Chapter 8: Metaverse

The metaverse is a fusion of virtually enhanced physical reality and physically persistent virtual spaces, allowing users to experience it. The term first appeared in the 1992 science fiction novel "Snow Crash," composed of the prefix "meta" (meaning beyond) and the root "verse" (meaning universe).

Simply put, a metaverse can be understood as a shared virtual space, similar to our physical world experience. For example, players can purchase virtual assets like land and vehicles, hang out with friends, participate in events, and more in the digital world.

Given the current technological limitations, the full potential of the metaverse remains unknown. Nevertheless, non-blockchain metaverses have existed for many years.

Some examples include open-world/sandbox games like "The Elder Scrolls" and "Minecraft." These video games combine reality-like virtual spaces to provide players with a highly immersive experience. Recently, some might argue that an original metaverse would include social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook.

Regardless, there is a general distinction between old and new metaverses—the level of decentralization. If a developer of a centralized digital world decides to cease operations, all players will lose their accounts, along with any valuable game progress and assets. Additionally, a centralized non-blockchain platform typically gives administrators unlimited power to alter data, making them "gods" in the digital world.

This type of virtual reality can only provide non-persistent instances, which contradicts the metaverse's requirement for persistence in objects. To address this issue, developers have begun integrating VR games with blockchain, allowing players access to persistent assets on the blockchain, providing them with "true ownership" of digital objects they possess in virtual augmented reality.

Moreover, utilizing blockchain technology, virtual assets like land and digital currencies can become scarce, as everything is recorded on the ledger. For instance, even the project's initiators cannot create more land in any specific digital area. A decentralized platform can also allocate shares of the game to the community, granting community members the right to vote on any decisions that may alter the metaverse.

Below, we will learn more about the pioneers of the blockchain metaverse, namely Decentraland, The Sandbox, Cryptovoxels, and Somnium Space.

Decentraland

Decentraland is a decentralized 3D virtual reality world powered by the Ethereum blockchain. It is overseen by a non-profit foundation and was first launched to the public in February 2020.

Decentraland was initially created by like-minded friends in 2015 with the aim of "fighting back" against centralized VR games. In its early stages, known as the "Stone Age," Decentraland was merely seen as a grid model simply allocated to users through a proof-of-work algorithm.

In early 2017, Decentraland evolved into a 3D metaverse on the same blockchain. Over time, the 3D virtual space has developed to integrate with the Ethereum ecosystem, utilizing Ethereum smart contracts to enable interactive applications, in-world payments, and peer-to-peer communication within the metaverse. Today, players can trade digital assets, socialize with friends, and even host virtual reality meetings while exploring this ever-expanding digital world.

As the name suggests, Decentraland (decentralized land) provides the community with complete control over what they create on the platform by representing these digital lands as NFTs. For example, landowners will have dominion over the content built within their portion of land, specified by a set of Cartesian coordinates (x,y).

Landowners can build a variety of items on their land, from static 3D objects to interactive systems like games and music players. Most importantly, Decentraland is free, and it does not require any blockchain knowledge to start playing.

However, it is recommended that you prepare a digital wallet for yourself to fully enjoy the game. Digital wallets like MetaMask will protect all your game assets and world progress, as long as you keep your private keys secure.

To start playing Decentraland, visit play.decentraland.org, click Play to connect your digital wallet. Then, follow the prompts in your digital wallet, and you may begin personalizing your avatar.

Customize your avatar with multiple elements to create a unique identity, including body, head, hat, ground, shoes, accessories, and collectibles. Once completed, enter a new username, and you are ready to experience this world!

The Sandbox

"The Sandbox" is a decentralized virtual world where you can create 3D objects, own digital assets in the form of NFTs, build and play in a vast metaverse, and profit from creations within the game. The project aims to provide artists, creators, and players with the tools they need to express themselves through voxel art, an art form where 3D models are entirely created from tiny 3D cubes called voxels.

Interestingly, "The Sandbox" was originally created by Pixowl as two centralized mobile games, "The Sandbox" (2012) and "The Sandbox Evolution" (2016). Both games are 2D sandbox games that seem inspired by Terraria, but "The Sandbox" focuses more on user-generated content.

In early 2018, the team announced the acquisition of Animoca Brands and revealed plans to develop a blockchain-based multiplayer, cross-platform 3D sandbox game. Their goal is to redefine the sandbox gaming industry and disrupt major game developers like "Roblox" and "Minecraft" with NFTs and gaming revenue models.

The Sandbox is not just an ordinary sandbox game. It consists of three integrated products that provide players with a comprehensive sandbox gaming experience: VoxEdit, Marketplace, and Game Maker. VoxEdit is a free 3D voxel modeling software that allows users to build and animate 3D objects in voxels. These artworks can be uploaded to the IPFS network (a decentralized storage system), registered on the blockchain as NFTs, and published on the Sandbox Marketplace for potential buyers.

Finally, the Sandbox Game Maker allows players to build their 3D games for free without needing coding experience, as the program is designed to provide easy-to-understand visual scripting tools. Similarly, artworks and scripts can be bundled together for upload and sold as NFTs. Ultimately, all assets can serve as creative elements, contributing to the formation of a massive metaverse, with the Sandbox comprising a total of 166,464 plots of land or digital real estate.

Cryptovoxels

Cryptovoxels is an Ethereum-driven metaverse that utilizes a voxel asset architecture similar to the Sandbox, allowing players to purchase land to build stores, museums, art galleries, and more. The founder of Cryptovoxels, Ben Nolan, envisioned a user-editable metaverse that could fully realize the potential of a blockchain-based virtual world without requiring users to have programming knowledge. Cryptovoxels was publicly released in mid-2018.

Cryptovoxels initially was a black-and-white metaverse. When developers began adding color to the metaverse, COLR tokens were needed to add color blocks. The sale of COLR tokens ceased in June 2020, replaced by freely provided color blocks. Since then, the world of Cryptovoxels has become noticeably brighter.

Metaverse land, or parcels, are bought and sold using Ethereum on the OpenSea NFT marketplace. Like the Sandbox, landowners can place voxel-built items on their land for decoration and turn it into stores and art galleries. Similarly, players without any land can also enjoy the building experience by using free space or constructing on an available sandbox parcel. However, note that anything built on public land is not permanent, as anyone can modify it.

Cryptovoxels primarily focuses on adding interactive multimedia to the components of the digital infrastructure, including text, images, gifs, audio files, .vox files, scripts, and video streams. The interactive environment used by Cryptovoxels greatly enhances the multi-sensory experience of users in the metaverse. Therefore, the metaverse is well-suited for organizing digital events, such as virtual music festivals and virtual art exhibitions.

Another exciting aspect of Cryptovoxels is its wearables. Wearables are virtual NFT clothing that users can use to customize their avatars. Cryptovoxels wearables come in various shapes and sizes, and they all function similarly to digital clothing in other games. Additionally, you can design your unique wearables using voxel blocks and convert them into NFT assets. You can also choose to sell your creations on NFT platforms to earn cryptocurrency, similar to digital clothing in other games.

Somnium Space

Somnium Space is a VR-centric blockchain-based metaverse founded by Artur Sychov in 2017, with a bold vision to create a permanent economy and virtual currency for the world. Today, Somnium Space is an open-source, decentralized virtual reality metaverse entirely shaped by its users. The digital world operates technically in the same way as the metaverse we introduced earlier, allowing activities such as owning digital land, building houses, and purchasing in-game NFT assets like virtual character equipment.

The metaverse integrates with the Ethereum blockchain, powering its in-app digital currency Somnium Cubes (CUBE). CUBE is a crucial component of the blockchain-based economy, allowing players to trade with each other and providing users with permanent ownership of NFT assets, from virtual land to virtual avatars, goods, buildings, and more.

What sets Somnium Space apart from other blockchain metaverses is its goal to integrate cutting-edge VR technology to provide users with a fully immersive virtual reality service experience. It has enabled full-body tracking technology to track and detect body and finger movements. In October 2021, Somnium Space made strategic investments in VRgineers and Teslasuit. VRgineers is a leading manufacturer of the next-generation high-resolution VR headset XTAL, while Teslasuit is a company that produces full-body haptic suits for physical VR experiences. Somnium Space also announced plans to develop its standalone Somnium Space VR headset.

More importantly, Somnium Space announced in October 2021 that it would integrate the Solana network as part of its ultimate plan to create a multi-chain metaverse with efficient interoperability capabilities. Starting in December 2021, users from the Solana ecosystem will be allowed to utilize their Solana-based NFTs to build NFT galleries or other facilities within the Somnium Space client.

According to the Somnium Space economic paper, CUBE tokens can be used to enter arcades and amusement parks within the metaverse. You can even visit user-generated museums or watch performances, some of which require you to purchase tickets from artists.

The "Somnium Space" client can be downloaded on Steam and accessed from any VR device.

Investing in Virtual Land and Real Estate

Just like buying real estate in reality, there are many aspects to consider when purchasing virtual real estate. Buyers must consider various factors, such as proximity to amenities, location, and the price per land area.

As of November 2021, the base price for a piece of land in Decentraland was approximately 1.2 ETH, about $5,200. Meanwhile, the market capitalization of the MANA token was around $3.54 billion. Additionally, the record for the most expensive land sale in Decentraland was 259 parcels sold for $913,228. But why is it so popular?

It is generally believed that the metaverse will have a significant impact on our daily lives in the future. The metaverse has the potential to serve as a digital nation or civilization, connecting the real world and the virtual world.

The metaverse has already enabled users to purchase land, build properties, and organize virtual gatherings and concerts. Investing in decentralized metaverses may seem like a niche market, but retail investors are not the only ones pouring funds into these virtual realities.

For example, the renowned Sotheby's auction house has established an art gallery in Decentraland, effectively recreating its London headquarters on New Bond Street. The Sotheby's gallery is located in a prime position in Decentraland's Voltaire Art District, with all five floors of exhibition space dedicated to showcasing its art collection.

Some celebrities have expressed interest in participating in the metaverse. For instance, Snoop Dogg replicated his mansion in "The Sandbox" and provided VIP seating for his virtual parties. Additionally, Paris Hilton, Deadmau5, Alabaster dePlume, and 3LAU participated in a music festival in October 2021.

The metaverse can even be used for remote work, home learning, and tourism. Located in Decentraland's Las Vegas downtown is the Tomino Casino, where players can test their luck at various casino games. To improve the onboarding experience for newcomers, the casino even hires real people as casino guides, giving the virtual space a human touch to foster a deeper sense of belonging.

This is just one of many examples of real-life job opportunities within the metaverse. Soon, as companies establish virtual offices in the metaverse, the concept of working from home will become a reality, just like KuCoin has done.

Whether you like it or not, humans are spending more and more time online. The transference fills the gap where our social needs are increasingly met.

Project Examples

Cyber

Cyber is an immersive 3D metaverse where artists and collectors can showcase their NFTs. In addition to the metaverse's realistic graphical settings, collectors can easily connect their Ethereum wallets to the platform, importing their NFT assets to display in their personalized spaces. Cyber also collaborates with some prominent artists in the industry to create creative spaces.

Isotile

Isotile is a decentralized metaverse built on the Ethereum blockchain where you can create a gallery to showcase your NFTs and hang out with friends. The placeholders are primarily influenced by Habbo Hotel, allowing users to control their 3D characters from a fixed third-person perspective.

Lunacia (Axie Infinity)

Lunacia is an open world inhabited by creatures called Axies and Chimeras. The universe is divided into parcels of land called Terra, which players can buy, rent, and develop. Players can choose to fend off monsters to rebuild and strengthen their kingdoms. "Axie Infinity" is currently a turn-based profit game, but it is expected to evolve into a massive metaverse.

Conclusion

The metaverse is one of the hottest topics in the tech industry, prompting companies to invest billions of dollars in the near future. Many large tech companies, such as Facebook, Microsoft, and Tencent, are also betting on the potential of the metaverse.

At the end of 2021, Facebook revealed a plan to hire 10,000 people in the EU over the next five years to help develop its metaverse, Meta. Shortly after the announcement, the company rebranded its parent company from Facebook Inc. to Meta Platforms Inc. to fully focus on developing the metaverse. According to Forbes, Meta's metaverse project alone is expected to cost at least $10 billion in 2021.

Similar to our social media accounts, it is anticipated that many people will choose at least one metaverse as their second life in the future and build connections within the platform.

While centralized metaverses may have their benefits, a single network can manage itself under decentralized protocols in a decentralized blockchain infrastructure. This prevents any organization from exercising monopolistic power in the realm of online interactions.

A key upcoming development in the entire metaverse industry is the combination of cutting-edge augmented reality and virtual reality technologies to enhance virtual environment settings. For example, Decentraland's roadmap includes plans to integrate VR technology to complete the virtual reality experience.

Although the future of the metaverse remains somewhat unclear, we can confidently develop it into an immersive digital world, much like the Oasis in Ernest Cline's novel "Ready Player One," where the limits of reality are only your imagination.