They say bet on teams, not products. While the HYCHAIN crew may be small and mysterious, one thing’s for sure: ArkDev, the head honcho, is an absolute beast in this game.
I keep going back to this X thread he wrote a couple of years ago.
He was about to turn 30 and wanted to reflect on the last decade as well as share his backstory with the web3 community.
He opens by admitting he doesn’t remember how or why he chose the pseudonym ArkDev, but it stuck – like gum on the bottom of a shoe.
He tells how he got introduced to programming at 7 or 8.
His parents had bought an old Windows PC that came with games like Freddy Fish and Spy Fox. Sometimes those games wouldn’t work, which, as a kid, was super frustrating. Ark would try to figure out why, and eventually discovered the Windows Command Prompt and became instantly curious.
He started going to the library and devouring any computer-related books he could get his sticky little paws on.
He mastered writing batch scripts and was introduced to early programming languages like Visual Basic.
When he was in middle school, Ark’s parents bought him his own computer so he could devote even more time to learning and programming, fanning the flame that burned within him. They did this even though money was tight – this was back when laptops were still huge bricks and cost a fortune.
Ark built websites, database-backed applications, and even games without anyone teaching him, and this was before Google searches were a thing.
Junior high was an awkward time for Ark.
Nerdy, chubby, and misunderstood, he was an easy target for other kids.
He became a loner and spent all of his free time building things on his computer and looking for online communities.
By 8th grade, Ark had created a full-scale MMORPG in Visual Basic using a free engine. This involved:
- Using open licensed 2D sprites and texture pallets
- Writing login infrastructure and systems backed by a relational database
- Game mechanics and client/server packet-level interactions
- And much, much more
In hindsight, social isolation was a gift that allowed Ark to collapse time as a creator.
While the MMORPG was never a smash hit, it did have about 100 active players at its peak. They enjoyed the game and offered suggestions on what Ark should add next. It felt amazing to have other people excited about his creation.
His senior year, inspired by Facebook and having used MySpace years prior, Ark cobbled together a Twitter-like social networking site for his school. It even had real-time video chat – something Facebook hadn’t yet launched!
Are you starting to get it?
ArkDev is a prodigy
By year end, 60-70% of the kids in his high school were logging on daily.
After graduating, he sold the site for $10,000 on Flippa – a tremendous amount of money given his meager upbringing.
He enrolled in college but never went to class, eventually dropping out after just one semester.
Eager to understand the business side better, Ark took an engineering job with a local ecommerce company, where he learned customer acquisition strategies from a startup with a 100-person sales team. The year and a half he spent there was invaluable.
When he left, mobile apps had just opened up to third-party developers on iPhone and Android, so Ark dove right in and began furiously building apps.
He released one of the first tip calculator and tip-splitting apps in the app store, garnering 50,000 users in the first week.
His mind was blown.
From there, he’d identify the most popular search trends that didn’t have apps yet… and go build them.
- Games
- Game guides
- Prank apps
- Wallpapers
- Camera and filter apps
You name it, Ark could claim it.
Then he discovers third-party advertising services that could be integrated into his apps, paying him for impressions and clicks, and all of a sudden he’s making as much as $50,000 per month at age 19.
Fast forward six months:
A private party approached Ark wanting to purchase his portfolio of 100+ apps, which had collectively earned 20 million installs with millions of active users.
This was Ark’s first life-changing financial break – and he still wasn’t old enough to drink.
He stepped away from the computer for a while to work on his social skills, make new friends, and actually enjoy life.
He moved into a basic apartment with a few other entrepreneurs, each running their own internet or app business.
Is this how you’d live if you were a 20-year-old millionaire?
Yeah, me neither.
You have to admire how modest this dude is.
“I didn’t need much to be happy; I never have.” – ArkDev
After chilling for a few months, Ark and one of his roomies decide to go ahead and pioneer social commerce.
They basically built the first seamless way to sell products on Facebook and Instagram, long before anything like Facebook Marketplace existed.
In just four years, they grew to over 100,000 small- and medium-sized businesses using their services and got acquired by a larger competitor. Another successful exit for Ark, if you’re keeping score.
During that same four-year period, Ark took on a brief side project when Pokémon Go became popular.
He engineered the world’s #1 tool for finding Pokémon in real-time. They had something like 15 million active users at one point – total insanity.
Now in his mid-20s and set for life, Ark was searching for his next challenge – figuring out what to build and what problem to solve.
Electric scooters were just starting to pop off.
Living in Seattle, Ark found driving in traffic unbearable and thought e-bikes were a hassle to manage, but these new scooters scattered around the city caught his attention.
So he launches a competing e-scooter service, raising capital for the first time instead of bootstrapping like he did with all his other companies.
He quickly dove into hardware engineering, scaled a large team across non-technical areas such as warehousing and field operations, and built real-time logistics software – all while serving as the CEO.
All the assets they developed eventually got acquired. Shocker.
But hey, even Steph Curry misses once in a while, and Ark is no different.
He says he pursued many random ideas over the years that never went anywhere. He’d spot a problem, present a prototype to the target market, and if it didn’t gain traction, he’d move on.
I guess he is human. But anyways.
When NFTs took off, naturally, Ark was a moth to a flame.
With a longstanding love for Minecraft and a history of tinkering within its ecosystem, Ark saw an opportunity when the metaverse game The Sandbox blew up. He thought it’d be cool to spin up something similar within Minecraft, and that’s how NFT Worlds was born.
He joined forces with Temptranquil, an old friend, who took the lead in designing the world art, website, and contributing to much of the project as it developed.
As soon as they went live, NFT Worlds exploded in popularity.
But Microsoft wasn’t thrilled about a big business being built on the back of their platform without them getting a larger slice of the pie, which led to the infamous rug pull.
“Neat,” I imagine Ark saying. “Hold my beer.”
He, Temp, and the team then spent the next three years building HYTOPIA, their own Minecraft-inspired game, completely from scratch.
They also rolled out their own gaming blockchain, HYCHAIN, and introduced HYPLAY developer tools to manage player login, engagement, and growth for HYTOPIA and other games they partner with or acquire, like Loot Legends, which should be in the app store shortly.
Ark finishes his thread in awe of the twists and turns life had in store for him.
He followed his gut, stayed curious, and kept learning.
Being an introvert provided laser focus because life outside the digital world was so uncomfortable. Although it brought a lot of pain, it was a blessing in disguise, allowing him to cook from an early age.
As he enters his 30s, he encourages you to fully pursue whatever it is you feel drawn too. Life’s too short to wonder what if and not take the leap.
Crypto bros are usually all hype, no substance.
Not ArkDev. His resume puts the rest of these token shillers to shame.
What makes him truly special is his rare blend of relentless building and sharp business acumen that’s fueled all those incredible wins.
And yet, despite all this, he’s quiet and humble – the kind of person you can’t help but respect.
When someone like Ark says HYTOPIA could be the largest UGC games platform in the world, surpassing even Minecraft, Roblox, and Fortnite, you listen.
It’s easy to dismiss bold claims in this space, but when they come from Ark? That’s a whole different story.
He’s delivered time and again, and if he’s got a vision, you’d be wise to pay attention.
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