Protonia: Web3 Gaming Platform

Overview

Protonia is a Web3 game where the blockchain assets aren't decoration. Ownership is genuinely on-chain, and getting a wallet doesn't require any crypto background at all.

Problem

Most Web3 games make you clear a wallet-first obstacle course before you ever see the actual game: install an extension, buy gas, connect, approve. Most players never make it past that wall. On top of that, the "on-chain assets" in a lot of these games feel bolted onto an existing game rather than built as part of the core economy from day one.

Solution

Protonia is built frontend-first, like a normal web app. Wallet creation runs through Privy, which handles embedded and social-login wallets so nobody needs a pre-installed browser wallet just to try the game. Under that friendly surface, asset ownership is real: Solidity contracts deployed on the Base network, not a database row pretending to be on-chain.

Architecture

• React
• TypeScript
• Vite
• Solidity
• Web3.js
• viem
• Privy Wallets
• Alchemy
• Base Network

The frontend is React, TypeScript and Vite, the same client setup used across other SharapovLab projects. Solidity contracts deployed on Base define the on-chain asset logic. viem and Web3.js handle contract reads, writes, and chain interaction from the client side. Privy provides embedded wallet creation and login, which matters a lot for players with zero crypto experience. Alchemy is the RPC/node provider behind it all, keeping chain access reliable instead of flaky.

Features

• In-game assets with real on-chain ownership, not a database record dressed up to look like one
• Embedded wallet onboarding through Privy, no external wallet extension required to start playing
• Built on Base, which keeps transaction costs far below Ethereum mainnet

Technologies

• React
• TypeScript
• Vite
• Solidity
• Web3.js
• viem
• Privy Wallets
• Alchemy
• Base Network

Gallery

None yet.

Videos

Roadmap

1. Core wallet onboarding + asset contracts

2. v2 visual and systems overhaul

3. Public relaunch + expanded game economy

Challenges

The hard part was balancing real on-chain ownership against the expectations of players who've never touched a crypto wallet in their life. That tension is exactly why wallet creation lives inside the regular sign-up flow instead of demanding MetaMask before someone can even look around.

Lessons

Treat the wallet as an implementation detail of login, not a toll booth someone has to pass through before using the product. That decision mattered more for actual adoption than which chain or contract standard sits underneath it.

Future

Growing the on-chain economy and the variety of assets on top of the existing Base infrastructure.

Changelog

v2 shipped a major visual and systems pass across the whole game.

• Three unrelated color palettes got replaced with one shared sci-fi design system: shared theme tokens, fonts, reusable panel/button/bar primitives, applied consistently across the hub, wallet, character sheet, duels, map, and marketplace.
• The header now shows live ETH/PRTN balances and network status at all times, not just when you open the wallet dropdown.
• On the character sheet, the portrait finally uses its intended frame art, and the inventory pulls real item names, types and bonuses instead of showing raw item IDs.
• The duel screen swapped attack/defense dropdowns for a clickable hit-location diagram matching the on-chain body-part model. This also fixed a real bug where accepting a duel could end up targeting the wrong on-chain request after an earlier one had expired.
• The solar system view got a visual overhaul (glow, nebula backdrop, orbit rings), plus a fix for planet, sun and ship images that were silently failing to load.
• A new Galaxy Map connects the game's actual sections in one hub-and-spoke view.
• The marketplace went from a dead, unrouted stub to a working buy/list/cancel flow, including the on-chain approval step.
• A smart contract audit turned up real issues, now fixed: access control on victory updates, corrected referral logic, a duplicated character-state mapping removed, clan-buff fees actually enforced, hardened battle randomness, unchecked ETH transfers replaced with reentrancy-safe calls, and optimized duel/leaderboard lookups. These fixes exist in source now and are pending redeployment.
• A full Hardhat test suite now covers every one of those contract fixes.

GitHub

Private repository. The codebase isn't public.

Demo

No public demo right now.

FAQ