
Talking to the Protocol
An exploration into a new communication layer. By Gaby Goldberg & Sophie FujiwaraHISTORY OF DIGITAL SOCIALIZINGTo date, every iteration of the Internet has been ushered in by a technology to help us better communicate. This began with Internet Relay Chat (IRC) in 1988, and later in the 1990s, we saw the first major instant messaging platforms (ICQ, AIM, MSN, and Yahoo) all battle for market share. The early 2000s became a “gold rush” of sorts for instant messaging, with SMS becoming a global ...

TCG Crypto Year in Review 2023
Below is a written and abridged version of the annual presentation we recently shared with TCG Crypto investors.A consumer-first approach to emerging technologyTwo years ago, we launched TCG Crypto with the belief that blockchains could catalyze new user behaviors for consumer businesses. While many investors in this category were focused on lower-level infrastructure alone, we turned our attention instead to what we believed the technology would unlock: net new consumer platforms, experience...

TCG Crypto Year in Review
One Year DownDear TCG Crypto investors, collaborators, and friends, With over a year of the fund underway, we are excited to share with you our first Year in Review letter surrounding our portfolio and key areas of focus. In this letter, we outline our thesis for how we’ve invested over the last year, the areas where we’ve worked to build stronger points of view, and where we’re excited to spend time in 2023. Read on:By the NumbersIn the first half of this year, we closed TCG Crypto Fund I at...
Scaling consumer crypto.



Talking to the Protocol
An exploration into a new communication layer. By Gaby Goldberg & Sophie FujiwaraHISTORY OF DIGITAL SOCIALIZINGTo date, every iteration of the Internet has been ushered in by a technology to help us better communicate. This began with Internet Relay Chat (IRC) in 1988, and later in the 1990s, we saw the first major instant messaging platforms (ICQ, AIM, MSN, and Yahoo) all battle for market share. The early 2000s became a “gold rush” of sorts for instant messaging, with SMS becoming a global ...

TCG Crypto Year in Review 2023
Below is a written and abridged version of the annual presentation we recently shared with TCG Crypto investors.A consumer-first approach to emerging technologyTwo years ago, we launched TCG Crypto with the belief that blockchains could catalyze new user behaviors for consumer businesses. While many investors in this category were focused on lower-level infrastructure alone, we turned our attention instead to what we believed the technology would unlock: net new consumer platforms, experience...

TCG Crypto Year in Review
One Year DownDear TCG Crypto investors, collaborators, and friends, With over a year of the fund underway, we are excited to share with you our first Year in Review letter surrounding our portfolio and key areas of focus. In this letter, we outline our thesis for how we’ve invested over the last year, the areas where we’ve worked to build stronger points of view, and where we’re excited to spend time in 2023. Read on:By the NumbersIn the first half of this year, we closed TCG Crypto Fund I at...
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At TCG Crypto, we believe the best businesses are built around passion, where new forms of digital ownership accelerate new behaviors and consumer experiences. This thesis is not necessarily about creating or fostering new markets, but instead using crypto rails to unlock new experiences within incumbent ecosystems, expanding the ways consumers can engage. In short, we look for passion first. And when it comes to traditional gaming, nowhere is longstanding passion more obvious than in chess.

This past July marked 50 years since the 1972 World Chess Championship match between American prodigy Bobby Fischer and Soviet grandmaster Boris Spassky. The games, broadcasted live on PBS, took place at the height of the Cold War and sparked an unprecedented level of interest in the game.
Now, half a century later, chess’s popularity has exploded once again. As COVID-19 lockdowns funneled (just about) everyone online, chess grew as an esports category (see grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura, who started streaming his games on Twitch in March 2020) and Netflix launched The Queen’s Gambit to critical and popular acclaim in November 2020.

Today, there are an estimated 800 million chess players worldwide, and top platforms like Chess.com saw their number of monthly active users double over the last few years. It’s a game of pure skill — as the saying goes, chess is “easy to learn, hard to master.”

So where does the centuries-old game of chess go from here? Enter Immortal Game, which we believe is supercharging a hyper-passionate user base with a new layer of strategy and monetization, powered by digital assets.
With Immortal Game, the rules of chess don’t change. Instead, they’re enhanced with NFT-enabled gamification, league systems & quests, live games, and online education & learning tools supplemented by 50 on-platform Grand Masters.
With chess pieces as digital assets, a new layer of strategy is introduced, expanding the way the game is played. Each “Immortal” NFT chess piece comes with a quest attached: for example, Capture the queen first, or Win in less than fifteen moves. You play chess the way the game is traditionally played, but each NFT piece gives players the potential to earn by playing (and winning), and rise in the ranks of the Immortal Game community.
New forms of digital ownership change the economics of pursuing and participating in passion. We believe Immortal Game preserves the heritage of chess while simultaneously attracting a new group of players. Founded by serial entrepreneurs Thomas Zaepffel, David Cingala and Geoffroy Mestrallet, Immortal Game is created by and for the dedicated chess community, elevating the gaming experience for online chess players around the world.
We are thrilled to share that we’ve led the Series A in Immortal Game. We’re honored to work more closely with Thomas, David, Geoffroy, and the entire Immortal Game team, as well as friends around the table from Cassius VC, Sparkle Ventures, 35 Ventures, Spice Capital, and others. Want to get involved? Immortal Game is hiring across engineering, design, product, marketing, and more! More here.
TCG Crypto is an investor in Immortal Game. None of the information discussed herein is intended to be or should be construed as financial advice, or an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy an interest in any security. The information set forth herein has been obtained or derived from sources believed by the author to be reliable and has been provided solely for informational purposes. Nevertheless, the author does not make any representation or warranty, express or implied, as to the information’s accuracy or completeness.
At TCG Crypto, we believe the best businesses are built around passion, where new forms of digital ownership accelerate new behaviors and consumer experiences. This thesis is not necessarily about creating or fostering new markets, but instead using crypto rails to unlock new experiences within incumbent ecosystems, expanding the ways consumers can engage. In short, we look for passion first. And when it comes to traditional gaming, nowhere is longstanding passion more obvious than in chess.

This past July marked 50 years since the 1972 World Chess Championship match between American prodigy Bobby Fischer and Soviet grandmaster Boris Spassky. The games, broadcasted live on PBS, took place at the height of the Cold War and sparked an unprecedented level of interest in the game.
Now, half a century later, chess’s popularity has exploded once again. As COVID-19 lockdowns funneled (just about) everyone online, chess grew as an esports category (see grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura, who started streaming his games on Twitch in March 2020) and Netflix launched The Queen’s Gambit to critical and popular acclaim in November 2020.

Today, there are an estimated 800 million chess players worldwide, and top platforms like Chess.com saw their number of monthly active users double over the last few years. It’s a game of pure skill — as the saying goes, chess is “easy to learn, hard to master.”

So where does the centuries-old game of chess go from here? Enter Immortal Game, which we believe is supercharging a hyper-passionate user base with a new layer of strategy and monetization, powered by digital assets.
With Immortal Game, the rules of chess don’t change. Instead, they’re enhanced with NFT-enabled gamification, league systems & quests, live games, and online education & learning tools supplemented by 50 on-platform Grand Masters.
With chess pieces as digital assets, a new layer of strategy is introduced, expanding the way the game is played. Each “Immortal” NFT chess piece comes with a quest attached: for example, Capture the queen first, or Win in less than fifteen moves. You play chess the way the game is traditionally played, but each NFT piece gives players the potential to earn by playing (and winning), and rise in the ranks of the Immortal Game community.
New forms of digital ownership change the economics of pursuing and participating in passion. We believe Immortal Game preserves the heritage of chess while simultaneously attracting a new group of players. Founded by serial entrepreneurs Thomas Zaepffel, David Cingala and Geoffroy Mestrallet, Immortal Game is created by and for the dedicated chess community, elevating the gaming experience for online chess players around the world.
We are thrilled to share that we’ve led the Series A in Immortal Game. We’re honored to work more closely with Thomas, David, Geoffroy, and the entire Immortal Game team, as well as friends around the table from Cassius VC, Sparkle Ventures, 35 Ventures, Spice Capital, and others. Want to get involved? Immortal Game is hiring across engineering, design, product, marketing, and more! More here.
TCG Crypto is an investor in Immortal Game. None of the information discussed herein is intended to be or should be construed as financial advice, or an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy an interest in any security. The information set forth herein has been obtained or derived from sources believed by the author to be reliable and has been provided solely for informational purposes. Nevertheless, the author does not make any representation or warranty, express or implied, as to the information’s accuracy or completeness.
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