A new project known as Cyber has crafted digital experiences for anyone who owns non-fungible tokens (NFTs). By using Cyber’s platform, digital collections can be displayed in an owner’s gallery for anyone to see.
Virtual Reality NFT Galleries
Cyber is a new avenue for artists and collectors to showcase their NFT collections in a fully immersive 3D setting of their choice. Individuals can import their NFTs using their designated crypto wallet, and by simply clicking the ‘create’ button collectors can have their NFTs permanently displayed in their chosen space.
Collectors who don’t want to use Cyber’s free default galleries can alternatively go to the OpenSea marketplace and purchase a custom 3D gallery, which they can walk through in virtual reality (VR) or on a mobile phone.
A Space to View and Buy NFTs
It’s also possible to buy artwork from someone’s gallery. On visiting a gallery you might find artworks you’d like to purchase; Cyber has enabled people to do so by visiting the OpenSea link on the artwork’s page and buying it, or placing a bid directly on the marketplace.
this is my gallery Let's go check it out There might be something you like.https://t.co/EdOazRhKhV
It’s also possible to link galleries for artists and collectors to collaborate with each other. The recent NFT boom has created multiple opportunities for artists to move into the field, with many opting to create NFT meme avatars to show that they participate in the crypto space.
We are pleased to announce that you can now listen to Arpeggi Songs in your @oncyber_io gallery!
The promise of the metaverse has many new prospective projects vying to become top dog in this exciting new world. With Microsoft and Meta (formerly Facebook) joining the fray, new independent projects are increasingly looking to create a space for people to spend their time.
With some designed as a social experience and others closer to gaming, it remains to be seen how they will be received by the public when they are released and start to generate some steam.
Let’s look at four of the more exciting metaverse projects coming soon:
STARL
Starl, the first 100 percent community-owned decentralised virtual space project
The Starl Metaverse is a space-themed environment where individuals can buy and sell virtual real estate, purchase satellites to use or rent to others, create, sell and buy NFTs, or interact with other people in the metaverse with customisable avatars in the 3D virtual space that makes up part of the Star-link ecosystem.
The virtual land will mimic a real-world space station positioned in an actual quadrant of our galaxy. The $STARL token will be used as a tool to purchase virtual land in the metaverse as well as a way to vote and play a role in the governance of the project.
Bloktopia
Ground zero at the Bloktopia skyscraper
Bloktopia is a tokenised decentralised virtual reality (VR) crypto skyscraper powered by the Polygon network where $BLOK holders, also known as Bloktopians, can purchase digital real estate on one of the 21 levels of the virtual high-rise. The massive ‘building’ will also be home to various merchants where players can buy digital collectibles and services, or just hang out if they want to.
Bloktopia will provide an unprecedented VR experience for the crypto community, bringing users together all in one immersive and engaging environment.
Bloktopia Light Paper
Users will have access to crypto information and immersive content all in one place, where they can learn in an open and friendly environment in VR. Bloktopians will be able to earn revenue through real estate ownership and advertising, play games, build networks and much more.
Somnium Space
Somnium is a realistic open VR world with its own digital economy (CUBE virtual currency) that players can use for purchasing NFTs on the marketplace, along with using it for games, social experiences and virtual land ownership. One of the impressive features of the game is that it will be cross-platform and fully accessible from any device, from 2D mode on a user’s desktop to an immersive VR mode on a desktop or mobile.
The project has partnered with OpenSea’s online platform to use the marketplace for exchanging collectibles, while a partnership with Matic allows the use of its second layer to bring speed and close to zero costs to users for in-game transactions. The game has been out for a while, though only recently started making headway after being made available on Steam.
The project has partnered with Sony to use its 3D model creation technology, allowing users to create fully embodied avatars of themselves in minutes alongside any 3D models for Somnium Store. Users will also be able to program their own experience and monetise it through the asset store or on their property.
The Uplift
Uplift art gallery
The Uplift metaverse is a Minecraft-based massive multiplay NFT virtual environment where players can build, play, and own their parts in the world.
In their explorations, players can mine the native token Upliftium (WAXP), but according to The Uplift’s official page WAXP can mainly be obtained by staking “battery” marked NFTs within the game or on the marketplace. Players will need to purchase a “passport” to be able to play and earn within the game, otherwise it’s more like regular Minecraft.
The project has been running for a while now and has even dedicated a piece of land as an art gallery. The Exhibition Spotlight is a series intended to highlight some artists that are being showcased in the Uplift World Metaverse’s various art galleries, which will later be replaced by a new exhibit.
Delivering on a promise made three months ago, iconic American beer brand Budweiser has launched its debut NFT collection … with one eye firmly on the metaverse.
A total of 1,936 collectibles (the number referencing the year Budweiser began marketing its beer in cans) will serve as access points to an as-yet-unrevealed ‘Budverse’. Sound familiar?
Priced from US$499 (core edition) to $999 (gold, limited to 36), each NFT features elements of classic photos, ads and design aspects charting the history of the brand. Tokens can be bought only via the official website with fiat currencies, credit card or bitcoin/ether via Coinbase Commerce, with a maximum purchase of US$10,000 per person per day, including fees and sales tax.
No Transaction Fees (Except a Gas Fee, That Is)
“These NFTs [minted on the Ethereum network and sold on leading NFT marketplace OpenSea] will act as your key to the Budverse and can unlock exclusive benefits, rewards and surprises,” Budweiser announced on its official Discord server. In a move ostensibly designed to shield buyers from exorbitant Ethereum transaction fees, Budweiser will itself mint the NFTs before distributing them. However, each NFT purchase attracts an additional charge to cover a gas fee of US$75. Go figure, as the Americans say.
Phallic Symbols Fly Through the Cryptosphere
Parent company Anheuser-Busch has also changed Budweiser’s Twitter name to “beer.eth”. At the same time as it purchased a Bud-themed piece from Tom Sachs’ Rocket Factory collection and used it for the brand’s official Twitter page in August, Budweiser bought its new Twitter handle from the Ethereum Name Service (ENS). An ENS name is used to point to an Ethereum wallet, in the same way a URL or domain name points to a website.
The Tom Sachs-designed Budweiser rocket ship. Source: decrypt.co
However, within hours of posting its Rocket Factory NFT, Budweiser’s wallet was bombarded with similarly penis-shaped NFTs sent by other collectors. All very adolescent, really, so it comes as a shock to be reminded that buyers of alcohol-branded collectibles must be certified as being over 18 years of age.
US software company Niantic, best known for creating augmented reality (AR) mobile games such as Pokémon Go, has revealed it has partnered with bitcoin (BTC) rewards company Fold. In announcing their partnership in a November blog post, the companies jointly revealed a new AR game that will allow users to earn BTC in the metaverse.
Earn BTC By Exploring the Metaverse
Fold, in partnership with Niantic, will forge and develop a new game called Fold AR, which will be available for users leveraging the Fold mobile app. The game will allow users to earn BTC and in-app benefits by exploring the metaverse.
According to Fold chief executive officer Will Reeves, “This is the easiest, most fun way to get your first piece of bitcoin … Anyone can use our app to earn bitcoin and other rewards by exploring the world around them. For us, it’s always been important to make participating in the bitcoin economy easy for anyone, regardless of education or technical expertise.”
What is a Metaverse?
The partnership has said that it intends to “forge an alternative version for the metaverse – one that promotes human freedom and happiness through bitcoin and fun”. The term “metaverse” was coined by American science fiction writer Neal Stephenson to describe a “dystopian future where technology dominates the human experience”.
Fold, which is focused on BTC and the metaverse as a vision for the internet, intends to build a place where technology can unleash human freedom and happiness.
The team has started rolling out a limited beta of the experience in the Fold App. In order to get started, users open the “Play” tab in the Fold App to discover BTC and other hidden rewards around them. Every 10 minutes, a new block appears somewhere around the user and if opened triggers an explosion of rewards.
Rewards include satoshis, extra spins to get more rewards, time extensions to remain in the game longer, and an orange pill that protects players against harmful surprises. Users should beware as “shitcoins and poison pills” are lurking, threatening to take away hard-earned BTC. Fold AR is joining a host of methods of earning free BTC.
Fold AR metaverse. Source: Fold App
Have Fun While Getting Rich
While the term “metaverse” is gaining a lot of traction, metaverse tokens are soaring amid the buzz as they allow users in the virtual world to add real-world value.
With Facebook rebranding to Meta amid news of celebrity partnerships including Snoop Dogg entering The Sandbox, tokens of metaverse virtual realities and blockchain-based games are on fire and have been outperforming the market as a whole.
Move over meme coins, the metaverse is now dominating the buzz across the crypto market. Here are three of the top performers:
Axie Infinity (AXS)
The most impressive performer of all has been Axie Infinity, a P2E (Play-to-Earn) NFT-based online video game developed by Vietnamese studio Sky Mavis. Axie Infinity is “a digital nation” where players can “battle, collect, and earn”.
Analytics firm CoinGecko reported that ASX was the second-best performing asset of the market in Q3 2021. The game’s native token AXS has soared accordingly, printing an all-time high of US$164.90 from only $4 at the end of June. AXS is up about 113,003 percent in a single year, and with a market cap just shy of $10 billion ($9,213,638,614), it’s currently ranked #23 in the market.
$AXS price chart. Source: CoinGecko
Decentraland (MANA)
Decentraland is a 3D virtual reality world where players can use the game’s native token, MANA, to buy in-game items such as virtual land and costumes for their avatars. Users also have governance rights and can vote on future developments in Decentraland.
The price of $MANA has increased 572.4 percent in the past 30 days and has printed its all-time high of US$5.46. It is currently ranked #34 and has a market cap of almost US$7 billion.
$MANA price chart. Source: CoinGecko
The Sandbox (SAND)
The Sandbox is a P2P (play-to-earn) blockchain-based virtual world developed by Pixowl. Players in The Sandbox can explore digital universes within the metaverse. It is a world where users can interact with each other, build their own spaces and even attend Snoop Dogg concerts and visit the rapper’s own virtual mansion. Players can also monetise their in-game assets by trading NFTs created within the game and earn SAND tokens just by spending time in the metaverse.
In the past 30 days, the $SAND token has shot up 847.2 percent and is at its all-time high, printing US$8.01. It is currently ranked just after Decentraland at #35 and has a market cap of around US$6.5 billion.
The partnership, announced by the magazine on November 18, will seek to educate its readers about the advent of the metaverse.
TIME Joins the Metaverse
The metaverse is a digital landscape where users can interact socially and economically. Many successful projects have created their own virtual reality world using blockchain technology and tokenomics. Two examples are Decentraland (MANA), which recently soared after the Caribbean island of Barbados announced it would build a digital embassy in its metaverse, and Sandbox (SAND), which also hit an all-time high this week after the announcement of a Play-2-Earn (P2E) metaverse event.
TIME will launch the TIME 100 Companies list, followed by a weekly newsletter titled ‘Into the Metaverse’. Galaxy will manage the list, which will feature the most promising projects and developers.
Excited @GalaxyDigitalHQ & @TIME will launch the first-ever #metaverse cat. w/i TIME100 Companies. Also launching a wkly metaverse newsletter bringing readers, creators & the curious into the space.
TIME‘s decision to jump into the metaverse was probably propelled by the fast-paced advancement of this technology. Two weeks ago, Crypto News Australia reported that Microsoft was set to follow Facebook (now called Meta) and will launch Mesh, its own version of the metaverse, focused on the corporate world.
Over the next decade, the metaverse will become an increasingly important part of the world economy; our physical and digital realities are already becoming hard to distinguish. We look forward to partnering with TIME, an iconic brand driving innovation, as we seek to bring readers, creators, and the curious into the metaverse and demystify the tremendous amount of transformation happening.
Performance of the WAX token has certainly waxed lately following massive NFT (non-fungible token) trading volumes on its Worldwide Asset eXchange (WAX) platform.
WAX Outranks Solana in NFT Sales
This week, WAX surged 44 percent following massive demand for the currency, with over 8 million WAX accounts interacting with the token on the WAX network. The token is up a massive 215 percent in the past month.
Ethereum remains the number one platform in terms of NFT trading volume. But as NFT content creators look for alternative choices, the WAX platform has witnessed massive NFT sales lately. The protocol has become the second Layer-1 blockchain in daily and 30-day NFT sales volume, outpacing high-profile ecosystems in the industry such as Solana and Flow.
There is no big news about partnerships or network upgrades, so the recent price surge is driven only by demand, but we have to note that WAX CEO William E. Quigley has recently talked up NFTs, the metaverse, and the launch of vIRLs, a new form of NFTs issued by the WAX protocol that represent real-world items users can collect without physically shipping them.
The WAX platform is considered the most eco-friendly platform for NFTs, collectibles and video games. There, users can play several decentralised games, build their DApps, and buy and sell NFTs using WAX in a fast, cost-efficient manner.
With its high proven real-world operation transaction volume capacity, unique fee structure of no minting and gifting transaction fees, and energy efficient and low carbon footprint, [WAX] is the ideal blockchain for games that are looking to incorporate elements such as play-and-earn monetisation at scale.
William E. Quigley, WAX CEO
WAX currently has a US$1.5 billion market cap, with each token priced at US$0.85. The price surge comes after a massive wave of traffic, making it the number 1 platform with daily active users.
📈FACT: WAX is the most active #blockchain in the world!
WAX is the undisputed #1 when it comes to daily active users. @Blocktivity1 reports that WAX has substantially more activity than its' nearest competitor.
The Sandbox (SAND), Animoca Brands’ virtual property and gaming project, has announced its highly anticipated Metaverse Alpha event starting later this month. Following the announcement, SAND prices have surged to new all-time highs.
Play-to-Earn Metaverse Event
After four years of development, the Sandbox (SAND) team’s play-to-earn (P2E) Sandbox Alpha event will allow players the opportunity to explore The Sandbox Metaverse for the first time. The virtual gaming world enables users to monetise their time spent in the metaverse via a P2E model. Players can purchase land and create non-fungible tokens (NFTs) within the game and earn Sandbox tokens (SAND) by completing various quests.
The Sandbox Alpha Hub launches on November 29 and closes on December 20. Players who want to take part in the event will need to get their hands on an Alpha Pass, the NFT ticket that will grant full access to the multi-week event to 5000 people. Golden tickets will be on sale on OpenSea’s secondary market between November 29 and December 19.
Players without an Alpha Pass will still be able to access three full experiences and the Alpha HUB, a central multiplayer experience showcasing a range of locations, quests, and the opportunity to connect with other players from the community. However, they will not be eligible to earn P2E rewards.
This is a big deal: Sandbox is finally opening their doors for some alphas to get a peek inside their gaming community vision. $SANDhttps://t.co/iZoMYwDALy
Owners of the Alpha Pass will have the opportunity to earn 1,000 SAND for completing all objectives of the Alpha. Additionally, pass owners have special access to three exclusive The Sandbox Alpha NFTs, which will only be available during the Alpha event.
NFT prizes for owners of the Alpha Pass: The Sandbox
In an interview with Cointelegraph, Animoca Brands co-founder and chairman Yat Siu cautioned future investors that they should take the time to carefully experience The Sandbox before buying tokenised land:
Just go to the places, experience them, join the community on Discord, have a chat with them. See what it’s all about before you make the plunge to buy land because, you know, it’s like buying real estate anywhere in the world.
Yat Siu, co-founder and chairman, Animoca Brands
Metaverse Token Explodes
According to data from CoinGecko, the price of SAND hit a new all-time high of US$3.97 on November 18. SAND has been on a meteoric surge in 2021, gaining 10,545 percent over the past 12 months. Earlier this month ,the SAND token pumped 158 per cent following the Facebook metaverse announcement.
SAND/USD price chart. Source: CoinGecko
At the start of this month, The Sandbox closed a US$93 million Series B funding round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2. The project has been in development for four years and will launch its metaverse in “phased stages” moving forward.
With the idea of the metaverse inching its way into the public sphere, more people are taking part. Barbados recently established the first-ever metaverse embassy as part of its aggressive expansion to build infrastructure and purchase digital land.
The Caribbean island of Barbados is set to become the first sovereign nation to have a digital embassy in the metaverse, signing an agreement with popular blockchain-based virtual reality giant, Decentraland.
So proud today to welcome the Government of Barbados to Decentraland, establishing the world's first metaverse embassy.https://t.co/Xu5RjAwhv4
Decentraland’s MANA token is up more than 15 percent in the past week and over 280 percent over the past month. The pump has followed the announcement of recent news such as HashKey opening its first virtual headquarters in Decentraland and Facebook’s rebranding to Meta in late October.
Buzz and interest around the metaverse has seen other metaverse-based token prices increase, including Axie Infinitie’s AXS, The Sandbox’s SAND, as well as a pump for Enjin’s virtual gaming crypto token ENJ, which is up over 67 percent in the past month.
How the Embassy Will Work
Barbados will become the first country to legally declare digital real estate sovereign land with the establishment of its metaverse embassy, offering digital land for sale within the metaverse, along with e-visas and avatar teleporting services. The opening of the embassy is scheduled for January 22, 2022.
H.E. Gabriel Abed, Barbados’ ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, says the country has plans to “expand aggressively” to build infrastructure and purchase digital land in a variety of virtual worlds. According to a press release from CoinDesk, the Barbadian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade is also signing deals with other metaverse platforms, including Somnium Space and SuperWorld.
This all adds to the overall bullish sentiment of gaming-based crypto tokens and metaverse platforms built on the blockchain.
In a fairly short space of time, the metaverse has shifted from relative obscurity into mainstream consciousness. As the entire metaverse ecosystem has exploded in recent months, it remains somewhat surprising that global investment bank giant Morgan Stanley is bullish on the sector.
It can fundamentally change the medium through which we socialise with others.
Edward Stanley, Morgan Stanley equity strategist
In a note to investors, Morgan Stanley noted that this alternative concept of reality was gaining a lot of attention from Meta (ex-Facebook) and Microsoft, both of whom are actively positioning themselves for growth in the sector.
‘Metaverse’ Next Big Investment Theme
According to Morgan Stanley, the metaverse is a concept that includes “construction of an alternative universe where individuals can model their image to whatever they want to be, and perform real-life tasks such as buying things, gaming with friends, and other activities”.
Edward Stanley, an equity strategist at Morgan Stanley, noted that there was a growing cohort of companies shifting their focus towards the metaverse. He considered tech and gaming companies as being well-positioned to profit from their first mover advantage.
Source: Morgan Stanley
Newsflow around the metaverse concept has been high and companies are embracing it in growing numbers. Of any major theme, companies and analysts have greater interest in the metaverse than any other theme at present.
Edward Stanley, Morgan Stanley equity analyst
He was, however, quick to acknowledge how early we were in the process and that a fully integrated, interoperable and collaborative metaverse would still be years away. When that time comes, users would be able to move seamlessly from one platform to another, moving their experiences and avatars with them in the process.
Metaverse and Gaming
Gaming and its relationship to the metaverse was one area that Morgan Stanley appeared most optimistic about. Noting that 50 million Americans took up gaming in 2020, the report saw three main bullish developments in the space:
Social-gaming convergence – gaming has increasingly become a means for making, building and maintaining social relationships.
In-game monetisation – gamers conduct in-game micropurchases to express their personalities and connect with others in the virtual world.
Emergence of new games on new platforms – higher visual resolution, faster storage and enhanced gameplay are leading to groundbreaking new titles.
While older generations struggle to understand the appeal of socialising, interacting or living in a virtual world, one thing is patently clear – the younger generation not only love and embrace alternate digital realities, but in many cases they actually prefer it.
