'Monopoly'-Style Blockchain Property Trading Game Raises $2 Million

FinLab EOS VC Fund and several angel investors have invested a combined $2 million in Uplandme, maker of a digital property-trading game running on top of the EOS blockchain.

Billed as "'Monopoly' meets blockchain," as in the classic Parker Brothers board game, the game enables players to buy, sell, and trade imaginary properties based on real-world addresses.

Unlike most digital games properties that are recorded on the blockchain throughout the gameplay will be truly owned by the players, not the gaming company, Uplandme says.

"We expect that the game momentum will be driven by the simple fact that there is a natural scarcity of available properties because they are based on real-world addresses," said Uplandme co-founder Dirk Lueth.

Lueth and his partners, Mani Honigstein and Idan Zuckerman, aim to disrupt the $50 billion market for casual games.

"One game night, while playing Monopoly and watching the Netflix series 'Stranger Things' we got thinking about a property game in a parallel universe and realized how properties that are based on real-world addresses can be the perfect collectible NFT," Lueth told CoinDesk.

Angel investors in the seed round include Kai Bolik, co-founder and CEO of Gameduell, a gaming community with more than 70 games and 130 million players worldwide; Jan Sprengnetter, CEO of Sprengnetter Group, a property valuation provider; and Markus Ogurek, a former vice president of Hewlett Packard Enterprise.

One, the company that built the EOS blockchain, and FinLab AG, which focuses on investing in German financial technology companies.

"We invested into Uplandme, Inc. because we like the genuine idea of a virtual property market powered by the EOS Blockchain and the very experienced and passionate team behind it," said Stefan Schuetze, managing director of FinLab EOS VC Fund.

Upland players will be able to trade their properties on a marketplace for an in-game currency called UPX. Beta testers are currently able to trade properties in a virtual San Francisco.