Given any public blockchain is just an open source database with relatively expensive transaction fees and an interesting security model, it’s something of a surprise that more apps and games haven’t been trying out the technology, at least in terms of backend efficiencies.
Now maybe that’s about to change with the news that Nintendo appears to be using Parasol Technologies in its Pokémon Home app.
Pokémon Home updated its Privacy Terms on 23rd April and these now include Parasol in the English, Spanish, French, German, and Italian versions of the game, but apparently not the Japanese, Korean and Chinese versions.
Note: ILCA Inc. is a Japanese studio which partnered with The Pokémon Company to create their joint venture The Pokémon Works.
Hence it seems notable that Parasol is listed alongside two direct developers of Pokémon games, not in paragraph (c) alongside service providers. If nothing else it suggests it’s holding a higher level of user data.
As for Parasol itself, it’s a US-based outfit, which has been building out its own web3 gaming infrastructure since 2022 and which was acquired by Mysten Labs, the ex-Meta spinout – which operates the Sui blockchain – earlier in 2025.
It only works on web3 tech – an end-to-end platform enabling game developers to implement functionalities such as “in-game item tokenization, marketplaces, and on-chain gameplay without compromising game quality”.
Of course, integrating a blockchain gaming tech company’s technology is not the same as launching NFTs in Pokémon GO. Equally, however, Nintendo integrating blockchain tech into one of its key apps shouldn’t be ignored, even if it seems highly unlikely it will be directly exposing blockchain to its users any time soon.
A more plausible scenario would be it’s experimenting with blockchain in the background to better manage asset security between accounts. This is particularly relevant in terms of the way Pokémon Home – the ecosystem’s cloud-based hub for managing digital assets – allows players to gift and trade Pokémon characters and other game assets.
Indeed, the news has also been positioned around a specific update to Pokémon Home, which introduces a new medal asset, which is only available for mobile users, not for Switch – perhaps a nod to its highly experimental status and first use in a lower risk environment.
These medals are “digital souvenirs that can be claimed by visiting real-life places with a connection to Pokémon or by participating in Pokémon events. These medals can be traded with other players or sent to them as gifts”, the blurb explains.
Like any other Pokémon asset, these don’t possess any overt financial value but that’s not to say they won’t have any value per se. As limited-edition assets, people will want to collect them, just as in a wider sense all Pokémon characters are part of a complex in-game rarity ecosystem. That’s the point. Some Pokémon are really rare and hard to find.
And that’s why – despite EULAs – millions of dollars regularly change hands via grey markets trading Pokémon, game assets and complete accounts.
Using a blockchain in the background – or even a forked permissioned version of Sui – to better understand, manage and control these informal economics makes complete sense, even if that information is never exposed to players.
So allowing players to trade these limited-edition medals using a new in-game Pokémon currency that’s offchain to players but onchain for Nintendo doesn’t seem to be totally out of the question – in other words, blockchain without the crypto!