Twitch competitor Play2Live raises US$30 million in cryptocurrency sale

Play2Live is looking to use blockchain technology and its Level Up Coin to take down streaming giants Twitch and YouTube.

The results of the Play2Live initial coin offering (ICO) are in and the company achieved its goal of raising US$30 million to continue development of its platform. This joins a further US$16 million raised through private investment to give Play2Live a substantial bank of funds to play with as it looks to tackle the streaming game landscape dominated by Twitch and YouTube.

Built by a team with the best part of a decade of experience in the Russian esports scene, Play2Live uses the Ethereum blockchain to build a network that not only facilitates live streaming of gameplay and esports tournaments, but uses the Level Up Coin as an economy to provide a host of new income streams for users not seen in competitors like Twitch and YouTube.

How does the blockchain work?

The team argues that by basing its streaming service on blockchain technology it can provide eleven different revenue pathways for streamers, up from the five offered by Twitch. In addition, it can offer full control over how the smart contracts that define that revenue operate. What’s even more interesting – and unique – is that Play2Live gives viewers five revenue streams of their own to explore. They’re identified as “voting; internet channel sharing via P2P CDN; performing tasks set by streamers; betting and gambling”.

The team also ensures that one of its big advantages is that audience-size is not the only precursor to making an income. The various models are said to allow new streamers an opportunity to start earning right from the get-go.

"We are super excited and happy with the results of the main token sale event! This is an outcome of a carefully executed day-to-day operating of the highly professional international team. There is already a lot to be proud of: we held the world's' very first eSports tournament in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive with a crypto prize pool - Play2Live CryptoMasters. Peer-to-peer CDN technology tested during the tournament allowed us to save up to 30% of traffic per separate stream. That means everyone, including the viewer, will be able to earn with us. Beta version with this monetization channel will already be available this summer, and our team is ready to deliver all the unique features that we've promised in our White Paper" - Alexey Burdyko, CEO and Founder at Play2Live.

Game streaming is a booming sector, in particular around the growth in esports, with both Twitch (197%) and YouTube (343%) are continuing to see huge increases in involvement through 2017. In fact, by December, Twitch was enjoying over 27,000 concurrent streams during peak times.

Interestingly, the ICO was snapped up primarily by Asian countries, with China (18%), Vietnam (16%) and South Korea (15%) owning half the Level Up tokens. Whether this is an indicator of the kind of content early adopters can expect to see – and the languages being spoken – remains to be seen.