most crypto onboarding starts with the least interesting part.
you need to download a wallet, understand an address, fund it, sign something, and learn what a network is.
and somehow we expect normal people to be excited about that.
I've always thought the better question was:
what can make someone WANT a wallet before they even care that they're using one?
that idea is what became
@NimHunt_ .
I built NimHunt for the
@nimiq Mini Apps Competition, but I don't really see it as a hackathon project anymore.
I want to turn it into an actual game people keep opening inside Nimiq Pay.
the thesis is pretty simple:
most wallets are transactional.
you open them when you need to send, receive, swap or check a balance.
then you leave.
but if wallets are becoming application platforms, they need experiences that give people a reason to come back even when they don't have a transaction to make.
games are one of the most natural ways to do that.
so NimHunt turns Nimiq Pay into a daily adventure.
you get 3 expeditions every day.
choose a mission:
💎 Gem Runner - collect 6 gems and survive
📦 Chest Hunter - open 4 chests and survive
🔐 Vault Breaker - recover the Temple Key, unlock the ruins and reach the Vault
then you enter Angkor.
and this isn't a connect wallet then press claim crypto game.
there's an actual game underneath it.
you move through a grid-based ruin.
there are gems, poison, spikes, chests, Goblins, boulders, keys, gates, HP, different room layouts and puzzles.
and every mission tells you exactly what success means before you move.
that's important because real NIM rewards are skill-based.
random chest loot can change what happens during the adventure.
it can heal you, give you gems, give you a sword or absolutely ruin your day 😭
but it can never randomly give you the NIM reward.
the flow is:
- complete the mission.
- survive.
- and get verified.
that's the rule.
and this is where I wanted the blockchain side to disappear into the game instead of sitting awkwardly beside it.
starting a real expedition is authorized through Nimiq Pay.
your wallet signature becomes your expedition authorization.
when the mission ends, the browser doesn't get to tell the backend:
"trust me bro, I won."
your actions have been checkpointed during the run.
the server independently replays the expedition and reconstructs what actually happened:
- where you moved
- your final HP
- which gems you collected
- which chests you opened
- whether you had the key
- whether the gate opened
- whether you really reached the objective
only a valid run becomes reward-eligible.
then Nimiq Pay appears again at exactly the moment it makes sense:
> when you seal the treasure.
the server generates the exact reward claim, your wallet signs it, the reward slot is reserved atomically, and the NIM settlement happens through the reward infrastructure behind the game.
so the loop becomes:
play
→ achieve something
→ understand why your wallet is needed
→ sign
→ receive real value
instead of:
download wallet
→ stare at empty balance
→ figure out what you're supposed to do next.
and that's really the bigger thing I'm trying to test with NimHunt.
I think games can become an onboarding layer for crypto ecosystems.
imagine somebody discovering NimHunt because a friend shared a leaderboard.
they open Nimiq Pay because they want to play.
their first wallet signature isn't some random approval dialogue they don't understand.
it's:
"start my expedition."
their first NIM isn't something they had to go to an exchange and purchase before knowing why it mattered.
it's treasure they earned inside a game.
their next reason to open the wallet isn't because someone told them Web3 is the future.
it's because today's missions reset and they're one place away from someone on the Hall of Heroes.
that user is learning the ecosystem through behaviour instead of documentation.
and that is the direction I want to keep building toward.
NimHunt already has a Treasure Bank that tracks secured and delivered rewards.
verified expeditions feed streaks, points, gems, chests, expedition time and monthly rankings.
the Hall of Heroes currently has:
- Pathfinder.
- Relic Keeper.
- Unbroken.
- Golden Hand.
- Chestbreaker.
- and Fallen Legend because apparently failing more expeditions than everyone else also deserves recognition 😭
but Angkor is only World 01.
I've already designed the product around expanding into more worlds.
- Bavaria.
- Siberia.
- new puzzles.
- new enemies.
- new mission types.
- seasonal hunts.
- community challenges.
- richer Hero profiles.
- competitive events.
and eventually I think there is room for ecosystem partners to create skill-based quests or sponsor expeditions without turning the experience into ads or random paid rewards.
the game becomes a reusable distribution surface inside the wallet.
new users come for the experience.
Nimiq gets the onboarding.
existing users get a reason to return.
and ecosystem products eventually get somewhere engaging to meet those users.
that's the part I'm most excited about.
because if this works, NimHunt isn't really competing with another wallet feature.
it's competing for a few minutes of someone's free time.
and if a wallet can win that, that's a very different relationship between people and crypto.
underneath NimHunt right now is a deterministic game engine, server-authoritative replay system, Postgres proof layer, wallet-bound claims, guarded automated payout infrastructure and 900+ automated tests.
but honestly, I don't want players thinking about any of that.
I want them thinking:
"where is the sixth gem?"
"how do I move this boulder?"
"why is this Goblin still following me?"
"please don't let me step on poison again."
and then, when crypto finally becomes useful:
- seal the treasure.
that's NimHunt.
Explore. Survive. Seal.
built for the Nimiq Mini Apps Competition, but something I fully intend to keep building after it.
🎮
nimhunt.vercel.app
💻
github.com/Devendurance/nimh…
if you have
@Nimiq_Pay , go enter Angkor.
I want to see whether we can get enough explorers in there to make the Hall of Heroes genuinely difficult to enter 👀