Bitcoiners are passionate. But bitcoin is complicated. We want to share the importance of the monetary revolution with our friends and families, but watch their eyes glaze over when we approach common technical concepts like mining, nodes, nonces, private keys, halvings or the mempool. How can we also engage the tactile and visual learners?

BLOCKHUNTERS is a thrilling board game with all these elements woven together. It teaches high-level concepts by calling players to work together and against each other to win the game. It is made for bitcoiners, precoiners and anyone with a competitive spirit (ages 12+) to enjoy. Ultimately, Blockhunters was designed as the perfect tool to orangepill your loved ones.‎‎ ‎

We (Arnold & Emily) want to bring our prototypes to reality and into the hands of plebs. The game is already on it’s 4th iteration and the prototype has been played dozens of times, adjusting the gameplay closer to optimal each time. To make the next steps (final prototype > last round of testing > professional design > manufacture > launch) happen, we need external funding to help us achieve this!

Family testing current prototype

HOW IT WORKS

Everyone has private keys. Everyone mines. Everyone makes blocks and together, builds a blockchain. Everyone verifies whats happening and everyone works towards that one goal: stack as many sats. But watch out! Don’t reveal the color of your private key, because otherwise your stacked sats will be stolen.

But it’s more than just fun, the gameplay models the reality of bitcoin and demonstrates its deeper concepts.

During the game, you will have the opportunity to answer questions and dive deeper and deeper into bitcoin, like:

• Why is it harder and harder to get new bitcoin? – Scarcity
• What if someone gets to know my private key? – NYKNYC
• What do miners do? – Guessing nonces, making hashes
• Why is it impossible to cheat with blocks and transactions? – Everyone verifies everything.
• What is the mempool? – A box with unconfirmed transactions

Blockhunters solves the problem in various ways: explaining bitcoin with an universal language (game and fun) for families and friend (communities) using graphics and physical objects (visual art), which makes bitcoin understandable for everyone – both young and old.

Group testing at a meet-up in Bitcoin Island, Boracay

Educational component aside, Blockhunters has multiple factors that make it actually fun… it involves bluffing and deception, hiding and revealing, and balances strategy with just enough randomness to keep it exciting; often involving a big reveal at the end! Crucially, this game is not turn-based: All of the action takes place simultaneously.

The continuous gameplay creates the feeling of an evolving story, one where tension builds with every block that’s made and everyone plays in suspense to find out what will happen next and who will win.

For the exact details of the game I’d like to refer you to the manual and current print files to give an idea. Important note: this is prototype and far from ready. And that’s why we need your help.

We made a video of the gameplay. In five minutes you’ll understand the basic concepts of Blockhunters!https://www.youtube.com/embed/nYCQWN-zUxI?showinfo=0

PROOF OF WORK

Blockhunters doesn’t start today. It already started more than two years, when I (Arnold) came up with the idea and sketched it with pencil and paper. After graduating in 2019 as a Industrial Product Designer, I decided to NOT work a single second on my profession, but dove into the rabbithole as copywriter and entrepreneur – fulltime into bitcoin. As a former product designer and bitcoiner from the class of 2016, I was very passionate about the education of our native internet money.

I made a bitcoin documentary in El Salvador (Bitcoin Beach) and Boracay (Bitcoin Island), translated several bitcoin books to Dutch (through Konsensus), co-founded the first lightning pay-per-view media publication of Europe (BitcoinFocus.nl) and much more.

In 2020 I came up with the idea to combine my two expertises: bitcoin and product design. I made booklets, magazines, wrote articles and made videos. But there was one educational resource missing: graphical and interactive education. This is how Blockhunters started. At the end of 2021 I finished first iteration: it looked like a craft project but it worked!

Over the years, I did many iterations, played the game dozens of times, made countless prototypes, changed the gameplay, printed and played it over and over again and eventually came up with a version that deserves broader attention.

I had put the game down for over a year when I met Emily, a professional graphic designer with expertise in branding. She has experience with package design and an incredible eye for detail and style. She was extremely intrigued and asked if she could play, inspiring me to bring it back out again.

Emily improved gameplay immediately with her fresh eyes and creative insights, helping bring Blockhunters one step closer to the final version. She suggested improvements and came up with design solutions that will make this final prototype something special. After including these gameplay updates in the upcoming (and final) prototype, the next step will be for Emily to professionally design the final graphics, print files and all digital collateral/branding needed to sell it.

ACHIEVING OUR GOAL (AND NEEDS)

We’ve gotten the game to a point where we need funding to continue. It’s finally time to take the next steps: finalizing the gameplay + professional design. I hope you can help us with that!

We need some financial support to bridge the gap. We want to realize the board game up to a point where it’s ready to be manufactured and in the hands of the people (both bitcoiners and precoiners). But to reach that, there is still work to be done. We would like to break it down in some smaller costs:

• Final prototype design and print with newest gameplay ideas ($600)
• Focus group and rounds of testing ($500)
• Professional graphic design, package design and branding ($3000)
• First manufacturing test batch (package, boardgame, pieces, manual) ($500)
• Finalize supporting assets (website, paid social ad campaign leading back to Geyser) ($1000)

After this we will be able to continue (to fund) Blockhunters through different channels, directly offering our awesome product to the public. Blockhunters will be ready for (on-demand) production and bitcoiners can start orangpilling their loved ones. Help us bring people together with fun bitcoin education accessible for everyone on earth in any language.