About 10 years ago I started writing a graphic novel called The Betaverse. The premise was that a future world government had decreed that Earth was overcrowded with humans. Their wise plan is to create an artificial world that people would prefer to live in, thus reducing congestion in the real world. With the virtual planet almost complete, a job vacancy ad is released for testers of this new world... the betaverse. That's basically where the story started and it was one of those projects that just got shelved because of lack of time.
So... fast forward a decade and what seemed like a science fiction idea is literally starting to happen. VR and AR have become better and better in recent years and with the imminent release of Ready Player One, as well as new affordable tech coming onto the market, I expect it will have a surge of new interest this year. Luckily it's not a one world government of a dystopian future pushing the technology forwards but innovators, artists, designers and developers around the world with a wealth of skills and imagination.
My own interest has been peaked by a block-chain project called Decentraland that incorporates decentralisation into a webVR platform through the sale of LAND. In August last year Decentraland had an ICO of the currency, which they intend to use in world, MANA. The ICO raised millions for the project and so the long journey of building this world began. Between October and December developers were encouraged to pitch ideas for districts in what would become the first place in Decentraland, Genesis City. Great ideas for districts developed, some obvious some unique, and investors were encouraged to contribute land parcels in the districts to show support. The Red Light District and Vegas City soon had plenty of investors who could already see the potential money to be made in these districts but also money was being invested to support great ideas for the future like The University and Atheria.
In December the majority of LAND parcels in Genesis City went on sale. Investors bid in MANA for parcels and all of the MANA invested in the auction was burned. Land ownership is recorded on the ethereum blockchain as ERC721 non-fungible tokens. Once you have that token the LAND is yours to build on it what you like. Since it's launch MANA has become a respected cryptocurrency embraced by major exchanges and is currently trading at about 5x the ICO price. Decentraland have just this week launched a marketplace app to trade LAND and the new interest has been astonishing with one LAND parcel changing hands for 1,300,000 MANA or about $130 000.
I read Snow Crash by Neil Stephenson in the mid 90's when, for me, the internet was just grinding into existence. It seems remarkable to me that only 25 years later we are on the threshold of recreating the world he envisaged. I think it will take time for the Decentraland world to be as all encompassing as Snow Crash universe but this is the beginning and there is already a huge community of people around the world pitching in to make it happen. As an artist I relish the idea of collectively creating a city from imagination
see you in Genesis City?
Land Marketplace - https://market.decentraland.org/