Step into Cryptovoxels and get close to the parallel world of the digital realm

This article is contributed by Metablock Ventures.

"In the future, the 'metaverse' will no longer be seen as a tool for experiencing novelty, nor just a place to 'play,' but will become a real world."

As the concept of the metaverse continues to heat up, virtual land has become a battleground for NFT collectors and enthusiasts, with prices soaring. Among them, the rising star Cryptovoxels, relying on its uniqueness and precise positioning, provides creators and NFTs with a space full of infinite possibilities. Today, let's take a look at this prototype game of the metaverse, Cryptovoxels.

Cryptovoxels: A Real Parallel World Belonging to Users

Cryptovoxels (abbreviated as CV) is actually an interesting and hardcore NFT conceptual blockchain game. Open the world's largest NFT trading platform Opensea and search for Cryptovoxels. We will see images composed of small blocks. From here, you can choose the virtual land for sale based on block location, area size, height, etc.

It is built on the Ethereum blockchain, where players can buy, sell, and build virtual galleries, shops, and anything else they can imagine. It also includes editing tools for the virtual world, real-life avatars, and text chat functions.

Although CV is still a relatively basic 3D pixel game, it has most of the basic functions, such as basic construction, character customization, and more, with relatively free gameplay. Every element in this world is an NFT, including name decorations and behavioral trajectories, so the process of playing the game is actually the process of generating an NFT in the CV world. Of course, the production of NFTs naturally requires a certain amount of gas fees.

This brief introduction allows us to understand that virtual land and other digital assets like NFTs will be permanently protected on the blockchain. The original intention of Cryptovoxels is to utilize individual and community creativity to create artistic social venues such as galleries and shops. At the same time, as a blockchain sandbox game based on Ethereum, Cryptovoxels also carries humanity's magnificent fantasies about the digital parallel universe.

Founder's Design Intention

Ben Nolan, the founder of Cryptovoxels, worked at Decentraland (the only similar project on the market) before CV went live. From a certain perspective, CV is a perfect transformation of DCL. During his time at DCL, Ben witnessed its growth and challenges, gaining unique insights into its strengths and weaknesses, and applied this valuable experience to the creation of Cryptovoxels.

At the beginning of CV's launch, Ben had not yet quit his job; he continued to develop the project in his spare time. He was well aware that, although this was a brand new and challenging project, it did not require a large amount of funding at the outset—just a light approach. When faced with offers from investors around the world, he declined them one by one to maintain more freedom and autonomy in his creation. This allowed him to keep control over the entire project, making all key decisions himself. This is how CV achieved its remarkable success and limitless vision today.

Overview of Cryptovoxels' Value

1. Alignment with Market Demand

With the rapid development of the NFT market, more and more users are starting to hold NFTs. When the hype around something is sufficient, it evolves into a quick monetization channel. Users urgently need a platform to showcase their NFTs, and Cryptovoxels happens to be a channel that meets market demand and satisfies user psychology. In other words, who can resist the unknown surprises, and who can resist the temptation of collecting? The process of collecting is enjoyable, and the results are gratifying. The process of creating NFTs in Cryptovoxels combines pure enjoyment with investment returns. Simply put, players display their collected NFTs in the virtual world, gaining both prestige and profit.

Players can flaunt a piece of CV land to satisfy their potential vanity; collectors can showcase their exclusive NFT collections in CV; pragmatists can unleash their imagination to create highly creative items on CV land and ultimately realize their value; investors see every element as an NFT.

There is no market manipulation here, only catering to the preferences of various circles. On this basis, CV serves as a platform for the entire NFT ecosystem.

2. New Channels for Art Dissemination

Artworks buried underground and not discovered will forever remain unknown in terms of their stories and culture; the same goes for NFTs. Creators and institutions in CV will build or choose suitable spaces to showcase their collected NFTs. As landowners, the spaces they create not only gain higher attention on their social platforms but also receive public recognition and votes within the game.

As we all know, with attention comes the potential for appreciation. The highly open and free creativity is the charm of NFTs, turning the entire environment into a stage for NFT artists. Everyone receives information on social media, escaping the limitations of space, allowing their avatars to meet interesting people and NFTs at exhibitions. The rich activities make the Cryptovoxels community more vibrant and sustainable, attracting more and more people to focus on NFT works and the imaginative architectural clusters in Cryptovoxels.

3. High Openness, Low Difficulty, and More Freedom in Creation

Compared to Decentraland, Cryptovoxels is clearly easier to manipulate and get started with. Like Minecraft, Cryptovoxels is open to everyone. From a usability perspective, players who have had any exposure to building games can easily get started. Although we may not match the top players on the leaderboard, most users can quickly construct simple structures without needing a background in 3D modeling software. After all, the process of creation is enjoyable, and the process of creating art is a culmination of time and understanding of things.

4. The Most Direct Monetization Method

A timeless game must have its trading system and monetization channels, creating the rarity and potential value of game items, allowing it to serve not only as a means of entertainment for users but also as a way for users to earn money, thus enhancing user stickiness to the platform.

In the early stages, the first sustainable profit model created by the Cryptovoxels team was character skins. Because Cryptovoxels is designed to be very open and connected to Ethereum's global financial infrastructure, it allows users to profit through in-game assets. Artists can directly sell their NFT works online for digital asset monetization, but there are also other ways to earn.

CV is essentially a compressed version of the world. Similarly, users can rent land from other players for secondary creation and earn commissions. For example, CV user Conlan developed an interesting model by purchasing a set of adjacent lands and developing a core theme, much like a real estate developer, where the value of the buildings depends on their talent. Players can make this area very popular through their artistic processing, leading to an increase in land prices. Once the area's popularity skyrockets, users begin to rent land in that area, which develops into another form of profit. There are even players who have become virtual land builders, like artist Rewa, who established studios to help others realize their architectural dreams in the virtual world. Next, let's take a preliminary exploration of the CV world.

Initial Exploration of the CV World

Entering the official website (https://www.cryptovoxels.com/), you can see popular buildings ranked by day/week/month/all, the latest community activities you can participate in, and interesting photos recently taken by users in the CV world.

Here we can find many interesting buildings:

Glass Age

Stone Age

Space Age

In addition to the tribute-like buildings mentioned above, Cryptovoxels also features a variety of imaginative structures.

The types of buildings in CryptoVoxels can be roughly divided into the following categories: Gallery, HQ, Tower, Garden (often used for gatherings and parties), House, Shop, Club (mainly for cyber parties and related virtual auctions), Museum, etc.

Here’s a brief introduction on how to explore buildings in CV.

First, after entering CV, you can control the model to wander around.

Help Section:

The help page contains some operation guides. If you encounter any operations you don't understand while playing the game, you can click "H" to bring up the help section.

Of course, the page only contains some basic operations and explanations. If you want to see more documentation, you can visit:

Home | Cryptovoxels Wiki.

Explorer Personal Center:

Explorer is similar to a personal center, containing three sections: a "home" section, which acts as a bulletin board listing upcoming events. Clicking on an event will pop up a dialog box, and clicking "Teleport Now" will directly transport you to the event venue. Newcomers unsure of where to explore can use this method to choose events they are interested in and go check them out.

There are personal collections and personal venue sections. The Explorer section will have an Account option, and clicking Teleportto will directly transport you to that venue, which is a very convenient and practical feature.

You can also search for locations. The results of the current experiment show that you can only search for venue names to find the buildings you want to explore. To fully enjoy CV, there are still many functions we need to understand together. If there are any errors in the process guidance in this article, please let us know, and let's learn and play together, freeing ourselves and reshaping our new lives.

Conclusion: Expectations for the Future

In the future, the CV team needs to grow alongside the NFT market and continue to develop. As the popularity of NFTs grows geometrically and more land outside of original cities is developed, CV, which is still in its very early stages, has many things to do. It seems that now is the best time in terms of technology and opportunity to form a truly virtual world. We have reason to believe that the future of CV and NFTs will be a sea of stars.

Speaking of this, let's extend our imagination boldly about what the future metaverse world might look like. At this stage, the most common activities people engage in within the prototype of the metaverse, CryptoVoxels, are viewing exhibitions and taking photos. Perhaps one day in the future, we can use virtual currency in a virtual restaurant in the metaverse to order takeout for our real-life selves; we can watch games and attend concerts with neighbors from the digital world in a virtual stadium; we can directly participate in investing in stocks, funds, and cryptocurrencies in the trading hall of the metaverse; and we can even cast votes for proposals on governance in the metaverse's grand hall. A classic line from the movie "Ready Player One" states: "People come to the Oasis because they can do anything, but they stay because they can be anyone."

In the future, the "metaverse" will no longer be seen as a tool for experiencing novelty, nor just a place to "play," but will become a real world where we have lives that are completely different from the physical world.