What are Metaverse Platforms?

What Is the Metaverse?

Despite all the recent attention that the metaverse has been garnering, it can still be challenging to definitively or conclusively describe what it entails. That’s because the metaverse as we know it is still being built — co-created by participants from many perspectives and all over the globe. Most generally, the term “metaverse” refers to a shared, immersive virtual world in which players, usually represented by avatars, interact with each other, construct experiences, and create in-world objects and landscapes. Specifically, a crypto metaverse, or a blockchain-based metaverse, is a metaverse that incorporates blockchain into its underlying technology and crypto assets (such as metaverse tokens) — into its economy.

Examples of the Crypto Metaverse

Crypto metaverses typically incorporate the immersive environments of virtual reality (VR), the engaging playability of video games, the networked interactivity of social media, and the value exchange of crypto in innovative ways. These elements together can render a digital reality of far more significant breadth than a platform reliant on any one element alone. While metaverse-like environments have existed in massive-multiplayer online games for some time now, the incorporation of blockchain, crypto, and VR into the sector is a relatively new development. There are many individual crypto metaverses, though most developers envision an increasing degree of interoperability between these platforms, and sometimes the term “metaverse” is colloquially used to refer to the combined total of these virtual worlds. With this in mind, let’s explore some of the most popular crypto metaverses operating today.

The Sandbox Crypto Metaverse Game Ecosystem and Its SAND Token 

The Sandbox metaverse is an Ethereum-based gaming ecosystem upon which users can create, share, and monetize in-world assets with a significant degree of control. The Sandbox gives users a handful of powerful tools that enable them to create a virtually unlimited repertoire of creations, which can then be sold or deployed within gaming experiences. The Sandbox crypto metaverse game is one of several blockchain-based virtual worlds attempting to change the dynamics of the gaming market by rewarding creators for the value they create and grow through user-generated content.

Sandbox users can create and animate 3D objects — referred to as ASSETS — within the metaverse, and then sell them on the platform’s built-in marketplace. Further, the Sandbox Game Maker allows users to create entire 3D games for free. The platform’s native SAND token powers all of the ecosystem’s transactions and interactions. For example, SAND tokens are required to play games, purchase equipment, or customize your avatar. SAND can also be used to purchase ASSETS and LANDS (digital pieces of real estate).

Notably, The Sandbox pays for Ethereum gas fees on behalf of players, making the user experience significantly more seamless. Additionally, 50% of all SAND token transaction fees are allotted to The Sandbox Foundation, which supports the ecosystem by funding grants and promoting the platform.

The Somnium Space Crypto Metaverse and Its CUBE Token 

Somnium Space is a virtual reality metaverse built on the Ethereum blockchain that enables users to create, experience, and trade digital worlds and non-fungible token (NFT) assets. Somnium Space provides software development kits (SDKs) for the creation of its avatars (AVATARs) and property (PARCELs), in addition to entire environments and structures that may serve as the template layer for standalone virtual reality experiences. Unlike traditional multiplayer VR games that see users divided into sub servers and mirrored-instanced rooms, Somnium Space hosts all players in one immense, vast world. Within that broader VR universe, users can create Somnium Space environments that are fully programmable, customizable, and independent VR experiences.

The immersive dynamics of Somnium Space allow players to build, script, and monetize environments — all while exploring the creations of other participants. A user might go swimming, visit a museum, or dine in a restaurant built by another player in the Somnium Space metaverse. Users can monetize their creations by selling assets on the platform's built-in NFT marketplace, or by charging for participation in VR experiences.

Somnium Space’s native CUBE token serves as its base currency and utility token for the platform. In an effort to incentivize participation and citizenship, players can earn various degrees of CUBE rewards based on their Somnium Space “karma level.” This metric is calculated based on factors such as time spent gaming, land ownership, economic activity, public participation, how other virtual citizens rate their interactions, and more.

The Decentraland Crypto Metaverse and Its MANA Token

Decentraland is a user-owned, Ethereum-based virtual world where you can play, explore, and interact with games, activities, and experiences. You can also purchase parcels of land upon which to build your own environments, marketplaces, and applications. Decentraland’s three native tokens — MANA, LAND, and Estate — all play a unique role in furnishing the Decentraland economy. The platform is distinguished by its decentralized governance, which is enacted via the Decentraland DAO, a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO).

As with most other virtual worlds, you experience Decentraland’s metaverse through an avatar, with whom you can explore its ever-developing map of digital destinations. Activities can include anything from buying digital art at the Crypto Valley Art Gallery, trading with fellow metaverse regulars in Bartertown, and learning at Decentraland University — and many can only be accessed with digital tokens.

LAND holders are able to create digital environments and applications upon it, like games, districts, and themed communities — all of which can also be monetized. Many crypto companies — including Rarible, MakerDAO, and SuperRare — have even created virtual offices, community events, and art galleries in the Decentraland game, bridging the material and digital realms to offer new experiences and utility in an increasingly remote world. Decentraland has also played host to a variety of virtual conferences, music events, and other meetups that further prove the growing impact of the metaverse.

The Cryptovoxels Crypto Metaverse

Cryptovoxels is an Ethereum-based virtual reality metaverse project that enables users to build, experience, and sell their creations on its decentralized platform. The visual design and layout of Cryptovoxels has led to comparisons of the platform being a Minecraft-like virtual world utilizing three dimensional voxel art. Like other Ethereum-based metaverses, Cryptovoxels has become home to the development of vast building structures thanks to the participation of digital architects, as well as the construction of uniquely voxel-style art galleries designed to showcase users’ NFTs.

The Cryptovoxels world environment is made up of parcels, which represent individual plots of lands that can be purchased by users. Parcel owners can then build anything they want on their parcels, or “sandbox” them, making them available for anyone to build on them for free. This platform is designed to be more user-friendly than some other metaverses. It does not require any coding or scripting; users can simply build their creations graphically directly in a web browser, though advanced scripting capabilities still remain available. As within many other metaverses, names, avatars, and land parcels are represented by NFTs as ERC-721 tokens. There is no native utility token for Cryptovoxels — instead, the platform relies on ether (ETH).

The Axie Infinity Crypto Metaverse Game and Its AXS Token

Axie Infinity is an NFT gaming metaverse built around collectible digital pets. The Axie Infinity game includes play-to-earn opportunities, providing some users with regular income. While Axies are unique digital pets that come in the form of NFTs, the metaverse also incorporates an ERC-20 governance token called Axie Infinity Shards (AXS). The AXS token is intended to facilitate the eventual decentralization of the ownership and governance of the Axie Infinity ecosystem.

The Axie Infinity ecosystem has four primary elements: battle, breeding, land, and the marketplace. Battle is a turn-based card game in which players aim to defeat adversaries, with each side always made up of three Axies. You can also breed your Axies to create offspring that can be sold, bred, or deployed in battle. The “homeland” of the Axies is called Lunacia and is divided into 90,601 plots of land, each of which is an ERC-721 token. Land plots act as homes for your Axies, and can be upgraded with items sold on the Axie marketplace. Likewise, land owners can discover AXS tokens on their plots. You can also purchase plots of land and items such as objects and decorations for your land. If you wish to trade an Axie NFT, you can do so on the Axie marketplace, although Axies can also be exchanged on external NFT marketplaces.

The Alien Worlds Crypto Metaverse and its TLM Token

The Alien Worlds game is a blockchain-based metaverse that is deployed on the Ethereum, WAX, and Binance Smart Chain (BSC) blockchains. Alien Worlds is a play-to-earn game, much like Axie Infinity, though its metaverse gaming environment is spread over six virtual planets, each of which hosts its own DAO to establish community-driven platform governance. In essence, these planets and their respective DAOs compete to mine the in-game currency and crucial resource, trillium (TLM). Further, Alien Worlds’ respective deployments on various blockchain platforms provide different gaming mechanisms. For instance, on WAX planets, players mine TLM, while on Binance Smart Chain planets they embark on various missions to earn TLM.

Players have the opportunity to mine Alien Worlds’ crypto token TLM by battling other players, completing in-game missions, or by renting out their in-game land assets. Holding TLM gives players unique advantages in the game, although it can also be exchanged for other assets. In December of 2021, the Alien Worlds game was voted the fastest growing blockchain-based metaverse and boasted well over two million users.

Enter the Metaverse

The blockchain-based metaverse platforms discussed above by no means represent an exhaustive list, but rather the tip of the iceberg. Increasingly, the real world is moving to the metaverse. A variety of companies — both mainstream and crypto native — have even set up virtual headquarters in crypto metaverses and regularly hold virtual events and festivals attended by thousands of people. Most blockchain-based metaverses in 2021 are built on Ethereum, but many more platforms will likely proliferate in the coming years as the metaverse space continues to grow with new decentralized and centralized providers.

Crypto metaverses offer users new ways to play, invest, gather, and interact — and to earn from it all. While development on the myriad singular metaverse platforms is highly noteworthy, it’s the potential for the various metaverse games to interact and interoperate that could drive the budding metaverse ecosystem into a pillar of the global economy.