The Cryptonomist had the pleasure of interviewing the team behind Coliseum, a fast-growing Web3 gaming platform that’s already attracted over 2.5 million active players. In this exclusive conversation, they reveal how their Guardian Network, seamless onboarding, and a new $2M investment fund are reshaping the future of esports, making it fairer, more transparent, and more immersive than ever before.
- Competitive gaming has long struggled with issues like cheating, match-ffixing, and unfair rewards. How does Coliseum leverage blockchain to solve these problems and create a more transparent ecosystem?
Bots, cheating, and match-fixing have plagued online competitive gaming for years — and with hundreds of thousands of tournaments happening every day, they’re harder than ever to track. At Coliseum, we believe blockchain has a foundational role to play in restoring trust. At the center of what we’re building is the Guardian Network: an
anti-cheat framework and verification layer that ensures every match, result, and player action is reviewed and confirmed by a structured network of trusted participants. That verification becomes part of a player’s identity — a track record of behavior and credibility that carries forward. Blockchain supports this by locking in verified outcomes and anchoring trust.
But beyond that, blockchain also introduces transparency into prize distribution and player performance tracking. Every reward, result, and participation metric becomes verifiable — removing ambiguity and creating a more trustworthy environment for players, developers, and fans alike.
- Web3 gaming adoption has been hindered by complex onboarding and skepticism from traditional gamers. How is Coliseum making Web3 gaming feel as seamless as Web2, and what’s driving player growth?
Most Web3 gaming platforms overcomplicate the experience. They ask players to learn wallets, deal with gas fees, or engage with tokens before they’ve even played a match. That’s never been our approach. We’ve designed Coliseum to feel familiar to Web2 gamers
– log in, join a tournament, compete. That’s the starting point.
We abstract the Web3 elements into the background, only introducing them when they enhance the experience – like enabling provable rewards or eventually, player-owned digital assets. Our growth, showcased by our player base of over 2.5 million active gamers, has come from putting gameplay first and letting blockchain support the experience, not define it.
- With over 2.5 million active gamers, what has been the biggest surprise in player behavior or engagement since launching Coliseum?
We had two big surprises, to be honest. First — we expected early traction from
Web3-native players, but what caught us off guard was how quickly traditional gamers embraced the platform. Once we removed the typical friction — wallets, gas, token gates
— the onboarding felt familiar, and they just… stayed.
The second surprise was how much players valued provable rewards. We thought transparency would be more of a backend benefit, something players might appreciate passively. But it’s become central. Knowing that rewards, outcomes, and participation are verifiable on-chain has reshaped how trust works in online competition. For a lot of players, that’s become a reason to keep coming back.
- Coliseum is exploring predictive markets as part of its gaming experience. Can you explain how these markets work and how they could reshape competitive gaming and esports?
Prediction markets offer a new layer of engagement for fans and players alike. Rather than just spectating or participating, they allow users to forecast outcomes – who will win a match, how long a game will last, even meta-based decisions like hero picks or loadouts.
These markets aren’t about speculation for its own sake. They’re about deepening immersion. When fans can stake on what they believe will happen, it increases watch time, community discussion, and overall ecosystem activity. For developers and organizers, it also opens up new revenue streams and analytics insights. We see predictive mechanics as a powerful tool to make esports more participatory – not just for pros, but for the entire community.
- The esports industry is evolving rapidly, with increasing integration of blockchain and Web3 elements. What role do you see Coliseum playing in the next generation of competitive gaming?
We don’t see ourselves as a Web3 platform bolted onto gaming – we see ourselves as the future of competitive gaming, period. The tools we’re building, from our investment fund to the upcoming Guardian Network, are designed to make esports more scalable, more transparent, and more rewarding.
Our role is to bridge what gamers already love with what technology can make better.
- Coliseum’s new $2M investment fund aims to support emerging Web3 gaming projects. What kind of teams or innovations are you looking to back, and how will this fund help shape the future of blockchain gaming?
We launched this fund to address a clear gap in the market: great builders with strong ideas, but limited access to capital and infrastructure. We’re backing teams who are solving real problems – whether that’s improving transparency like BubbleMaps, or scaling infrastructure like Everreach Labs.
We’re particularly interested in projects that don’t just “do Web3” but do it with purpose. That means seamless integration, gameplay-first design, and long-term community
thinking. Our support isn’t just financial—we provide access to our ecosystem, player base, and strategic expertise. We’re building an interconnected web of collaborators who can collectively raise the bar for what Web3 gaming should be.