You’ve likely heard people talking about the metaverse or how the “metaverse is coming.” Most people talk about the metaverse as if it’s one destination. But, there are actually multiple platforms that make up the metaverse. In this post, we’ll go over active, known, and upcoming metaverse.
Decentraland (MANA)
Often referred to as the “king of all metaverse projects,” Decentraland has been funning a fully operational metaverse since February of 2020! Decentraland users are able to sign up easily using their MetaMask wallets to start exploring Decentraland’s virtual world. Decentraland even recently welcomed the government of Barbados onto its platform! Decentraland touts itself as being the first-ever virtual world owned by its users and allows them to:
- Explore — The opportunities for user exploration are vast and include space adventures, medieval dungeon mazes, and entire villages crafted from the minds of community members.
- Create — Decentraland users are invited to test the limits of their imaginations by creating scenes, artwork, challenges, and more. They can then enter their creations in contests and take part in events to win prizes.
- Trade — Decentraland calls itself the virtual destination for digital assets. Users can buy and sell land, estates, fashion, and accessories for their avatars in the Decentraland Marketplace, which is backed by Ethereum.
Decentraland users place 3D models in the space with a simple drag and drop tool. Professionals can use SDK tools to generate interactive content on the platform. They can also import 3D models onto the platform and code advanced applications, games, and animations.
Even if you’re not willing to spend money to test out the metaverse, Decentraland allows users to create avatars and explore the virtual world — and communicate with others — for free. But, free users aren’t eligible to receive awards or attend special virtual events that take place in Decentraland.
Axie Infinity
Axie Infinity is a play-to-earn gaming blockchain-based Metaverse that mixes elements of art ownership and gamification of battling little creatures (that are NFTs) to earn rewards. These creatures are called Axies and can be purchased and sold off-platform. They range from $150 to over $100,000 depending on their rarity, with the most expensive Axie selling for 300 ETH.
The platform is growing fast, with more than 250,000 daily users who own tokens known as AXS. These tokens give users a stake in the game’s ownership and operations. Users build kingdoms, hunt for treasure, and search for rare resources.
The Sandbox
Sandbox started as a game in 2012. In 2018 it was acquired and introduced 3D and blockchain to the game. In November of 2021, it shifted to the metaverse. Currently, the company is working with partners in finance, gaming, real estate, and even the film industry to create a virtual megacity.
On the virtual metaverse, players can build, own, and monetize their gaming experiences in the Ethereum-based blockchain using NFTs and $SAND. The platform has IP partnerships with more than 165 brands to create digitized characters and products in the metaverse, including characters from the Walking Dead, Deadmau5, Shaun the Sheep, Snoop Dogg, and the Care Bears.
On Sandbox, all of the land plots are the same size. Users can combine their plots if they’d like larger places. But, the supply of land is quite limited and is sold through auctions.
A noteworthy element of the Sandbox is that it provides an array of employment opportunities, including digital tour guides and content creators — that come with an IRL salary!
Star Atlas
Star Atlas was designed to give users a way to enjoy extraterrestrial experiences. The stars are the limit, and users can explore a whole new universe of possibilities, taking their custom spaceships deep into unique spaces where they can create or join factions where they can develop worlds entirely from their thinking.
The Star Atlas world is powered by the token ATLAS, which runs wholly on the Solana metaverse blockchain, and can be used to purchase digital assets, including spaceships, land, crew members, and equipment. Users can also buy POLIS with ATLAS, an in-game currency needed to manage multiple aspects of the gaming experience.
Roblox
If you have kids, you likely know about Roblox, a popular metaverse platform among young users who use the platform to play games created by other users. Roblox also offers avatars and accessories from IRL brands, including luxury wear from Burberry.
Somnium Space
Somnium Space is a virtual world built on Ethereum, hosting every player in a single open world. Players buy digital land, play games in the world, interact with other users, and create digital assets to use on the platform.
Somnium’s main characterization is that its players aren’t scattered across sub-servers. Instead, everything takes place in one world. The platform is deeply intertwined with NFTs, empowering players to own parts of their experience and watch their assets interact with the environment of the platform.
Stageverse
Stageverse is one of the newer metaverse platforms. It’s a social VR platform that features virtual venues, digital content, and interactive experiences. The platform allows viewers to experience concerts with one another through 360° 3D footage captured from multiple angles around the venue and made its debut with a two-hour immersive concert. There are other immersive elements aside from the 360-degree footage, including AR and special 3D effects. Users can also chat and interact with one another and other elements in the environment.
Spatial
Spacial is an AR/VR collaboration platform that turns any room into a 3D workspace. Users use virtual reality headsets, mobile phones, or desktop devices to walk around and interact in the platform’s virtual rooms. They also collaborate and view content with others.
Cryptovoxels
A user-owned virtual reality environment, Cryptovoxels is based on the blockchain and includes a city called Origin City. The roads in Origin City are held by the company, and individual lots and land are operated like users through NFTs.
Users can explore Origin City, and create, buy, and sell their own virtual assets that can then be traded on an NFT marketplace, such as OpenSea.
Ifland
Ifland is powered by South Korea’s largest wireless carrier, SK Telecom. Ifland users share PDF documents and mp4 files, making the platform popular for business people, conferences, employee training, orientation sessions, and town hall meetings. Users can use personalized avatars and interact in a number of settings, including cafés and stadiums.
Enjin
Enjin users mint, store, and sell all kinds of virtual goods. Developers assign value to their goods by locking the ENJ tokens into smart contracts. Users can buy, trade, sell, and use virtual goods based on their contract terms. Once an item is sold, the seller receives an ENJ. Similar to other metaverse tokens, there’s a limited supply of ENJ tokens — one billion coins will be created and issued to users of this metaverse blockchain.
Users store their ENJ coins in an in-platform wallet that links all features together. When the wallets are active, users are able to connect to games, buy and use different items, and trade with other users.
The metaverse platform has a distinct marketplace that allows users and businesses to expand their existing markets with QR codes and NFTS. Users can interact with one another through sites, games, and applications.
WEMIX
This blockchain platform was designed with gaming in mind. WEMIX players win and craft items for NFTs and trade them for WEMIX tokens. The platform offers users decentralized marketplaces to use and exchange digital currencies.
NetVRk
NetVRk tokens are used similarly to other metaverse tokens and make it possible for users to access virtual assets, including homes and property, vehicles, and other items. Users can even buy advertising spaces with their tokens. These spaces earn significant amounts of passive income, which offers the users more tokens to build wealth and develop their virtual universe.
Users can also use the tokens to buy a stake in the NetVRk, giving them a fixed interest payment based on how many metaverse tokens they’ve already tethered to the platform. NetVRk offers users endless interactions and experiences with fellow users and rewards for their participation.
Nvidia Omniverse
After the rollout of Omniverse Enterprise in November 2021, Nvidia is opening the doors to its Omniverse metaverse platform to all — for free. Nvidia’s Omniverse features “one-click-to-collaborate” sharing technology, 3D marketplaces, digital asset libraries, and AI-enabled 3D face modeling animation. The company describes its metaverse as a “metaverse for engineers,” as it serves as a platform for 3D simulation and design collaboration in real-time. Nvidia pitches its Omniverse as a way to accelerate innovation in architecture and construction, engineering and manufacturing, and supercomputing.
Since launching its open beta, Omniverse has been downloaded by more than 50,000 individual creators.
SuperWorld
SuperWorld is a virtual world where users buy, sell, collect, and curate more than 64 billion unique plots of virtual land. The virtual real estate platform is mapped over the globe’s entire surface, enabling users to buy land in literally any place on Earth, including skyscrapers and stadiums, historical monuments and iconic structures, even natural wonders of the world — there are no limits.
If you have any questions about any of the above-mentioned metaverse platforms, or you think we missed one, feel free to give us a shout!
