The metaverse is not as new as we might all think. Already 30 years ago, the author Neal Stephenson established the concept of the metaverse in his novel “Snow Crash”. But the father of the metaverse is not very enthusiastic about the current developments in meta and co.
So what do you do when the tech giants don’t really implement your own vision the way you imagined it? You do it yourself, and that’s why Stephenson is planning his own blockchain-based Metaverse. His mission here is to establish openness as the most important value in his virtual world and to democratize the creation of content in the world – in other words, to design it in such a way that creators in his metaverse are rewarded for their work.
Stephenson is not alone in the project, which has the working title Lamina1. On board is a veteran of the cryto scene, Bitcoin Foundation co-founder Peter Vessenes.
A white paper published last month provides insights into what the two visionaries are planning. Lamina1’s blockchain generates tokens in the background using an eco-friendly proof-of-work process to reward the world’s creators. These are probably the most important target group for the pilot project, because the democratization of the creative industry is close to the hearts of both founders.
According to the white paper, Stephenson himself shows what the content can look like in the first step. He plans to create his own first interactive virtual world, which will tell its own story. In this way, he wants to show how storytelling can work in the metaverse and how important it is to offer such a structure. Other corporations currently working on the metaverse are going into a world that is too open, which currently does little to entice users. Creating a world of adventure, as Stephenson plans for his metaverse, could be the key to success.
But where do things go from here? If the whitepaper is to be believed, a first version of the browser belonging to the Metaverse should already exist in December of this year, and the first external developers will be able to start in the Metaverse in the first quarter of 2023. A tight schedule, which may succeed despite everything, because the father of the Metaverse himself is behind the vision.
