'Vape to quit smoking and earn' project Puffpaw has amassed $6 million in its seed funding round.
The project is betting on the to-be-launched Berachain ecosystem. According to the team, the latest funding milestone puts it at the forefront of DePIN infrastructure to integrate blockchain with health-conscious vaping.
The funding was spearheaded by Lemniscap Ventures, with support from the Spartan Group, Everest Ventures Group, Social Graph Ventures, and Folius Ventures. Crypto industry stalwarts like Meltem Demirors and Rushi Manche also took part in the round.
Jakub Rusiecki, the founder of Social Graph Ventures exclaimed,
“One of the wildest investments we made.”
Meanwhile, another investor labeled this to be “the most interesting experiment” in the last few years.
The Puffpaw team also unveiled the Puffpaw Smart Vape [PSV] — a healthier alternative with nicotine-free organic tea extract flavorings. Via a post on X, the team highlighted,
“Every puff is recorded on the blockchain for transparency, gamifying the quitting process.”
Puffpaw's is attempting to create a self-supporting ecosystem of smokers. Smokers who are trying to quit can buy their product. That being said, it should be noted that they will only be able to take a limited number of puffs per day via their specialty vapes.
Typically, users will earn additional tokens for taking hits of lower-nicotine-level vape cartridges. In retrospect, they can then use those earned tokens to buy more vape cartridges from Puffpaw.
However, skeptics continue to feel that users could continue using non-blockchain nicotine vapes. That way, the data will not be tracked, and they can simultaneously fetch Puffpaw’s tokens and earn rewards.
Consumer-facing DePIN projects have the potential to instill mass adoption.
Having checked various boxes like having a strong product-market fit, cult-like following, scarcity-driven branding, a recurring revenue stream, and relevant expertise in the vape and supply chain side of the business, community members and project backers feel Puffpaw could prove to be a revolutionary project.
