Blockchain gaming unicorn Animoca Brands acquires educational start-up TinyTap to build tokenised learning platform
- Animoca Brands, known for its blockchain-based games and The Sandbox metaverse, bought an 84 per cent stake in TinyTap for US$38.9 million
- The Hong Kong-based company said TinyTap, which allows users to create their own educational games, can enforce ownership rights with blockchain-based tokens
In a US$38.9 million deal, Animoca is taking an 84.13 per cent stake in TinyTap, which operates a platform for educators and parents to create their own video games without any coding experience.
Animoca said it will leverage its new acquisition to establish a platform for blockchain-based educational user-generated content (UGC).
“We empower educators to create engaging learning activities that can reach millions of children directly and that enable them to earn based on the success of their creations,” said TinyTap CEO Yogev Shelly. “By becoming a part of Animoca Brands, we will leverage blockchain to advance this vision and build a new education system that is independent of schools and governments, and that is owned and led by educators themselves.”
Animoca envisions an interactive platform, which it differentiates from traditional “passive learning” from textbooks, that allows educators to design tools and content with ownership rights enforced through blockchain-based tokens and rewards given out based on the “educational impact that they generate”. Certificates, qualifications and diplomas could also be issued as crypto tokens, the company said.
“With our acquisition of TinyTap – a strong and proven leader in the field of UGC education – we will leverage blockchain to make new opportunities available to educators worldwide, allowing them to generate equity from their creations while offering parents enhanced learning opportunities for their kids,” Animoca co-founder and executive chairman Yat Siu said in a statement.