Pan-African crypto company, Mara, which made headlines when it raised $23 million in one of the biggest Web3 raises on the continent, has laid off approximately 85% of its employees and implemented salary cuts for remaining employees, a new report alleges.

Quoting a source within the company, the report by Technext publication said these actions have been presented as an ‘elimination of redundant roles’ in order to transition the company into its next phase.

“They said they needed to keep the team smaller, because they have set up a lot of things and done enough PR and marketing and have gotten the hype they needed and now they needed to lay off unnecessary roles,” the source claimed.

The source pointed to alleged over-spending including heavy marketing expenses, over-paying salaries to international Web3 standards as reasons behind the company’s struggles.

Some of the big spend markting activities in 2022 include:

• Sponsoring crypto events including the 2022 Afro Nation Ghana event
• Sponsored Ghana Football team to 2022  2022 FIFA World Cup for a sum of $1 million
• Sponsored celebrities and influencers to wear the Mara jerseys at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar at $10,000 – $15,000 per influencer
• Hired student brand ambassadors on university campuses across Africa

As per the source, Mara’s workforce expanded to approximately 200 employees at a certain stage. However, it is claimed that a portion of the newly hired team members held redundant positions within the company. Despite this, Mara reportedly offered generous compensation packages to its employees, aligning with the standards observed in international Web3 companies.

Crypto startups on the continent are turning out to be exactly what you thought: entities providing solutions to problems that don't exist. That or they're just money laundering enterprises. Because, why are they failing despite raising so much money? https://t.co/FGL4OvdAUu

— permanent irrefutable public user (@echenze) June 6, 2023

Ex-employees of Mara have alleged that the company engaged in over-hiring and providing excessive compensation to staff during a period of significant growth. However, these same sources claim that under the pretense of ‘team restructuring,’ Mara resorted to laying off employees when they could no longer sustain such high standards.

Mara is also said to have lost money when FTX collapsed, though this is not elaborated upon. FTX sister firm, Alameda Research, was one of several prominent investors in the 2022 funding round, part of a list which includes Coinbase Ventures and Distributed Global.

Plans to launch its own blockchain and native token in Q4 2022 came to a halt following the FTX collapse. According to the original report, funds were drying up, revenue was not coming in as anticipated, and they had lost money in FTX.

“Last year, Mara raised $23M to support our vision to help Africans build wealth. We launched MARA Wallet, which already has over four million verified users. We also launched the Mara Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to accelerating blockchain capacity-building in Africa.

We still have plans that go beyond being a crypto exchange and will be announcing them soon. Our mission remains the same – we want to inspire a movement that enables the emergence of 21st-century Africa through universal access to blockchain technology.”

Mara Spokesperson

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The introduction of blockchain technology has created a paradigm shift in various industries, with online gaming being one of the most promising sectors to experience this transformation. The decentralized nature of blockchain, combined with its enhanced security and transparency, has paved the way for revolutionary changes in the gaming landscape. Accordingly, we will explore how blockchain technology is revolutionizing online gaming and the potential benefits it brings to both developers and players.

The greatest advancement of blockchain technology for online gaming is unquestionably the enhanced security feature. Due to its decentralized nature, hackers find it challenging to breach server data, which provides an ideal environment for developers and gamers alike. 

This said, the use of blockchain has surely expanded greatly, to the extent that companies all around the globe are putting the utilization of blockchain as their top priority. Accordingly, the value of blockchain’s global market will most likely reach 1.43 trillion US dollars by 2030, with an 85.9% annual growth rate. 

Nowadays, the gambling industry, for instance, is shifting its focus towards utilizing cryptocurrencies due to their numerous benefits and advantages over the utilization of traditional payment methods. An additional motivation for the lovers of online gambling experiences is the fact that the best online casino platforms actually offer special bonuses and promotions for those players who utilize cryptocurrency transactions. Thus, most of such premium platforms have created their own bitcoin gambling guide which provides in-depth information about online casino sites, and the bonuses which players can use thanks to the utilization of blockchain-supported cryptocurrencies.

Furthermore, blockchain technology gives gamers more control over their favorite games. Since blockchain-based gaming networks are immutable, gaming programs and series deployed on them remain unchanged over time, enabling gamers to access various versions of video games from any location without diminishing the gaming experience.

Another area where the blockchain has had a major impact is on trading resources and gaining rewards. By using blockchain mining, developers and gamers can create games and apps that are resource-rich, update their game versions and earn tokens. This model encourages users to be more active, which enhances their experience.

Asset ownership has been transformed by blockchain technology, as well. By providing greater transparency and regulation to the gaming industry, blockchain enables players to have genuine digital ownership over their in-game assets, enabling them to trade rare items or profit from gaming endeavors. Blockchain-based games use smart contracts for all transactions, quickly and securely transferring in-game assets to users’ addresses or accounts.

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in the blockchain gaming ecosystem are another game-changer. NFTs give gamers unprecedented transparency when it comes to item ownership, making every in-game item truly irreplaceable thanks to blockchain’s decentralized nature.

Blockchain technology has also improved online gaming payment methods. Cryptocurrencies, as was mentioned above, have provided a wider range of payment methods for gamers. In blockchain gaming apps, crypto tokens and other tokens similar to them are used in transactions. This results in a seamless experience for the gamers.

In conclusion, blockchain technology has the potential to revolutionize the online gaming industry in numerous ways. From increased security and transparency, to enhanced in-game asset ownership and the rise of NFTs, the adoption of blockchain technology in gaming is creating new opportunities for developers and gamers alike.

As the technology continues to mature, we can expect even more exciting developments that will reshape the gaming landscape for years to come.

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