To write the next chapter of NFT history, we need a blockchain that not only solves the problems faced today, but opens new possibilities for the #NFTs of tomorrow.
🛣️ Introducing Efinity: a next-generation blockchain built for #NFTs on @Polkadot https://t.co/IIjFPDVEqG pic.twitter.com/kwCGmjJw6u
— Enjin (@enjin) March 31, 2021
The Efinity blockchain will run on Substrate, the framework that powers the Polkadot ecosystem with development support from the firm behind the network, Parity Technologies.
Transactions are confirmed in 6 seconds, permitting high-speed response times needed for mainstream applications, the announcement added. It continued to explain why Polkadot was chosen over Ethereum stating that Efinity is designed to supercharge not only Ethereum NFTs, but NFTs from any blockchain.
In addition to Efinity, a platform called JumpNet will be launched on April 6 as a high-speed bridge network that will allow free, instant on-chain transactions of Enjin Coin (ENJ) and ERC-1155 tokens. No launch date was specified for Efinity.
Enjin CTO, Witek Radomski, stated that cross-chain compatibility is essential for the future of the industry:
“Digital assets should exist in a metaverse of blockchains. Opening up liquidity across multiple blockchains and use-cases will connect a broad ecosystem of creators, buyers, and sellers.”
Enjin is no stranger to the NFT space, having created the ERC-1155 standard for non-fungible assets in 2017. The Ethereum standard, which is used by companies such as Microsoft and Nike, is more advanced than ERC-721 in that a single smart contract can govern an infinite number of tokens. It can also carry out batch transactions which provide significant savings on gas and block times.
On March 23, Singapore-based Enjin formed an alliance with the publisher of the social gaming platform GameTalkTalk, Ludena Protocol, in a move to boost NFT exposure in South Korea. As reported by CryptoPotato, ConsenSys has also entered the NFT space with a new platform called Palm.
Enjin’s native token, EJN, jumped 9.5% on the announcement to hit a twelve-day high of $2.62. At the time of writing it had retreated a little to change hands at $2.48 according to CoinGecko.
Over the past 30 days, EJN has made a whopping 260% and hit an all-time high of $3 on March 16.
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