Facebook’s embrace of the metaverse has unleashed a world of new blockchain projects that merge the concepts of virtual reality, digital worlds and cryptocurrencies.
Metaverse is a computer-generated universe where users can create avatars and interact with others. They also have the ability to buy land, sell it, and start businesses.
The digital world was taken by surprise in 2021 when Metaverses became a leading facilitator for social interaction and business. They have exploded in popularity and their current momentum suggests they’re going to become a much bigger part of our culture as the new year progresses.
So without further ado, here’s a quick rundown of three of the most promising metaverse projects to keep an eye out for in 2022.
Bit.Country
Bit.Country makes it easier for everyone to access the metaverse, regardless of where they live, what their background is, or even what religions they hold.
Bit.Country is an online platform which allows users to make their own metaverse. Users can create rules and format their own currency and encourage and reward contributors. You will find all the necessary tools to start: a 3D map, support for gaming, commerce and economics.
Based on the Metaverse.Network and Substrate from the Polkadot environment, all metaverses are housed within its Continuum. The Continuum can be thought of as a map of all of the “Bit Countries”, with a limited number of coordinates and its future shape driven entirely by community members.
Each new Bit Country metaverse that’s created will be placed as a new block somewhere within the Continuum. Metaverse creators are able to modify the design, shape, and texture of the block worlds. Each block’s space can be broken down into 100 parts that can be individually owned or traded by users. Each section’s owners (or landlords) can place assets in them, offer services, show NFTs and run events. The owners can choose to import or make their own cryptocurrency. Community members can use this currency to pay for their services, buy assets and participate in governance events. It’s a refreshing alternative to existing metaverses such as SandBox and Decentraland, where many of the rules have already been established.
Bit.Country’s ultimate goal is to create a world of perpetual communities, where metaverse worlds can grow exponentially while giving their communities multiple opportunities to participate and earn. It’s a project with a long-term vision that promises to create a new level of social interaction, with unique benefits to its users.
PlayMining
PlayMining, a metaverse-based pay-to-play gaming platform developed by Digital Entertainment Asset, aims to make online games more fun by rewarding players for their participation rather than charging money to them to play.
While traditional mobile games are often advertised as “free to play” the reality is somewhat different. To gain an edge and advance, players may be forced to purchase in-game items with no intrinsic value. These items soon go out of fashion and users are forced to continue buying more. Users may spend hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars on a game over time without ever being able to recoup that investment.
PlayMining hopes to change that dynamic by creating a gaming industry that uses blockchain, cryptocurrency, and NFTs instead of encouraging players to spend. PlayMining allows players to earn NFTS as a reward for their gaming activity. The blockchain-based NFTs allow real ownership, so they can either be sold or bought for cryptocurrency that can be traded to real money. This ensures creators and gamers are paid.
PlayMining launched its platform in May 2020 and now hosts three hugely popular play-to-earn NFT games, including its flagship trading card battle game JobTribes, which currently ranks ninth on DappRadar’s game ranking and boasts more than 40,000 monthly active users. Other titles on PlayMining include the puzzle game PlayMining Puzzle×JobTribes and the coin-pusher game Lucky Farmer.
PlayMining has claimed that over two million users from 100 different countries have taken part in its token-based play-to-earn economy. That number is expected to rise in 2022, as PlayMining will launch more titles. The multi-task cooking game Cookin’ Burger is set to launch this spring, and will be followed by the debut of the coloring and racing game Graffiti Racer in summer.
DEA’s PlayMining is an innovative project that has already shown that profitable gaming is no pipe dream. This innovative project has every potential to disrupt the current videogame industry.
Syn City
A massive play-to-earn game that’s well worth watching is the mafia syndicate game Syn City, which is focused on providing greater access to new users.
Syn City makes use of the tokenized asset concept in NFTs. They can be purchased both within the game as well as in the larger metaverse. It’s similar to many traditional mafia war games, with players tasked with building up their characters and crews, gathering and managing resources, strategizing, planning raids and attacks on other gamers.
Also intriguing is Syn City’s unique Mafia-as-a-DAO governance system, which lets gamers manage their own syndicates. It’s a new take on the idea of a decentralized autonomous organization, in which the community votes on proposals within their syndicates and on the game’s overall direction. It’s a system that ensures Syn City’s metaverse is transparent and provably fair.
Syn City’s unique model has won it a lot of fans, with an impressive funding round of more than $8 million in 2021, followed by $3.5 million raised within just 30 minutes of the launch of its IGO on the Binance NFT platform in December, where it now ranks number one for collections..
Syn City’s metaverse is poised to revolutionize the blockchain gaming landscape in 2022, with more than 100,000 mafiosos signing up.