A Walkthrough of the Top Metaverse Projects in March 2022

How do you make money in crypto without too much stress or risk?

Easy! Do what the big boys do, not what they say.

Example?

J.P. Morgan - yes, the J.P. Morgan headed by a prominent Bitcoin hater Jamie Dimon - has its own metaverse lounge with a portrait of CEO Dimon hanging on a wall. If that doesn't convince you that there may be something to the metaverse, may a non-exclusive list of companies investing in it will:

We could go on, but you get the gist! The caveat is that it is still very early for the metaverse, and most of these projects follow a throw-s**t-at-the-wall approach to test what works and what doesn't. However, a few promising metaverse projects are already a step ahead of the big brands, and CoinMarketCap Academy will walk you through the most exciting metaverses currently on the market.

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Decentraland

Decentraland (MANA) is a "decentralized virtual reality platform powered by the Ethereum blockchain. Within the Decentraland platform, users can create, experience, and monetize their content and applications."

In plain English, Decentraland is a metaverse, where individuals and brands can show off their services, goods, and content to users that want to consume them. To do so, they need a piece of virtual real estate, which is acquired through LAND tokens, NFTs that are purchased by burning the native MANA token. These parcels of virtual land can be quite sought-after, with one plot selling for $2.4 million in November 2021.

Decentraland is already a dinosaur in crypto terms, having started as a proof of concept on Ethereum in 2015. The very first version of Decentraland was nothing more than a 2D grid of pixels, where each plot owner was encoded in the metadata. It later transitioned to a 3D virtual mockup before the team sorted out the on-chain hosting of the data.

These days, Decentraland is governed by a DAO that is formed by the community and controls the project's treasury. Although the graphics are still quite clunky and are jokingly compared to "Gameboy Color" quality on Crypto Twitter, Decentraland has developed several real use cases. For instance:

LAND owners can curate and share content.
Brands can advertise their products, services, and events on billboards or through high-traffic parcels.
Creators can issue NFTs that fans can collect and trade.
Social communities can form on distinct parcels.
Potential future use cases in education, virtual tourism, 3D design, and other areas.

The very JP Morgan we mentioned has its lounge on a Decentraland plot (small wonder they call the metaverse a $1 trillion opportunity), as does the Australian Open, Samsung, and many others.

The Sandbox

The Sandbox (SAND) is another big metaverse project focused on gaming and content creation. It employs a 3D Voxel style that gained popularity through games like Roblox and Minecraft and uses a similar land-selling mechanism like its big rival, Decentraland. However, The Sandbox employs not only LAND tokens but also ASSET ERC-1155 tokens to reward content creators for the time and energy they dedicate to the metaverse.

The Sandbox is ancient in crypto terms, having started as a mobile game in 2012 on Android and iOS. It transitioned to PC in 2015 and grew in popularity through Steam, with users creating 70 million unique worlds and environments. The blockchain part of The Sandbox started in 2019 when the company decided to pivot towards the decentralization of user-generated content.

Nowadays, The Sandbox consists of:

A Voxel Editor that can be used to create and animate 3D objects.
The web-based marketplace to trade NFTs.
The metaverse, where users can build out games on their LAND parcels using their ASSETs created in the editor.

The Sandbox has already attracted interest from several big artists and brands like Warner Music, Snoop Dogg, and Pricewaterhouse Coopers.

Cryptovoxels

Cryptovoxels is an Ethereum-based metaverse with a Minecraft-like style. It consists of virtual infrastructures like buildings, roads, and lands that users can build on top of. Cryptovoxels is web-based and was released in 2018, directly on Ethereum.

Cryptovoxel assets are traded directly on OpenSea with Ether, unlike other metaverse projects that utilize their own, often pre-mined token. This includes land but also other unique digital assets like art galleries, theaters, food stores, and all kinds of virtual infrastructure. However, Cryptovoxel does have a token, its Cryptovoxels Parcel (CVPA). CVPA tokens are NFTs and can be bought in a weekly auction on Opensea. They represent land in Cryptovoxel's Origin City.

Somnium Space

Somnium Space (CUBE) is "an open, social and persistent virtual reality platform" built on Solana. Somnium's metaverse will contain communication, entertainment, e-commerce, and "a place to live."

Since its beginnings in 2017, Somnium Space has been working on a metaverse for VR enthusiasts, which distinguishes it from other metaverse projects with rather simplistic graphics. The project underscores this VR focus and aims to build a metaverse that will incorporate haptic suits, finger and eye-tracking, and VR motion platforms.

Another major difference is Somnium's metaverse economy, which is based on CUBE (its in-game currency) and so-called WORLD NFTs that can be dragged and dropped onto new land parcels. These WORLD tokens are filled with gaming experiences like arcades, racing games, shooting games, and casinos. Other use cases for WORLD are wearables that can be used like avatars, tickets, vehicles, and much more.

Somnium has also secured major partnerships with companies like OpenSea, Gemini, Microsoft, and Blockchain Game Alliance.

Bit.Country

Bit.Country (NUUM) is a network of metaverses that sees itself as the portal to blockchain realization. It will allow users to build their personalized and customizable digital worlds that creators can tailor to their specific needs. Its non-technical framework combines a voxel world a la Minecraft with a polygon system to create an immersive 3D experience.

Like in other metaverses, users will be able to mint digital art collections and own virtual real estate. The 100,000 parcels of land will be purchasable with its native NUUM token and serve its owner's purpose: advertising, branding, events, or content creation. However, despite winning a Polkadot parachain slot auction, NUUM has not launched yet, making Bit.Country one of the most-anticipated future metaverse projects on the market.

Webaverse

Webaverse is an "open virtual world where users can build and monetize real-time immersive gaming." Similar to other metaverses, Webaverse operates with LAND and ASSET non-fungible tokens, allowing creators to showcase and monetize their work. The project is browser-based, VR-compatible, and claims to be inspired by Fortnite.

Like many other metaverse projects, development for Webaverse began a few years ago. The project was initially called Zeo and aimed to be a blockchain-based virtual reality world. Over the years, Webaverse gobbled up other companies with vital infrastructure components to build out its metaverse like a browser, a JavaScript library, and a web-based avatar system.

The main point of action in the Webaverse is its "overworld," consisting of virtual parcels that are the entry points to various immersive experiences. Like Fortnite, Webaverse uses a "seasons model," which introduces content and themes to the game that only last for a limited period. Content creators in Webaverse can distribute their content through ASSETs and showcase it on their LAND parcels.

Pegaxy

Pegaxy (PGX) is a different type of metaverse and one of the examples of a more game-focused virtual world. As an NFT-based horse racing game, Pegaxy does not focus on selling virtual real estate for advertising or content creation purposes, although players can also purchase virtual race tracks. Rather, the game's horses, represented as NFTs, intrigue players to participate in Pegaxy.

These so-called Pegas are the game's focal point, as players can participate in 3D racing arenas with their unique virtual equine assets. The game's biggest competition is a yearly Grand Dash Tournament, which requires qualification via monthly qualification rounds and yields massive prizes for the winner.

Pegaxy is a promising example of a new class of game-oriented metaverses that expand on the idea of being "just a virtual world."

Conclusion

Virtual real estate is en vogue, as many of the most popular metaverse projects focus on that use case. However, other metaverse projects do not necessarily want to attract big brands but target individual players and investors. You can find more info on this hot topic in our other articles on the top metaverse tokens and the metaverse projects you should keep an eye on!

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A Walkthrough of the Top Metaverse Projects in March 2022

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