Ethereum, Solana, AI: Kanessa Muluneh reveals what works for Web3 games

Gaming, which once dominated decentralized app usage, is moving away from the limelight. Daily active wallets in Web3 games have dropped to a low of 4.8 million in 2025, and monthly investments have slumped by 69%. One would be ticked off by these numbers, but not Kanessa Muluneh. The Ethiopian-born, serial entrepreneur saw this as the best time to tap the growing African gaming market, with her battle royal style ‘Rise of Fearless’ web3 game. She’s not only catering to gamers but also wants more people to look at P2E from a commercial aspect. 

Interestingly, Kanessa also gave us her pick of her favourite chain to host and scale a game. So, will we see ‘Rise of Fearless’ on Ethereum or Solana? And do they need AI to boost the gameplay?

Here’s an edited excerpt from her interview with CoinHeadline’s Stacy Pereira. 

STACY

From teaching Amharic on TikTok, to a pioneer in Web3 gaming, tell us a little bit about your journey and how your TikTok content evolve into a thriving crypto community?

KANESSA

It all started 4 or 5 years ago, and I was quite heavily involved into the crypto and NFT space, which was a big hype, it’s still a hype inside the community, but back then it was like big news. So for the people who don’t know, I’m Ethiopian, I was born in Ethiopia, but I grew up in Holland, and, my parents were the only people that could speak my language. I started to feel like I was losing touch with the language.

So, I decided to start a TikTok page, because the majority of the Ethiopian community was on TikTok. Initially, I was just speaking Amharic for practice, then one day somebody found out that I was into NFTs, and they said, why can’t you talk about NFTs instead and teach us? So, weekly, I went live on TikTok. I made videos in my mother tongue. Like that, they were teaching me the language, and I was teaching them about NFTs, and that’s how the ball started rolling.

STACY

Talking about the Rise of Fearless. It is a mobile first a Web3 game that is based on the Battle of Adwa. Why did you choose this and what really is the purpose of this game?

KANESSA

So the reason why we chose the game, was because NFT and crypto are often a hype for many. They only look at it as a way to make money. But for me, I saw a purpose here because, if you know the African continent, it’s not connected financially. There’s no stripe or PayPal or anything like that where it connects to four continents like Europe or the U.S, but with crypto, I was able to transfer money or assets to someone outside the country. 

So let’s say if I’m in Morocco, I can transfer to someone in South Africa. So there was a purpose. Seeing this, I launched the NFT collection and people from rural areas, in villages in Africa, were able to purchase an NFT. This is the first time I saw something like this, because there was never a transaction online like this before. I understood we needed a digital product. 

At the same time, in the Philippines, Axie Infinity was a big thing with a play-to-earn games, so I said it’s perfect. Because the Filipino community from the Philippines, their economy is similar to African economies. So I said, let’s do it. Let’s go for this, project. So I tracked down the developers of Axie Infinity, and I said, do you want to help with my projects? And I convinced a few, and they asked me what’s your game story?

I didn’t know anything about gaming. So I did my research, and found that all these existing battle royale games  were based on fantasy. And I didn’t have that much fantasy. Then I stumbled upon the Black Panther story, not the movie. The reason why it was so successful is because the African was portrayed as a hero for once instead of a negative character. There was a hero in the storyline so I said, we need that too.

Also read: 10 Big ideas from Ethereum that changed the way the world works

STACY

Let’s also talk about the fact that it is a mobile game, and we are looking at the play-to-earn mechanics. Is there enough reason for a gamer to get into this space and also look at it as a source of income, and how are you enabling that in some sort through, rise of the fearless?

KANESSA

There are multiple reasons why we chose play to earn, one of it being that it would be, a ray of hope to the young generation. Especially for those who are coming from hopeless regions. Secondly, I think the new generation doesn’t want to go to an office job and just work the 9-to-5. I don’t think they aspire to that at all. They’re comfortable with multiple streams of income, doing multiple jobs. So I saw this as someway of giving them that opportunity, which I saw work in the Philippines, it can be a source of income. And look at the West, some gamers make millions. Don’t ask me why and how, but there is a way. If a market like the U.S, which is one third of the African migrant, like the the population can do it, then Africa can do it as well.

STACY

Do you see opportunities to integrate AI into the game and any of your other business ventures?

KANESSA

I feel pressurized to add AI to the game. Although I don’t want to add AI just for the sake of it, it needs to have a purpose. How do you integrate it? Eventually, we found a way, and in two weeks, we will launch the new updates with AI bots. Because we don’t only want to target the gamers, that’s not the case. I want to motivate people to get into gaming. So we added bots that will help you. You can play against AI bots, and they can help you train. Because before you invest money, you will have a training session. Before you really enter the professional gaming field, these bots can train you.  We plan to implement 20 to 40 Bots who will have different skill levels, some fast and good ones and some that are slow.

STACY

There are reports that you are looking to integrate with Binance or Solana. Can you spill some beans for our audience and let them know what they can expect?

So we are actually in the phase of researching what platform we’re going to use. We have to look at what works globally, and crypto is the only way to make sure that they can trade globally, because there is no system that connects the whole world, that doesn’t exist.

So Solana we have considered it, But this is the first time I’m saying it, that Ethereum is our number one choice, or our most favorite platform. Because we also want to build our own tokens, have our own tokenomics system. So for that, Ethereum checks all the boxes.

STACY

What is the final ultimate goal? Not just the game, but beyond that, are you looking at NFTs or a marketplace Or DAO-led features? What is your ultimate goal?

KANESSA

A digital marketplace is on our radar. Where one can buy a weapon, you play with it, make it stronger, and resell it for and higher price. And that comes as an NFT. That’s the kind of digital marketplace we want. Also, we are looking to offer a commercial, business a space on the platform, where they can own a building inside the game or build something. Tokenization, of some kind, so we cater to the players, but there’s also the business side of it. I look at it from a business aspect, and I think we can get way more out of the whole gaming ecosystem than what we know. And, Web3 is going to change the game. 

STACY

Thank you, Kanessa for giving us your time and good luck to all your future endeavors.

KANESSA

Thank you.