In the early 2000s, you could find a lot of young kids at the club—Club Penguin, that is.&nbsp; &nbsp;The game was a hit among young millennials, who would stay up late pointing and clicking until their fingers got sore so they could upgrade their igloos. And though Club Penguin officially shut down in 2020, and many of those millennials now likely have early onset carpal tunnel, there are parallels to be drawn from these formative games as web3 games come to fruition.&nbsp; &nbsp;<h4>Play-to-earn and the pressure for status in gaming</h4><h3>&nbsp;</h3>Since its inception, play-to-earn-style gaming has quickly become an integral part of the blockchain gaming experience. While the category is relatively new and derived from systems of the past, it’s already ubiquitous on virtual world platforms, rapidly evolving, and shaping what the future of gaming will become. The term, “play-to-earn” (P2E) was widely popularized through the explosion of Axie Infinity after it launched in 2018. In the Web3 game, players battle each other or automated teams head-to-head using small creatures called Axies. While the fights echo older formats like those seen in Pokémon, users are able to win real money in Axie Infinity, either from battles or through completing tasks in Adventure Mode. In terms of P2E models,&nbsp;this could be just the beginning.&nbsp; Skilled users may eventually profit off their abilities from others looking to fast-track their in-game rewards by paying them to play or accomplish tasks. Naturally, one would wonder: who would want to pay to have someone else play for them? Isn’t progressing through a game supposed to be the fun part? While gaming offers an escape from reality, it is not always an escape from the grind of mundane or menial tasks. Combine that with the existing market of status-chasing players looking to flex and you have a perfect ecosystem for outsourcing in-game work.&nbsp; &nbsp;<h4>Why living virtually is important&nbsp;</h4>&nbsp;Living virtually is becoming increasingly as important as existing in the physical world. Investing a significant chunk of time into digital life is no longer a niche practice reserved for tech lovers who are terminally glued to their devices. Today, it’s estimated that 66% of Americans play video games regularly. As the physical and virtual worlds increasingly overlap and inform each other, it’s natural that social hierarchies will form based on in-game dynamics.&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;This new social network in the gaming world places more pressure on users to acquire status (generally from obtaining high-level rewards) as quickly as possible. While many items can simply be purchased, there are still exclusive rewards that can strictly be achieved through putting in time and effort and earning them. With so much value placed on status that players must work towards, it’s easy for even gaming to become “a grind.” Developers often exaggerate the number of repetitive tasks required to unlock rewards by design in order to keep users engaged and feeling productive once they overcome challenges.&nbsp; &nbsp;Competitive players of popular games like Call of Duty resort to practicing with third-party training software to sharpen their aim, improve their performance, and power through levels faster.&nbsp; Battle pass progressions in games like Fortnite and Apex Legends introduce time-locked rewards through the completion of quests designed to lessen the feeling of repetition through differentiated actions. Although gaming is generally considered a recreational activity meant for relaxation, when observing these behaviors and game characteristics from an external perspective, they appear to be more akin to work than play.&nbsp;<img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/eradmin-staging-bucket/unnamed_1d9504d41a/unnamed_1d9504d41a.png">&nbsp;<h4>Early Virtual Worlds and the Joy of Hard Work</h4>&nbsp;At Everyrealm, we are constantly evaluating the development and usage of virtual games. Many platforms we see today seek to emulate the same qualities of those we spent a fair amount of our childhoods playing. Worlds like Neopets, Club Penguin and Webkinz all boasted robust economies, millions of users and very active player communities. These were the early social networks where we aspired to have influence and status. Even then, having status meant acquiring the coolest clothes, pets and items that these realms offered. At that time, there weren’t options to purchase anything without earning in-game currency first.&nbsp;<img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/eradmin-staging-bucket/2000_90478e6ff7/2000_90478e6ff7.webp">&nbsp;On Club Penguin, players spent hundreds of hours optimizing processes and playing the same games so they could earn enough to buy the next item for their virtual character. Regardless of what players acquired, they always wanted more. Looking back on those efforts today, it was the perceived productivity rather than making purchases that gave the community the satisfaction they craved. There was an option to buy in-game coins with real money but that would have taken the fun out of the experience. Every time players earned enough coins to get something new, they were climbing the hypothetical ladder of the platform, gaining Club Penguin street cred!&nbsp;&nbsp;Under the guise of personalization, early virtual worlds were teaching players the joys of reaping the rightful spoils of hard work. Tedious work. Clicking and tapping over and over again meticulously, perfectly, just to maximize the output each time. Today, microtransactions and item shops rule the landscape of uniqueness in games and virtual spaces alike. Want to have the coolest new skin? If you don’t see it in the battle pass, it’s likely you’ll have to pay real money for it.&nbsp; &nbsp;<h4>How productivity gets rewarded in video games</h4>&nbsp;It’s not a recent phenomenon that people pay to be productive in games, but the launch of Fortnite’s Battle Pass made it mainstream. The Battle Pass system is designed to reward users with various items for time spent playing a game for a small fee. Upon reaching the maximum level, the current Battle Pass in Fortnite (costing 950 V-Bucks, or $9.50) rewards a user with 8 skins, 1,500 V-Bucks and numerous other cosmetic items like pickaxes, backblings and emotes. Fortnite skins that achieve “legendary” status within the broader community see rare appearances in the item shop, but certain others are reserved for the players that max out the Battle Pass. Skins like “The Black Knight” and “Reaper” are so difficult to achieve in the Battle Pass that there was an inside joke in the community to run away from players wearing them.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image image-style-align-center"><img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/eradmin-staging-bucket/unnamed_1_725ceff777/unnamed_1_725ceff777.png"></figure>&nbsp;As social networking and gaming continue to converge, we’ll see more examples of cultural phenomena like this—in virtual worlds.&nbsp;The fear of missing out on in-game culture and status will normalize users paying skilled players to help level up their characters and receive rewards that elevate them.&nbsp; &nbsp;As we continue to see the rise of the virtual worlds that combine incredible gaming experiences with a masterful spin on social connection, we can’t help but think that the most successful ones will have a merit-based element to them that unlocks majorly sought after cosmetic content.&nbsp;&nbsp;Animal Crossing: New Horizons was adored by many as a playful escape during the pandemic, but examining its progression system unveils a labor-intensive undertaking similar to other games discussed above. Some players (those striving for a five-star island rating or those lacking creative design talent) took to the internet to search for paid help with terraforming their homes or unlocking content.&nbsp;&nbsp;Paying others to grind out gritty in-game work is an unfortunate but unavoidable future as virtual worlds become the internet hangouts of the next generation. This has occurred before in competitive FPS games and MMOs, and we believe it will spread to the broader gaming landscape as this mass cultural shift towards digital identity and virtual socialization continues to take shape.&nbsp;&nbsp;<hr>Join the conversation on <a href="https://discord.com/invite/everyrealm" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">discord</a>.

Drawing from the Past to Inform the Web3 Worlds of the Future.

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What Club Penguin Can Teach Us about the Future of Play-To-Earn Gaming 

&nbsp;Everyrealm is a technology and infrastructure company that develops and invests in businesses related to virtual worlds, social video gaming, and the metaverse— an ecosystem also known as immersive media. Everyrealm's mission is to empower everyone to live their dream life, virtually.&nbsp;<hr>&nbsp;&nbsp;We are excited about the emergence of a new type of digital economy that is being built inside virtual worlds – one that is borderless, decentralized, transparent, and driven by true digital ownership – and we aim to be at the center of this growing immersive media category.&nbsp;&nbsp;Here are 5 trends to track in immersive media right now:<ul><li>Immersive media is the next frontier.</li><li>People want a virtual identity that can be used across multiple platforms.</li><li>NFTs will have a second coming.</li><li>A.I. will be used to enhance user-generated content.&nbsp;</li><li>Virtual and physical worlds will converge.</li></ul>&nbsp;<h4 style="margin-left:0px;">&nbsp;</h4><h3 style="margin-left:0px;">1. Immersive media is the next frontier.</h3>&nbsp;Never heard of immersive media?&nbsp; We’ve got you covered.&nbsp;Immersive media refers to digital media technologies and experiences that aim to fully engage users by enveloping them in a simulated environment, such as an interactive, social video game or virtual world. The goal of immersive media is to provide a more natural and intuitive interaction with digital content.&nbsp; Immersive media is what happens when social media and video games converge, creating alternative realities that allow people to live their lives, virtually.&nbsp;&nbsp;<h3 style="margin-left:0px;"><img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/eradmin-staging-bucket/Untitled_design_69_7592c633ba/Untitled_design_69_7592c633ba.png"></h3><h3 style="margin-left:0px;">&nbsp;</h3><h3 style="margin-left:0px;"> 2. People want a virtual identity that can be used across multiple platforms.</h3>&nbsp;To those who love virtual worlds, we hear you!&nbsp;For people who love virtual worlds and who have invested in building their own virtual life, their digital identity is just as important as their physical identity. Therefore, it is crucial for people to have control over their virtual information and reputations. Historically, users have had to create and maintain separate identities across different platforms.&nbsp;Users have been left with the dilemma of not only needing to update all personal information fragmented across digital spaces, but also struggling to properly represent complete pictures of themselves in the virtual world. Cohesion and accuracy have not been prioritized and companies have not yet collaborated to create and implement a shareable universal identity system.&nbsp;&nbsp;With an interoperable identity, however, consumers can bring together all of their different online identities into a single, unified identity that they control and can use to represent themselves consistently across the digital world while taking full advantage of the benefits and opportunities available to their digital life.&nbsp;&nbsp;<h3 style="margin-left:0px;">3. NFTs will have a second coming–in the virtual world.</h3>&nbsp;Blockchain and NFTs will likely store an individual’s credentials in a “DID.”&nbsp;Decentralized Identifiers (also called “DIDs”) and non-transferable NFTs will showcase and leverage certain identity traits such as on-chain including reputation, credentials, achievements, and dynamic loyalty to a brand that transforms after certain actions, among others.&nbsp; With this shift in utility, there will be less financial speculation around NFTs and they will not solely exist for trading.&nbsp; Ownership will become more personalized, purposeful, and meaningful.&nbsp; There will be opportunities to enable holders to be rewarded, meet others with similar interests, and discover virtual and physical experiences catered to them.&nbsp;&nbsp;<h3 style="margin-left:0px;">4. A.I. Will Be Used to Enhance User-Generated Content.&nbsp;</h3>&nbsp;I know; we’re getting tired of hearing about AI, too, but it’s a pretty big deal for social video games. &nbsp;Building interactive, three-dimensional worlds has historically been expensive and time-consuming, and AI is starting to democratize game and content development. Using AI, users can easily generate their own material faster than ever before. &nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;For example, leading AI company NVIDIA is <a href="https://developer.nvidia.com/blog/rapidly-generate-3d-assets-for-virtual-worlds-with-generative-ai/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">rolling out</a> a handful of AI products that make it easy to create 3D assets and models. This includes avatars, accessories, and environments—the foundation of most (if not all) virtual world environments. &nbsp;It is likely that AI will be used to enhance many aspects of virtual world building. Game development is an complicated process that involves social mechanics, 3D design, in-game economies, storytelling, real-time interactivity, and more. We expect generative AI to play an large role in these elements of game development over time.&nbsp;<h3 style="margin-left:0px;">&nbsp;</h3><h3 style="margin-left:0px;">5. Virtual and physical worlds will converge.</h3>&nbsp;Prepare for virtual hoarding–and lots of virtual cats.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/eradmin-staging-bucket/40742bf7_21b8_4418_a733_dca401d36a5b_2500x1418_bb48bbf0a5/40742bf7_21b8_4418_a733_dca401d36a5b_2500x1418_bb48bbf0a5.jpg"></figure>&nbsp;There will be a smaller gap between the virtual and physical worlds than ever before. People and their avatars will be able to own the same items as their physical and digital identities merge.&nbsp; Fashion, ticketing, and toys will lead the charge in adopting this new technology.&nbsp;Online users will be rewarded digitally for attending in-person experiential events and in turn, they will also receive physical rewards for participating on virtual platforms.&nbsp; Brands will be able to pre-sell digital assets to determine the quantity to produce in the real world while eliminating excess waste.&nbsp;In the process, they will turn their customers into both virtual and physical consumers.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;We’ll be keeping a close eye on these five trends and their impact on virtual worlds this year. We expect exciting progress in immersive media driven by technological advancements, increasing social adoption, and a video gaming-first mentality that has captured the heart, minds, and time of younger generations (90% of young people are gamers!)&nbsp;<hr>&nbsp;Join the conversation on <a href="https://discord.com/invite/everyrealm" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">discord</a>.

Exciting technological innovations are set to revolutionize the virtual world–and we’re here for it.


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5 Trends To Track in Immersive Media Right Now

This article was originally posted in CoinDesk <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/layer2/2022/10/11/everyrealm-eyes-communities-of-scale-in-the-metaverse/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">here</a>.&nbsp;<hr>&nbsp;For all the hype around the metaverse, very few users are actually transacting in the 3-D future of the internet.&nbsp;A recent <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/web3/2022/10/07/its-lonely-in-the-metaverse-decentralands-38-daily-active-users-in-a-13b-ecosystem/">CoinDesk report</a> by Cameron Thompson found that Ethereum-based virtual world <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/learn/getting-started-in-decentraland/">Decentraland</a> had 38 active users in a given 24-hour period, if one defines “active users” as those conducting a direct wallet transaction with the platform’s smart contract.&nbsp;This point isn’t lost on Janine Yorio, CEO of Everyrealm, a metaverse-focused innovation firm and investment fund, and a speaker at CoinDesk’s <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/ideas/">upcoming IDEAS conference</a>.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/eradmin-staging-bucket/Copy_of_Horizon_Blockchain_Games_Investment_Announcement_Blog_Header_1_265d45bc00/Copy_of_Horizon_Blockchain_Games_Investment_Announcement_Blog_Header_1_265d45bc00.jpg"></figure>&nbsp;"Web2 metaverses, like Roblox, Fortnite and Minecraft, have hundreds of millions of users. Meanwhile, [in] the Web3 metaverses, the most popular one is Decentraland, and they're lucky if they have 2,000 users a week," she said.&nbsp;Everyrealm initially focused on attracting metaverse real estate investors, but it now regards that category as only "one tiny portion" of its investment portfolio. Republic Realm, as Everyrealm was once known, purchased a virtual plot of real estate in the Ethereum-based game Decentraland at a price of more than $913,000 worth of the game's MANA cryptocurrency at the time. The real value proposition, says Yorio, is to allow investors to deploy across platforms, wherever users happen to be.&nbsp;"Metaverse real estate gives the holder of real estate the ability to deploy content in another metaverse platform," Yorio said. The freedom to transfer the right to develop content to other people helps holders “theoretically hold value.”&nbsp;<div class="raw-html-embed"><hr>
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<hr></div>&nbsp;Previously working in private equity, real estate and hotel development, Yorio started Republic Realm before spinning it off into its own company. Considering metaverse as "a very growing but early category," she said her fund is "a more conservative way to approach an early industry with this one."&nbsp;According to MetaMetric Solutions, a metaverse analytics firm, real estate sales on four major metaverse platforms – Sandbox, Decentraland, Cryptovoxels and Somnium – reached $501 million in 2021. And it predicts those sales will double this year to nearly $1 billion.&nbsp;"It's very difficult to predict specific winners and specific companies that will succeed. Our company takes a broad diversified approach to the category," Yorio said.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/eradmin-staging-bucket/collection_Hero_af142b6b0e/collection_Hero_af142b6b0e.webp"></figure>The <a href="https://everyrealm.com/collection" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Everyrealm Collection</a> gallery in oncyber.&nbsp;The company has over 30 metaverse platform portfolio investments and holds more than 8,000 non-fungible tokens (NFT) and 100-plus metaverse real estate developments.&nbsp;Yorio hopes to build spaces for communities where people don't just come one at a time, but come in groups, and share common interests and talk about things they have in common or to engage in activities in which all would want to be involved.&nbsp;"We want to continue to build this infrastructure layer and build a more valuable portfolio of investments and assets across the metaverse ecosystem," Yorio said.&nbsp;<hr>&nbsp;Want to stay updated on all things metaverse, web3, and blockchain gaming? Sign up for the <a href="https://everyrealm.substack.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Everyrealm Edition</a> – our biweekly newsletter that's meant to help you find the signal in the noise.

CEO Janine Yorio explains her outlook on the metaverse and what the Everyrealm team is working on. Originally published in CoinDesk.

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Everyrealm Eyes Communities of Scale in the Metaverse

Ever wonder what it’s like to work full time in the eye-popping world of metaverse architecture, where the only constraints are imagination and time? We sat down with Sam Okolita, Head of Metaverse Architecture at Everyrealm to hear her thoughts on this exciting new field of architectural design.&nbsp;During the conversation, she talks about what inspires her, her favorite projects, what led her to the metaverse, and even her ideal home in the metaverse – which just so happens to be a far cry from the buzzy Brooklyn neighborhood she lives in now.&nbsp;&nbsp;Without further ado, here’s the full Q&amp;A with Sam:&nbsp;<hr>&nbsp;Q: What inspires you?&nbsp;&nbsp;A: I've always been inspired by the question “what is the future of…” I think design is an act of invention in that you're not just making something beautiful. You have to invent new ways of living and new ways of working – new ways of interacting with each other. And I think that's part of the metaverse and architecture of the metaverse –&nbsp; it's creating new spaces for life to play itself out. Design makes me happy. I get really immersed in the creative process. I'm totally captivated by it.&nbsp;&nbsp;I've worked on a range of different typologies of projects. I started off more as an installation artist. So building large scale installations at the Saint-Étienne Biennale in France, and the Venice Design Biennale as well as a large scale installation at burning man in 2018. From there, I went to more traditional architecture practices – large scale building projects, housing, museums, to master plans for speculative and real cities.&nbsp;<img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/V12dS4iq6Nr6FrjWdrE4kgoUFxVMXFTwJeHli5SABU9crfib_rqk8s8kTOJ2egix_RHtoWcmhtTgM-7NpmZ85WC2GJyE37zK8FSzIqiypnjZ-9Bf2XmIK0hwim9jPinJ_gkVxf7GlA-x0HQHL_bN2EzVPlGV1KPBx7U0IEi49p74gVkngQdb-JhMNA">&nbsp;Q: What are your favorite metaverse architecture projects that you've worked on?&nbsp;&nbsp;A: So I've had the opportunity to design a couple of different islands in the metaverse, which have been really fun. One that stands out is a gallery to exhibit for&nbsp;<a href="https://therow.everyrealm.com/">The Row</a> – a project that we launched here at Everyrealm. It is a gallery space that shows off the artists’ work, but will also become a terminal that has 30 different portals where you can teleport to the artists’ spaces.&nbsp;&nbsp;Q: What made you want to begin designing in the metaverse?&nbsp;A: I was very curious about the metaverse as a new medium for architects, and I think architects are uniquely qualified to elevate this medium to an exceptional level.&nbsp;&nbsp;It's in the very early stages of the metaverse. So some of the architecture in there right now is pretty crude and a bit rudimentary, but as the technology gets better and more architects enter the space, I think we can create something that's really sophisticated and based off of the normal ideals of architecture, of light, of program, and interactivity. &nbsp;Q: What's different about designing in the metaverse versus in real life.&nbsp;&nbsp;A: The design process is pretty similar. As an architect, you're still designing a space. Of course, there's the obvious difference that there's no gravity, that you can teleport, and things like that. And it's liberating, but also a bit constricting in that you have to work without any true materiality. &nbsp;Q: Which metaverse architecture projects are you most interested in right now?&nbsp;A: So the architecture spaces that I'm most interested in in the metaverse right now are the ones that have a program that you can’t have in a traditional space. There's this really amazing meditation VR space that I saw. It's really focused. Helping people escape to relax.&nbsp;&nbsp;There was a podcast about using VR as meditation to get word trauma. 80% of your perception is visual. So when you're able to go into VR and change your visual perception, you can actually manipulate the way that your mind is working. So it's a way that you can help relieve trauma. By going into a space that feels ephemeral and surreal. The metaverse and virtual reality have many use cases beyond gaming for both mental health and interacting with people in safe spaces. There's many use cases beyond just creating something that's beautiful. Something that can really help change lives.&nbsp;&nbsp;<img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/4CL8o55WUg2Oupdtdq8M4Lb7ZYOXsWwTI6PkB1JsnYd_WuAVKQ8B0nO06gXCAr4JauQ6hFCA0ic9K_hWki8RfHUo4ZlKZHt4TG-ia4-dl0OVnuL36W5J7pZBbtTA86Zo35iDEll5zfsTTnIVlEL0HArjYB-J9gPbxqnMAsLskSW6S-Y3eSUzBL8YJA">&nbsp;&nbsp;Q: If you could design your dream home in the metaverse, what would it look like?&nbsp;&nbsp;A: Because I live in Brooklyn, probably a tree house in the metaverse somewhere that I could escape to that's filled with lush green, that couldn't be easily accessed. In my day to day life, not everyone's going to the metaverse to look for something in outer space or a crazy fantasy world. People wanna do pretty normal everyday things, or they want to use it as a sense of escape. So I think bringing nature into the metaverse is huge.&nbsp;People have a natural tendency to want to be in very green spaces. So I think there's a place for naturalized worlds in the metaverse – a way of escaping to your favorite national park and having that moment where you're standing on top of a cliff and you're seeing the serene natural world. So it's not necessarily just about creating spaceships or things that look like they came out of sci-fi novels.&nbsp;I think it's about creating real world spaces that people can escape to, even though the sci-fi stuff is pretty cool too.&nbsp;<hr>&nbsp;We are so grateful Sam took the time to talk through her musing with us. The field of metaverse architecture is sure to expand as new platforms and destinations emerge.&nbsp;For more on the metaverse, delivered straight to your inbox, be sure to sign up for our newsletter&nbsp;<a href="https://everyrealm.substack.com/">Everyrealm Edition</a>.

We sat down with Sam Okolita, Head of Metaverse Architecture at Everyrealm to hear her thoughts on this exciting new field of architectural design.

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Building the Future: Conversations With a Metaverse Architect

The following is an op-ed by Everyrealm CEO Janine Yorio originally published in <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2021/12/15/why-corporate-america-is-getting-nfts-all-wrong/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">CoinDesk</a>.&nbsp;<hr>&nbsp;Every corporate marketing department in America (and beyond) seems to be piling onto the <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/podcasts/opinionated/the-digital-art-craze-everyone-is-jumping-in/">NFT craze</a>. But sadly for them, most have little impact and are making those businesses seem less relevant rather than the reverse.&nbsp;That’s because every <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/learn/what-are-nfts-and-how-do-they-work/">NFT</a> project from Adidas to Campbell’s Soup to Budweiser follows a nearly identical format:&nbsp;<ol style="list-style-type:decimal;"><li>Announce an upcoming non-fungible token project</li><li>Declare that yours will be different from all the others because you spent more money or have a slightly different idea or it is the first of its kind in your industry</li><li>Launch an NFT project that is low risk and non-specific and doesn’t really make anybody feel anything at all</li><li>Desperately attempt to publicize the crap out of it</li><li>For the following one to three days, a handful of media outlets will write about it and Twitter may explode with sentiment (though oftentimes, indifference), but then afterwards, nobody will care – not the press, not the company and not its customers.</li></ol>&nbsp;So why do corporate marketing departments continue to launch these uninspiring NFT projects? Partly because they are afraid to take risks, but more likely because they don’t <a href="https://everyrealm.com/blog/education/brand-safety-considerations-for-the-metaverse-and-web3" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">thoroughly understand NFTs</a>. As their CEO nudges them to “do something in NFTs,” they react impulsively and kick off a project in earnest. Mostly they do it just because everybody else is doing it.Here are a few things companies need to know to avoid the most common mistakes.&nbsp;<hr>&nbsp;<h3 style="margin-left:0px;">1. How an NFT looks matters very, very little.</h3>&nbsp;Designing an NFT project should center around things like scarcity, innovation and community, but the actual NFT used to designate that community is arguably the least important thing to be designed, and definitely should not be the first or even a primary focus.&nbsp;Take, for example, some of the generative art projects like Squiggles. To the untrained eye, the artistry of the NFT appears to be thin or non-existent, but to those in the inner circle it is known to be an NFT project of special pedigree. The artistry of the art is not what makes a squiggle valuable.&nbsp;<h3 style="margin-left:0px;">2. A successful NFT project starts with its community first, built around issues and an identity that the community cares about.</h3>&nbsp;Successful NFT projects start from the ground up, and not top down. Communities aren’t about companies; they are about ideas that bring people together, people who otherwise might not meet except in these NFT communities.&nbsp;The Toadz project, for example, started as the opposite of the <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/business/2021/09/07/bored-ape-yacht-club-nft-collection-fetches-19m-bid-at-sothebys/">Bored Ape Yacht Club</a> (BAYC-see below), with a more open and inclusive vibe and an explosively growing online community. The community loved this ethos, and so when Toadz did its first drop a few weeks ago, they sold out quickly. Toadz NFTs are not great art – far from it! – but their developers mastered the community aspect before launching the project.&nbsp;<div class="raw-html-embed"><hr>
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<hr></div><h3 style="margin-left:0px;">&nbsp;</h3><h3 style="margin-left:0px;">3. NFTs are social currencies that are important to specific communities.</h3>&nbsp;Owning an NFT connotes value and understanding to a very narrowly defined community that others do not understand.In the <a href="https://everyrealm.com/blog/education/otherside-overview">Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT project</a>, an NFT profile picture project based around 10,000 ape cartoons of different rarities, the art itself is quite ugly, but that’s precisely the point.&nbsp;&nbsp;The art is designed intentionally to be a deterrent to people who don’t know or understand. It’s an insiders’ club, and one has to be inside to understand the joke. Being an insider in BAYC means either getting in so early one was able to buy at an affordable price or so wealthy that one is comfortable spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy an ape at current prices.&nbsp;Both of these people have intense social currency among the NFT crowd, hence, owning a BAYC ape has become a massive symbol of social status. That status has absolutely nothing to do with the artistic merit of the ape.&nbsp;<h3 style="margin-left:0px;">4. Metaverse-native brands are currently more valuable than existing corporate brands in this new arena.</h3>&nbsp;<a href="https://everyrealm.com/blog/education/rtfkt" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">RTFKT</a>’s virtual sneakers sell for a higher price than existing footwear titans like Nike or Adidas. In fact, big corporations are antithetical to the entire ethos of crypto. There is a whole new virtual world in which their brand equity is not yet as valuable as it is in the real world.&nbsp;These companies refuse to believe it, so they all keep making the same mistake thinking their highly recognizable real-world brand will legitimize the entire space. What they fail to realize is that the NFT and metaverse space is already legitimate, and they are the outsiders. Big corporations are the newbies and risk being tossed from this enthusiastic ecosystem that is highly tolerant of new ideas and quirky projects, but resents big corporations throwing their weight around.&nbsp;<h3 style="margin-left:0px;">5. NFT projects reward that which is very specific.</h3>&nbsp;Corporations lean toward the generic or else go too far at being quirky that it feels inauthentic. The crypto community is perceptive, and will pick up on this in genuine effort and label it as either a corporate money grab or a lame attempt at seeming relevant. Companies should think about what makes their brand truly unique and cult-like and need to focus on what those superusers want from an affiliation with its product. From there, it should decide if that is a theme it can use to build a base for its NFT community.&nbsp;<h3 style="margin-left:0px;">6. NFT projects need an ever-evolving roadmap.</h3>&nbsp;Dropping an NFT project with no future plans won’t inspire the community to participate and will instead invite criticism that the project is just a corporate money grab or a cheap marketing ploy. Sophisticated NFT buyers will see right through that. The best NFT projects are constantly evolving, adding layers and nuance to their existing projects and listening to the needs and wants of their community.&nbsp;<h3 style="margin-left:0px;">7. Not all products should have their own NFT project.</h3>&nbsp;In fact, most products should never have an NFT. There are lots of other creative things that can be done that signal an understanding of the metaverse and NFT ecosystem. Dropping an NFT for a product that is too far outside the NFT fold doesn’t make sense and is probably a waste of time for building brand equity.&nbsp;<h3 style="margin-left:0px;">8. Most marketing agencies don’t really understand NFT projects either.</h3>&nbsp;Companies should ask any agency pitching about an NFT project to explain their favorite NFT project and what attributes their favorite projects share. Ask to see their <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/business/2021/11/18/investors-offer-opensea-10b-valuation-in-new-round-report/">OpenSea</a> wallet to see how many NFTs they own and to describe their favorites. Ask what they think of the metaverse and how they envision building a lasting and valuable NFT project that fosters a community that supports your brand. And if they pitch on selling or air-dropping still or video images of the company’s product, run in the other direction.&nbsp;<h3 style="margin-left:0px;">9. Good NFT projects take time.</h3>&nbsp;The NFT market is saturated. The next wave of NFT projects will be a mix of forgettable derivative projects and also highly innovative and game-changing projects. Which does a company want theirs to be?&nbsp;&nbsp;<div class="raw-html-embed"><hr>
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Here are the nine things every marketer and CEO should know about NFT projects.

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Why Corporate America Is Getting NFTs All Wrong

The following is an interview Everyrealm CEO Janine Yorio did with Katy O'Donnell of Politico. It was originally published in Politico's <a href="https://www.politico.com/newsletters/digital-future-daily" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Digital Future Daily</a> column.&nbsp;<hr>&nbsp;Let’s start with the basics. What is the point of virtual real estate?&nbsp;There’s two components to real estate. There's the dirt, the land, and then there are the improvements on top of it, the buildings. Same in the metaverse: There's the dirt, which are the digital parcels upon which you can build things — content, video games, digital twins of architectural structures. When you buy metaverse real estate you're buying the dirt and the ability to put something on top of that — things that are wildly variable and limited really only by human ingenuity, because there's no physics in the metaverse, there are no unions in the metaverse, construction materials cost the same.&nbsp;The legal and social framework around owning property has been around for centuries, and there are real-world constraints that help shape value. In a world where you're limited only by human ingenuity, how do you have any kind of sense of the stability of the investment?&nbsp;I don't think it's a stable investment. It's highly risky and highly volatile — it’s buying a piece of a video game, and in most cases, that video game hasn't even launched yet. It's built on crypto, which is an industry that's notoriously volatile. It’s a venture capital-style investment where you're taking very early-stage company risks in addition to this asset class being very nascent. But there's precedent for it working and for real estate to become valuable. And the price point is still low enough that a mainstream audience can participate: The average cost of a metaverse real estate parcel, depending on the platform, is around $500 to $5,000.&nbsp;Who's buying these parcels?&nbsp;Back in December, we found that there were 25,000 crypto wallets worldwide that held metaverse real estate. Speculators might have multiple wallets, so it’s probably fewer than 25,000 individuals.&nbsp;<div class="raw-html-embed"><hr>
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<hr></div>&nbsp;What do people use their purchases for?&nbsp;Right now, there are a lot of these platforms that are still being designed. People are speculating. Most of the platforms will fail, but a few of them will achieve massive mainstream adoption and hundreds of millions of users. And once you get to millions of users, then having prominent placement in a platform that achieves scale and traction will be valuable.&nbsp;So for example, the TV show "The Walking Dead," they have a huge assemblage of metaverse real estate and they're building a Walking Dead space that's part video game, part brand activation. There's a casino that's not branded at all but it's designed to make money, the same way a real-world casino would. You have Snoop Dogg, who’s trying to make money and build his brand and I think take his career in a new direction.&nbsp;I saw that someone spent $450,000 to purchase the plot next to Snoop Dogg’s. Are we going to have a situation where there are virtual Times Squares that sort of pop up organically?&nbsp;Probably. If the metaverse platform is successful and there's a place where people tend to gather after the casino, then being adjacent to that casino is theoretically worth more. But that's a hypothesis — it hasn't really been proven out. The other caveat to that is in the metaverse you can usually teleport, so proximity is kind of a real-world concept that is only loosely applicable to the metaverse.&nbsp;How does an investor know that a coder doesn't just add more land?&nbsp;That’s something that the blockchain is really good at — it’s basically like a publicly visible spreadsheet, a ledger that shows existence and ownership. Also in most of these situations, the largest landowner in the individual metaverse is the developer, so yes, they can make more land, but then it would erode the value of the Treasury that they hold.&nbsp;Is this something investors want more guardrails around? Or is it a market where everyone wants Washington to stay away?&nbsp;The aspect of metaverse that tends to attract the most publicity is the sale of metaverse real estate in the form of NFTs. To that end, there is already plenty of discourse in Washington around regulating NFT sales. Clarity and transparency is always beneficial to any industry, and this is no exception.&nbsp;

There’s two components to real estate. There's the dirt, the land, and then there are the improvements on top of it, the buildings. Same in the metaverse: There's the dirt, which are the digital parcels upon which you can build things — content, video games, digital twins of architectural structures. 

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What Is virtual real estate? Everyrealm CEO Janine Yorio Featured in Politico

Here are our predictions for what to expect when the metaverse becomes more mainstream, and what users and brands need to know to prepare for these seismic changes.

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Building for the Metaverse Generation

The metaverse will allow us to do things we cannot do in reality, much as video games do. We can destroy things and kill people without fear of punishment or retribution.&nbsp;&nbsp;We can be risqué and push cultural and societal norms beyond traditional boundaries, cloaked by anonymity and invincibility in the metaverse. We can fly, experiment with drugs and cheat on our partners.&nbsp;The metaverse will, at times, be trippy and hallucinogenic. We can live our best, most ideal lives in a body-like avatar and quickly revert back to our real lives without changing physical locations.&nbsp;&nbsp;We can parachute in and out of this world in seconds, seamlessly interweaving multiple different realities into the natural rhythms of our lives. Janine Yorio is CEO of Everyrealm, a metaverse-focused innovation firm and investment fund.&nbsp;Janine Yorio is CEO of Everyrealm, a metaverse-focused innovation firm and investment fund. Zach Hungate is director of gaming at Everyrealm, a metaverse innovation and investment company. &nbsp;This article was originally published in <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/layer2/metaverseweek/2022/05/23/using-crypto-to-bring-the-metaverse-into-reality/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">CoinDesk</a>.&nbsp;<div class="raw-html-embed"><hr>
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<hr></div>&nbsp;Crypto will become an invisible, infrastructure layer that facilitates micropayments and secondary sales, making it easier to move money from inside and outside metaverses and games. There will be many metaverse tokens, but there is likely to be one super currency that can be used in nearly all of them – likely a USD-pegged stablecoin.&nbsp;Tokens are fundamental to a <a href="https://everyrealm.com/blog/education/top-metaverses-to-follow-in-2022" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">decentralized metaverse</a> because they solve problems like fluctuating exchange rates between local currencies, political issues like sanctions and because they allow the exchange of goods to stay within the metaverse. Having to go transact outside of the metaverse or verify or regulate transactions through middlemen will reduce this world's economic capabilities.&nbsp;Crypto-based economies will therefore create real jobs that pay well enough to supplement or even replace traditional sources of employment.&nbsp;<h2 style="margin-left:0px;">The Real Metaverse</h2>&nbsp;Just like there is no one internet, there is no single metaverse. Current platforms, such as <a href="https://everyrealm.com/blog/education/decentraland-a-high-level-overview">Decentraland</a>, have benefited from the recent wave of interest in metaverse technology, but Decentraland is more of a proof-of-concept of the addictive and superior experiences the metaverse has on offer. Shopping in Decentraland today is arguably worse than shopping on Amazon. Music concerts in Decentraland are arguably worse than they are on Zoom.&nbsp;That is because Decentraland is mostly an attempt to create a digital twin of the real world, building spaces that simulate experiences we already have offline but in novel ways.&nbsp;Decentraland’s vision for the metaverse is missing a few key elements: high quality, addictive video games and content; high quality visuals; strong communities; and activities that we cannot easily replicate in real life.&nbsp;NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, will be important to the metaverse but not as important as they currently seem. In fact, the metaverse will give NFTs utility, not the other way around. Once mainstream, the metaverse’s economies will dwarf the size of the current $35 billion NFT market.&nbsp;About 30 million people hold NFTs in their wallets today. However, more than 250 million people play video games and 4 billion people use social media – two experiences at the center of the metaverse. In terms of valuing the metaverse using NFTs, these tokens are to the metaverse as the tail is to the dog.&nbsp;There are many innovations that must occur between now and when this seamless, mainstream version of the metaverse takes hold, and these are the areas we are focused on at Everyrealm.&nbsp;Improved audio quality. As we learned from two years of video conference calls, audio quality is a critical component to online socialization. You may have noticed that your brain feels more fatigued after a day of Zoom than it does after a day of conversations in real life. That is because audio on Zoom experiences what is called “packet loss” which is what happens when packets of data fail to reach their destination across the network. This occurs for a number of reasons, mainly network congestion. Crosstalk and spatial audio, the audio styles utilized in <a href="http://gather.town/">Gather.town</a>, make for a more natural, intuitive and engaging audio experience for players. We are excited to see how audio experiences can improve, potentially to the point where music concerts are truly engaging. This is both a hardware and a software issue, and solutions will need to take both into account.&nbsp;Better UX. The metaverse must have a pleasant user interface, one that allows players to join from mobile and seamlessly, without a hitch, transfer to a PC without hindering gameplay experience and user features.&nbsp;Higher numbers of concurrent players. Most multiplayer games that exist today are limited by the number of users who can participate at the same time. For example, the seminal Ariana Grande concert in Fortnite that was seen by nearly 80 million people, actually happened on the private Rift server. That is because current game engine solutions such as Unity and Unreal Engine don't allow for massive player instances that future metaverse projects will solve. The metaverse will have one instance in which up to 5,000 people (and potentially more) can huddle in the same area of a game without network or latency issues, creating a more immersive and engaging experience for everyone involved.&nbsp;NPCs, or nonplaying characters in the metaverse will act with emotion that seems more real and lifelike. This will occur through more advanced artificial intelligence (AI) technology, designed to recognize traces of emotion in text, voice and emoji chats.&nbsp;Photo-real graphics. The metaverse will most likely be built in Unity or on the Unreal Engine, with high fidelity graphics, but this will need to be balanced alongside hardware requirements and Wi-Fi and internet quality limitations.&nbsp;Wallets. To drive further Web 3 and metaverse adoption, users require frictionless onboarding that starts with a friendly user interface that is also intuitive and gamified. Wallet onboarding should feel as frictionless as Web 2 logins in order to allow people to participate as quickly as possible without delay.&nbsp;Financial microtransactions on the blockchain and reduced transaction (gas) fees will enable high rates of transactions and are a prerequisite for a seamless metaverse experience. We are seeing an increasing number of games building on alternate blockchains from Ethereum such as Avalanche, Polygon and Solana because these alternate blockchains offer higher transaction speed and lower transaction costs. We expect even more refinement in this area, and change appears to be happening quickly.&nbsp;Security. Security and decentralization are of the utmost importance in blockchain-based metaverse and gaming products. Developers are actively reducing the risk of breaches and hacks by building and integrating with reliable, high-validator blockchains that are truly decentralized and distributed.&nbsp;Metaverse and blockchain interoperability. The future is multichain! A multichain future is the goal within the blockchain community, but we aren't there yet. Today, blockchains are not directly integrated and require bridges to transfer assets from one another. Bridges have been the primary cause of several hacks as there has been over $1 billion in bridge-related hacks in just over a year.&nbsp;DAOs. Decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) will govern the metaverse, and DAO tooling will simplify governance and formation of these systems. Users will control metaverse protocols through active governance within DAOs. While the DAO model is often thought as the future of corporations, there is an inherent lack of tooling to make this thesis a reality today.&nbsp;Hardware improvements. In order to experience a truly immersive metaverse product with photorealistic graphics, developers must use a platform such as Unreal Engine 5 and hardware improvements are a must. Metaverse products and games today are low fidelity and only run on web browsers. This is a current limitation, and the future metaverse product offerings that users will come to love will likely require hardware improvements, such as medium-tier graphics processing units/central processing units (GPUs/CPUs).

Crypto will become an invisible, infrastructure layer that facilitates micropayments and secondary sales, making it easier to move money from inside and outside metaverses and games. There will be many metaverse tokens, but there is likely to be one super currency that can be used in nearly all of them – likely a USD-pegged stablecoin.

Opinion.

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Building for the Metaverse Generation

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Using Crypto to Bring the Metaverse Into Reality