Animoca Brands acquires token mining engine maker Gamma

Animoca Brands has acquired the company behind GammaNow, the software used to power Razer’s SoftMiner.

The acquisition is a $350,000 deal, with another $2.5 million payout possible if revenue targets over the next three years are met. On top acquiring the company itself, Animoca also calls out the fact that the purchase establishes a commercial relationship with Razer, since it and Gamma have a pre-existing agreement through SoftMiner.

Gamma’s GammaNow is a computing engine that lets programs use the idle processing power of its users' computers. In the case of SoftMiner, the engine makes it so that Razer can mine for the cryptocurrency Ethereum using that processing power, and give those that opt into the mining process digital currency for its storefront, Razer Silver, in exchange.

A press release detailing the acquisition says that Gamma’s software has an install base of 700,000. Razer SoftMiner specifically makes up 692,000 of those installations and has around 60,000 daily users. Animcoa Brands notes that it is also exploring options to use that computing power to power IA and machine learning functionalities.