The metaverse - the topic has been on everyone's lips ever since Facebook renamed itself "Meta" and the tech giant announced its intention to become a pioneer in this field. The metaverse is intended to create a digital world that is a virtual counterpart to the real world. With an avatar, you can work there, meet friends and generally do everything you can do in the physical world. Only in the metaverse.
Another topic that is also making waves is that of NFTs. This stands for Non Fungible Token. Such a token can be attached to any digital file, such as a photo. The coding in a so-called blockchain makes each NFT unique and is intended to serve as a kind of certificate of authenticity for the linked file. This is also the reason for the value that some NFTs now achieve.
For example, there are comic-style NFTs of monkey images that sell for millions. The prospect of integrating NFTs into a metaverse is also attracting a great deal of interest. They could serve as proof of ownership for virtual goods, properties or even as digital proof of identity in the metaverse.
In this issue of Trendstories, we present innovative projects and news about the Metaverse and NFTs.
Even though Facebook was undeniably the main driver of the metaverse hype, the company is not the only one driving innovation in this area. The number of metaverses is constantly increasing. In addition to The Sandbox, Decentraland and Facebook's Horizon, the Otherside metaverse is now also joining the race for number one in virtual space.
The company responsible for this, Yuga Labs, has caused a stir in recent years with its "Bored Ape" NFT images, which have sold for prices that were previously more common at art auctions. Even though the Metaverse itself has not yet been launched, some information about the virtual world is already known. Yuga Labs emphasized that their Metaverse will primarily be about entertainment.
At the beginning of June, the company then released the so-called Otherdeeds for sale. These are dynamic NFTs that represent plots of land in the Otherside Metaverse. The Otherdeeds are intended to be a component and at the same time an entry ticket for a kind of online role-playing game in which you explore the world, mine resources and collect items in the traditional way. In addition, the appearance of the land NFTs will adapt to changes in the metaverse.
In any case, demand is huge. Just a few weeks after its launch, Otherdeed has already achieved a market capitalization in the billions and an average price of several thousand euros.
A chip to turn physical objects into NFTs
The startup Americana Technologies has announced that it is working on a microchip that can turn physical objects into NFTs. The NFTA Universal Chip can be easily attached to any object such as paintings, shoes, cars or Pokemon cards and turned into a unique digital item in the form of an NFT.
In addition to the possibility of being able to present your analog possessions digitally in the future, the chip has even more potential.
Until now, only creators of digital goods have been able to earn effectively from the rights to their works. For example, every download of a song on iTunes or every click on YouTube puts money in the pockets of the artists. In future, Americanas Chip could also enable the creators of physical works to earn money from their products in the long term. For example, when a work of art is resold, a share of the profit could automatically go to the artist, allowing them to benefit from increases in the value of their own works.
The link between the object and the NFT could also serve as a certificate of authenticity for works of art, for example. A buyer would be able to view the history of previous owners by scanning the object with a smartphone and have the authenticity of the purchased object confirmed.
Even though it will probably be some time before the chip is launched on the market, many obviously see great potential in it. This is reflected not least in the 6.9 million dollars in investment that Americana was recently able to attract.
In the digital space, it is often difficult to verify the identity of other users and cumbersome to prove your own. At the beginning of April, the Irish company pfpid Wallets Limited presented its pfpid NFT, which is intended to serve as a kind of "blockchain ID card".
The principle behind this is that each person can only acquire one of these NFTs. Once the owner has confirmed his or her own identity, he or she is uniquely identifiable due to the uniqueness of each NFT and can identify himself or herself.
pfpid could be used, for example, to verify social media profiles or email accounts and thus as a means of combating bots or phishing emails. The ID-NFT could also be useful for companies, for example to prevent orders being placed under a false name.
The concept behind pfpid also appears promising with regard to future metaverses. For example, the NFT in the metaverse could serve as a digital counterpart to the ID document in the real world.
Prague-based start-up Somnium Space has announced that it will be integrating a live-forever mode into its VR metaverse of the same name.
By creating a precise image of oneself that outlives one's own life, friends and relatives could interact with their loved ones in the metaverse even after their death.
To this end, the person's data is collected over a longer period of time using a VR system and camera in order to equip their avatar with an AI that corresponds to their character in the future.
The developers at Somnium are relying above all on the rapid progress in the field of artificial intelligence to ensure that the "second self" can be equipped with the necessary depth of character required for lifelike interaction in the future.
To the Somnium Space Metaverse
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