The Metaverse is the latest buzzword that everyone has seen on social media or on their newsfeed in the last month.
Combining Cryptocurrency, NFT’s and Videogames, this concept is on it’s way to revolutionise the way people play video games, interact with each other, store and use collectibles and much more! The Metaverse was bound to make a lot of noise very quickly.
The hype is currently fuelling the price surge and all projects and companies related to the Metaverse are getting more awareness than they ever had.
In this article I will explain what the metaverse is, the most popular projects related to it and my closing thoughts regarding that sector.
What is the Metaverse?
In Greek, “meta” means “beyond” and “verse” is short for universe. The Metaverse therefore refers to something that’s beyond our existing reality or universe. When it comes to what’s been generating so much excitement in the media lately, the Metaverse is a virtual reality (VR) system where people can customise and interact with everything virtually. A user could, for example, use a VR headset to join virtual meetings at work or to play video games with friends.
As the CEO of Meta (formerly Facebook), Mark Zuckerberg, said, the Metaverse is still a long way from completion. However, many NFT and cryptocurrency companies are already starting to look into that concept, as they estimate it to be a great opportunity to see their services used in even more ways than envisioned.
The Metaverse and crypto
The Metaverse is a world of ownership and creation, where users can participate or build together on an often decentralised platform.
These platforms, however, have to be financed in a sustainable way, and many projects have opted for a freemium business model. This means that people can access and use the service for free, but if they want to customize their avatar, or own a piece of land to build their house on, they will often have to buy them on a marketplace.
The items that users may purchase tend to be in the form of NFTs, which are unique digital assets proving that the buyer is the sole owner of that particular item. Once the NFT is in the user’s wallet, the platform can detect it and enable its functionalities.
As NFTs are stored on the blockchain, they are closely linked to cryptocurrency, which is also often the means of payment required to purchase them. This means that the projects related to the Metaverse are indirectly linked to cryptocurrency.
Almost all of the metaverse-related projects therefore also have their own token, to which they might attach voting rights and other forms of utilities.
Top Metaverse tokens
Here are some of what I consider to be the top Metaverse tokens currently available.
Enjin Coin (ENJ)
Enjin is one of the leading players in the NFT and blockchain-gaming industries, having created the ERC-1155 NFT standard and a token (ENJ) used to infuse NFTs. Created to counter the barriers to entry for (fee, transaction time, complexity of use), Enjin has developed a multi-chain ecosystem with Jumpnet and Efinity , a blockchain purpose-built for NFTs, which is currently vying for a Polkadot parachain slot.
This could be a game-changer in the Metaverse for proof of ownership and looting in games. If, for example, you are playing with friends and have a really rare sword, it would be possible to send it to your friends with no fee, and no waiting period and they could directly use it. It would also be possible to sell all of the hard-earned equipment when changing to a new game, which is at the moment only possible on a select few games.
Decentraland (MANA)
Decentraland is a multiplayer universe where users are able to engage in mini-games, chat with people online, purchase customisables for their avatar and even parcels of land! If a user acquires a parcel of land, they can build whatever they like on it, including an art gallery to promote your NFTs, a place to play chess with your friends or a basketball hoop to train your (virtual) aim.
There is also a real-estate side to the platform, as parcels are limited in number and the proximity they have to the centre is a key feature to have maximum visibility. As each parcel is unique, we can expect prices to rise with demand.
The Sandbox (SAND)
The Sandbox is a game in which you are able to create, build, sell and own games items and parcels of land. The players are immersed in a 3D world and can complete quests cooperatively and fight off monsters. People can make their games in the Sandbox with no programming skills, which leaves room for a lot of users to become creators too!
This game is perhaps slightly more focused on the adventure and questing categories than Decentraland, which might appeal to different users.
It is also still in the testing phase and not open to the wider public - at time of writing, the right to participate in the testing phase is worth $12,000!
Axie Infinity (AXS)
Axie infinity is a game where you can buy collectibles that all have their own particularities. The objective is to own the best team of collectibles to win battles against other players. Depending on your results, you will receive some SLP (their in-game currency) that can be used to create more collectibles, and as you own them, you can send or sell them!
Players are also able to own land, on which they can host shops, dungeons and generate cryptocurrencies depending on their popularity.
It has been one of the biggest games featuring NFTs for a while and is constantly being worked on and updated.
Ultra (UOS)
Ultra is an entertainment platform on which you will be able to find games, movies, tournaments, influencers and much more. The particularity of the platform is that once the users purchase items, they own them and are able to use them, lend them or even sell them! Users are also able to earn money for playing games owned on Ultra and promoting them too.
Ultra is fighting against the monopolistic tendencies they see in the current market of gaming and video streaming.
What does the future hold for the Metaverse?
The Metaverse is a great concept with a huge future ahead. Using VR headsets to offer another level of immersion and contact between people who are not sitting in the same room could become very useful - especially as we live more of our lives virtually as a result of the COVID pandemic.
Furthermore, ownership and scarcity are two drivers of value that have helped many cryptocurrency projects in the past, and the gaming industry is in serious need of these assets. At the moment, when players switch from one game to another, they leave all of their hard-earned progress behind. Perhaps having the option to make money by selling their assets can be rewarding for the user, and profitable for the company.
However, we have seen that the Metaverse is still a very new sector and it has seen a large growth in new investors that may have high expectations in terms of price and not enough patience to wait for the value to materialise.
Picking the right project has the possibility of being very profitable in the long run, and the ones listed above are the most popular ones for a reason. It is, however, worth remembering that any investment does carry risk.
I strongly believe that gaming, cryptocurrencies and NFT’s mix very well together and the projects we are seeing rise today could become tomorrow’s norm. I can’t wait to follow these projects to see how they grow, and add them to my SwissBorg portfolio.
