Introduction to zkGame DAO

Community SNS Launch Proposals
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Hello everyone,

It’s been an eventful month since our last announcement regarding our intention to launch zkGame DAO on the SNS. We’ve been hard at work improving our platforms and integrating your valuable feedback.

Our launch proposal is live on the NNS! Vote now!

Changes made since our last post include:

  • All of our code was open sourced 2025-05-21
  • Display errors for token deposits (reported here have been fixed and our first ICRC-1 tournament completed with no issues!
  • Public Sale allocation has increased from 20% to 25%
  • Revisions to Whitepaper, including section 4.5 which highlight our capabilities based on various funding targets in the sale phase.

Much like our last post we will provide a brief overview below, deferring to our Whitepaper for a more comprehensive look.

zkGame Summary

zkGame was founded by a team of crypto advocates, some of whom have been involved in the blockchain industry for nearly a decade. With wide variety in backgrounds and skill sets, we found common ground through our love for technology and decentralized innovation. Given this commitment to decentralization, our network of choice quickly became the Internet Computer due to its unique capabilities. Eventually leading us to begin development on the IC in March 2024.

With zkGame we’re focused on building a fully decentralized, provably fair, and tamper-proof suite of games which have wagering elements. Initially, we’ve narrowed our sights to Poker due to its popularity and the dire need of products like ours in the online Poker industry. We feel that these factors combined provide a strong foundation for rapid market penetration and user acquisition.

Leveraging the SNS to decentralize control of our canisters is a crucial step towards realizing our vision of creating the most open, secure, and fair gaming platforms of their kind. We are moving beyond the half-measures of the past, embracing the full potential of decentralization offered by the IC.

Why build on ICP?

This is a question we often hear from investors and other developers alike. While the answer might seem obvious to many here on the Dfinity forums, it’s not always clear to those less familiar with the ecosystem.

Our team started this journey blockchain-agnostic. We didn’t initially set out to build specifically on the Internet Computer, but we knew that blockchain technology in a broader sense was key to realizing our vision. We invested significant time and effort researching various solutions before ultimately committing to the IC.

The reality is, there were no comparable alternatives. Other chains simply wouldn’t allow us to build without compromising key aspects of our vision. This approach might seem unconventional to some who choose a network before even having a concrete idea. For us, however, it was a purely technical decision based on what made the most sense for our products.

Our Products

We currently have two live products: zkPoker and PurePoker. Both are in beta, offering rich functionality, live wagers, and are supported by a growing community. A full breakdown of the on-chain architecture for these dapps can be found in section 3.2 of our Whitepaper.

As their names suggest, both are poker platforms. The key distinction lies in their target audience:

  • zkPoker is a multi-currency platform. It’s primarily focused on the ICP ecosystem in its current form. Future development adding native deposits for assets like Ethereum, Solana, etc will expand its appeal to a wider audience while continuing to offer the same ICP native functionality.
  • PurePoker caters specifically to the Bitcoin community. Through native Bitcoin deposits, common native BTC wallet support, and a carefully curated UI and marketing presence, it’s designed to appeal to even the most die-hard maximalist.

This strategic approach of “quarantining” the two platforms allows us to tailor marketing and user experience to reach key target audiences, ultimately ensuring the DAO captures a wider market share by expanding its reach. Through our time in the industry we’ve found that the most active members of the Bitcoin community don’t like other networks. Tribalism in crypto is not uncommon, but Bitcoiners take it more seriously than most. Acknowledging this fact, our marketing and UX approach to PurePoker is carefully curated to take this into account. As a result the development paths of zkPoker and PurePoker will continue to diverge and grow in their own directions.

PurePoker will continue its growth in the direction of Runes, Ordinals, and other popular Bitcoin centered avenues, while zkPoker will continue its evolution into an “Every man’s” poker platform, supporting any and all popular cryptocurrencies we can through the capabilities of the IC. Future implementations such as “Clans” will eventually allow communities and creators to customize and take things further into their own unique directions on both platforms.

All of that being said, both platforms are built entirely on-chain with ICP, and their canisters will be controlled by the zkGame DAO. Future development will expand our suite of games to include Chess, Mahjong, and more, all featuring in-depth wagering functionalities and the same DAO governance.

Our Sites:

zk.game

zkPoker.app

PurePoker.app

Our Code: zk-game-dao · GitHub

Socials:

PurePoker Twitter

zkPoker Twitter

OpenChat

Telegram(ZKP, PP)

9 Likes
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I voted no because launching a gambling-related SNS DAO without the proper groundwork is irresponsible.

A verified gambling license is legally essential, and a full security audit is critical to protect users and the DAO itself. These are not optional — they are the foundation for trust, compliance, and long-term sustainability.

Until those are in place, moving forward with decentralization is putting hype before safety.

Oh, and the play button doesn’t even work on your website. Let’s fix the basics before we decentralize the broken parts.

2 Likes
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These are certainly valid concerns, however, we disagree in terms of decentralizing as a priority putting hype before security. With the SNS the days of it being easy hype has long past. Its a move which faces intense scrutiny and a knee jerk reaction of distrust these days. The drama and bad press surrounding it lately is not something we’re oblivious to and the fact that we’ve opted to go this route versus much simpler and more frictionless avenues like launching a basic token on Odin or similar routes should demonstrate that our intentions are pure. SNS is also not a particularly lucrative way to raise money given these factors when compared to other common practices in the industry so this should make it clear its not just about hype and money.

The DAO is critical to our mission and so its not really optional in that sense. Combining a public fundraising event with its launch is genuinely an ideal maneuver in our eyes. In terms of audits and licensing it is true that it would be ideal to acquire these first, however, almost no platforms can afford audits and things like this before public fundraising events. A quality audit can cost tens of thousands easily and licensing is upwards of €88,000 initially with annual fees and compliance costs. So we hope you can understand this isn’t a simple lack of desire on this front.

As per zk.game not having functional play buttons, we appreciate you letting us know! We had the intention post for the DAO up for nearly a month to try and find minor bugs like this but I think most people focused on the platform functionality for zkPoker and PurePoker. I guess people didn’t investigate the main hub interface as heavily. That site is primarily just a convenient way to display the whitepaper so we did neglect it a bit in terms of development effort and testing.

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I was a tester on the poker game for several months and I had so much fun playing with you guys, I saw how you would update the game and fix bugs in real-time, it was awesome!

You also listened to your community on Discord and OpenChat, inviting us to play, livestraming games, having free and paid tournaments.

And now with the open source code, you’ve got a pretty solid foundation here!
Congrats

2 Likes
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This is a solid project with a quality team. The focus on bringing value to the ecosystem is evident in the way they’ve been operating from day 1. There’s been a lot of turmoil on the SNS lately but projects like this deserve a chance to show the world its not a totally broken system. zkGame is exactly the kind of project the entire infrastructure was designed for.

2 Likes
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It’s a clear rejection in my view.

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Hi @Phasma, I rejected too. I wonder if I could ask you more about your reasoning.

My feeling is that licensing is an excuse to take funds off-chain, where it’s hard to track exactly how it’s being spent. It’s not my area of expertise, but why should a gambling license be needed? Particularly if we’re talking about a dapp that has very little usage in the scale of things. To me this seems like something that should be tackled retrospectively if a regulatory body starts displaying interest and demanding it - otherwise what’s the point? It’s just a waste of money (or a smokescreen).

Pretty much any game on chain can be framed as gambling. If you pay-to-play, and payment is a first class citizen of digital assets in the dapp, you’d expect to also earn-to-play. If those rewards are based on how you play, and/or an element of luck… then you’re gambling. So what?

Does TAGGR need a gambling license because you pay-to-post, and if you’re lucky your post will receive enough likes to offset your payment?

Even if a regulatory body did want to take action against a dapp that it believes should have paid for some sort of license, what are they gunna do about it? If it’s truly a dapp, there’s nobody the regulatory body can go after for enforcement.

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Hi, thanks for reaching out.

I voted no on the zkPoker SNS proposal for several key reasons:

  1. No Valid Gambling License
    Launching a gambling-related dApp without a verified and transparent gambling license is a major legal and compliance risk — both for users and the broader ecosystem.
  2. No Independent Security Audit
    There was no public, third-party security audit provided. For a project requesting decentralization and user funds via SNS, this is unacceptable.
  3. Premature SNS Launch
    In my view, zkPoker is not yet ready for decentralization. Critical components — both technical and legal — are still missing or incomplete.
  4. Concerns Around Accountability Post-SNS
    Without proper foundations in place, decentralizing too early could lead to a governance vacuum, poor user protection, and reputational damage to the ecosystem.

I support innovation in the space — including on-chain gaming — but only when projects meet essential standards. I’m open to revisiting my position if these core issues are addressed.

Happy to discuss further.

1 Like
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The edit was simply to disable the NF participation. We were testing with it and forgot to disable it. This should be verifiable on github.

As per the necessity of a gambling license. We would absolutely operate without it if we felt we could. The need for it is highlighted by the fact Dfinity, among other big players in the ecosystem, would never get involved otherwise. If those with the funding to consult lawyers deem it necessary then it would be wise for us to. We’re not willing to risk legal troubles where its not entirely necessary. With a gambling dapp these are likely to arise but its ideal if we have ample funding to address them before they do.

In terms of legal actions taken against DAOs reference this article. We’re a serious team and we’re not going to play fast and loose with government regulations. It’s debatable whether we should just stay anonymous to avoid this, however, these risks would still exist. If we retained anonymity people would still have legitimate concerns on that front in regard to suspicions about our intentions.

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The edit was simply to disable the NF participation. We were testing with it and forgot to disable it. This should be verifiable on github.

As per the necessity of a gambling license. We would absolutely operate without it if we felt we could. The need for it is highlighted by the fact Dfinity, among other big players in the ecosystem, would never get involved otherwise. If those with the funding to consult lawyers deem it necessary then it would be wise for us to. We’re not willing to risk legal troubles where its not entirely necessary. With a gambling dapp these are likely to arise but its ideal if we have ample funding to address them before they do.

In terms of legal actions taken against DAOs reference this article. We’re a serious team and we’re not going to play fast and loose with government regulations. It’s debatable whether we should just stay anonymous to avoid this, however, these risks would still exist. If we retained anonymity people would still have legitimate concerns on that front in regard to suspicions about our intentions.

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That wasn’t the only change though was it.

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I think the added canisters was due to changes in the user canister architecture. The update was aimed on optimizing cycles expenditure and is nothing nefarious. I’ll have to check with the rest of the team and verify. I’ll edit this post to update once I’ve done so.

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Thanks, but that’s what the syndication was for.

Are you able to comment on why over 60% of the VP is allocated to the developer neurons at launch?

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I’ve replied to your post in the other thread regarding this concern but I’ll copy it here too:

“Its important to note that the “Developer Neuron” section or the proposal includes early investors and early contributors. Some of these neurons are held by notable, variable, members of the ecosystem. I’ll see if any of them are willing to dox themselves in an effort to bolster our transparency but its a touchy subject for most without a license.”

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I don’t think you can do this without doxing

1 Like
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We understand the motivation to not take any chances on this front but if we want audits and licensing we would have to dox eventually and so it makes sense to consider this from the onset.

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DFINITY will reject the proposal due to multiple reasons, including but not limited to:

  • Lack of transparent and timely syndication of the final sns_init.yaml file.
  • Developer, seed and early contributor neurons retain over 50% of voting power post-launch with no clear articulation on why they are independent, raising concerns about decentralization.
  • Absence of a conducted security review
7 Likes
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We’re sorry to hear that but we understand your reasoning. We’ll work to address these concerns then try again in the future.

1 Like
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I like the dapp and it shows yet another example of what can be done on ICP fully on chain which is nice but the limitations to so many large countries does suck requiring VPN use. Also, gaming has a lot of regulatory risks involved unfortunately but if it can be done truly fairly using ICP, then I’m all for it because I never trust any centralized 3rd party gaming sites whatsoever. Everyone knows it is a shady business meant to steal money from the unsuspecting public.

How exactly can people trust that the smart contract code doesn’t unfairly compensate the house in some way and how can we trust it cannot be hacked in some way to allow for cheating? I’m assuming this still requires a security audit?

ALso, for dapps that do not want to go the SNS route, isn’t it possible to just utilize a blank-slate DAO like Sneed instead?

Not every dapp needs to go the public SNS route although it is beneficial.

If you need more funds, have you tried ICVC or Funded or Kickstarter or just reaching out to VC’s etc? And then you could just use a blank-slate DAO instead along with your own governance token?

Is this not an option?

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So are you a no vote until they obtain a gambling license in all 80 jurisdictions that issue them?