Citi, a leading American multinational investment bank, expects the metaverse to be worth between $8 trillion and $13 trillion by 2030.
Despite the metaverse concept being around for a few decades, interest in the virtual world gained steam at the end of 2021 based on the exponential growth of non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
In accordance with a report dubbed “Metaverse and Money, Decrypting the Future,” Citi believes that metaverse users will have grown to 5 billion by 2030. Per the study:
“Users should increasingly be able to access a host of use cases, including commerce, art, media, advertising, healthcare, and social collaboration. A device-agnostic metaverse would be accessible via personal computers, game consoles, and smartphones, resulting in a large ecosystem.”
As the next iteration of the internet or Web3, Citi expects the metaverse to move away from the confines of a video game played on a virtual reality (VR) headset to become an “Open Metaverse” that will be owned and governed by a community.
Furthermore, the metaverse will consist of a freely interoperable version, which prompts privacy by design.
Infrastructural investments required
Citi noted that for the metaverse to get to the speculated market level, it will require significant infrastructural developments and investments. Per the report:
“The content streaming environment of the Metaverse will likely require a computational efficiency improvement of over 1,000x today’s levels. Investment will be needed in areas such as compute, storage, network infrastructure, consumer hardware, and game development platforms.”
For a frictionless user experience in the metaverse, Citi believes a seamless exchange and interoperability between the underlying blockchain technology will be required.
Citi added:
“We believe the metaverse may be the next generation of the internet – combining the physical and digital world in a persistent and immersive manner – and not purely a virtual reality world.”
The report noted that the metaverse would enhance current activities like commerce, education and training, entertainment and media, and manufacturing and enterprise.
Earlier this year, leading American multinational technology company Nvidia Corporation revealed plans to incorporate more creativity into the metaverse through various marketplace and software deals, Blockchain.News reported.
Boxing icon Mike Tyson has stepped into the ring this week, after he shared his enthusiasm for Solana and unveiled a partnership with mental health-focused crypto project TheDreamChain ($DREAM).
In the first round, Tyson — who previously launched an NFT project on Ethereum via OpenSea last year — tweeted on Jan. 13 that he was a born-again Solana (SOL) proponent while sharing a screenshot of a new NFT he’d snapped up from the Catalina Whale Mixer project.
The Solana-based Catalina Whale Mixer NFTs currently have a floor price of 15 SOL ($2,200), and Tyson’s NFT depicts a whale version of himself wearing a world championship belt along with his famous face tattoo.
All in on Solana… Just copped a Catalina Whale… pow pow! pic.twitter.com/97voS15B8y
— Mike Tyson (@MikeTyson) January 12, 2022
In round two later that day, the 55-year-old tweeted about either what appears to be a partnership or paid celebrity promotion with TheDreamChain. The token’s unusual selling point is that it’s just as difficult and limited to trade as a stock.
“It’s the first of its kind that can only be traded during US stock market hours. Could revolutionize the space and help the mental health of the crypto community.”
According to TheDreamChain’s website, its token $DREAM is only available for trade between the standard stock exchange hours of 9:30am to 4:pm, with the idea being that 24/7 trading is causing a mental health crisis amongst crypto traders.
The project states that it will divert 0.5% of all transaction fees to its own foundation, which will donate funds to mental health charities or use the capital to sign partnerships with non-profit organizations.
Apple looking at AR, not the Metaverse
Amid a landrush from tech giants toward the Metaverse, Apple won’t be rushing in with its latest gadget according to Bloomberg’s Apple tech reporter Mark Gurman.
Gurman shared snippets from the latest Q&A section of his paid consumer tech newsletter via Twitter on Jan. 10 regarding Apple’s upcoming virtual reality headset. He noted that:
“Here’s one word I’d be shocked to hear on stage when Apple announced its headset: Metaverse.”
“I’ve been told pretty directly that the idea of a completely virtual world where users can escape to — like the can in Meta Platfroms/Facebook’s vision of the future — is off-limits from Apple,” he added.
According to Gurman’s understanding, current and former Apple execs such as Jony Ive have always envisioned the firm’s VR headset to be a device used in short “bursts” for gaming, content consumption and communication and not as part of a full-blown Metaverse experience.
Instead, Apple is said to be eyeing the augmented reality space (AR) in which the user’s physical experience is enhanced with digital or virtual features via devices such as eye lenses, as they can be worn all day and don’t distract from the immediate environment.
Lots of interest in my take on “Apple Reality” and the Metaverse https://t.co/ZmacFcOC9k pic.twitter.com/C4SNbFbULp
— Mark Gurman (@markgurman) January 9, 2022
Artemis launches mobile-focused NFT social media platform
Hong Kong-based blockchain firm Artemis Market launched a new social media and NFT trading platform yesterday.
According to a Jan. 13 announcement, the Solana-based platform has initially launched a desktop and mobile web version with limited functionality, and will be rolling out a mobile app and full social features in the near future.
Artemis is hoping to attract new users with 0% transaction fees on trading until the end of February.
We know all of you have been waiting for this day…
And we are finally LAUNCHING NOWhttps://t.co/OBLamZSR18
What’s more? ✨0% TRANSACTION FEE✨until end of Feb!
Join us and start trading on Artemis NOW!#Solana #NFT #NFTlaunch #NFTmarketplace #SocialFi #ListAndEarn #0TxnFee
— Artemis Market (@Artemis_Market) January 13, 2022
The firm stated that it was focused on building a one stop shop mobile platform to provide a user-friendly platform that can be accessed on the go, as it highlighted that the NFT sector currently lacks a “compelling user experience” despite its booming popularity.
“We want our users to be able to conduct their whole NFT experience all in one app. From discovering and hanging out with creators, to collecting NFTs, to interacting, sharing and commenting with friends.”
Related:China aims to separate NFTs from crypto via new blockchain infrastructure
Steve Aoki stops live show to flaunt NFT acquisition
Millionaire DJ Steve Aoki abruptly stopped one of his live music events this week to flaunt a freshly acquired NFT that many of his fans could only dream to afford.
Aoki tweeted a video on Jan. 12 sharing his glee at snapping an NFT from the Doodles collection accompanied by a caption that read:
“Had to stop my show to celebrate my excitement on my doodle! Nfts make me feel like a kid again.”
The Doodles project consists of 10,000 NFT avatars featuring art by popular Canadian artist Burnt Toast. The NFTs currently have a floor price of 11.75 Ether (ETH) worth roughly $38,300 at the time of writing.
Aoki is a major NFT proponent with his fingers in multiple honey pots, and his latest behavior suggests early signs of a crippling NFT addiction.
Other Nifty News
A group of editors on Wikipedia voted against classifying NFTs as a form of art on Jan. 12, opting to exclude NFT art sales from the list of top art sales of living artists. They have agreed to re-open discussions at a later date however.
U.S.-based music streaming platform LÜM is slated to relaunch as an NFT platform later this quarter. It is shifting its focus to musician-focused fan NFTs that enable users to support the artist of their choosing.
Meta — the company formerly known as Facebook — is diving straight into virtual reality with a preview of its latest research and development on haptic gloves which give sensory feedback while in digital realms.
Facebook rebranded to Meta in late October to shift its focus from social media to Metaverse and VR tech development.
In a Nov. 16 blog post, Meta shared the latest breakthroughs in haptic glove research from its VR tech firm Reality Labs, noting that the product has been seven years in the making.
The firm shared a video that shows two people testing the haptic gloves in a demo Metaverse, as they clench their fists, pick up blocks, throw objects, shake hands, knock over dominoes, and play Jenga together.
Haptic glove preview: Meta
Meta says the gloves rely on haptic rendering to send “precise instructions to the actuators on the hand” that correspond with tracking technology that pinpoints the hand’s location and the properties of virtual objects in the Metaverse.
In their current state of development, the palms appear to be lined with small soft robotic motors that move in unison to deliver a corresponding sensation to the user’s hand movements in the Metaverse. Meta noted, however, that haptic gloves won’t be hitting the market anytime soon.
“The reality of these being an affordable, accessible tool for regular consumers is still some time off. I mean, look at the mess of the cables connecting these prototypes,” the blog post read.
Related:To work for everyone, the Metaverse must be decentralized
Meta stated that its haptic glove project “started as a moonshot,” but is becoming closer to being a reality due to advancements in perceptual science, soft robotics, microfluidics, hand tracking and haptic rendering.
The firm also outlined its vision for the project is moving forward, echoing something similar to the plot of the Ready Player One film in which VR tech and gaming have developed to the stage of providing a liveable Metaverse for its users:
“Imagine working on a virtual 3D puzzle with a friend’s realistic 3D avatar. As you pick up a virtual puzzle piece from the table, your fingers automatically stop moving as you feel it within your grasp.”
Many onlookers are waiting to see if Meta will launch an “open Metaverse” like its decentralized counterparts in the crypto space, or pose a threat to the space by wrestling for dominance over the sector.
However, some are quite bullish on Meta’s move, with Emil Angervall the co-founder and chief operating officer of music tech startup Corite telling Cointelegraph on Oct. 29 that the firm will provide extreme upside opportunities for the NFT and Metaverse sectors.
Meta’s share price (FB) has gained 9% since the announcement of its to sit at $341 at the time of writing.
California-based Non-fungible Tokens (NFTs) decentralised platform NFT Oasis announced Thursday that it has received the first round of funding from $4.4 million.
Reportedly, this investment was led by 32 top blockchain investors, including Leminscap, CitizenX Crypto Ventures, FlamingoDAO, and ID theory.
The funds collected this time will be used to combine virtual reality (VR) and decentralised finance (DeFi) to provide art creators with more creative freedom, commercial control, and financial success and to be able to use virtual reality for the creation of non-fungible tokens (NFT).
Will O’Brien, the CEO and Co-Founder of NFT Oasis, said that:
“Artists shape our collective culture and move generations forward. With NFTs, DeFi, and VR, we can disrupt the existing models that exploit creators, and instead fuel a revolution that will lead to the next renaissance.”
Founded in March 2021, NFT Oasis is an NFT platform that focuses on developing the infinite possibilities of artistic expression and provides art creators worldwide with their works.
NFT Oasis has welcomed more than 200 artists and musicians to show their works to their fans in VR since April in accordance with the report.
The flagship platform of NFT Oasis is called AltspaceVR, a social VR platform owned by Microsoft. This virtual world platform has all the best social features, such as custom avatars, real-time voice and interaction, and events. It provides users with a channel to use Oculus VR headsets and PC/Mac to access NFT Oasis to watch live broadcasts and recorded content.
NFT Oasis also stated that their team is actively launching a smart contract-based system for creators and the community to establish the economics of their work and the permission of their Metaverse experience.
Follow the drop on Twitch from https://www.twitch.tv/terravirtua
Starting soon 2PM BST lasting until 27th.
Auction lasts on Terra Virtua from today until the 27th during the AIBC Summit in Dubai.
The VR Glasses and the work will be available to see both at the conference as well as privately upon request.
5 BTC + 300 Free Spins for new players & 15 BTC + 35.000 Free Spins every month, only at mBitcasino. Play Now!
Watch the sneak peak film here from VESA’s studio.
The BR8VE
It was first an artwork commissioned by an early anonymous crypto OG, who revealed that Satoshi Nakamoto is eight different experts in their fields. ‘The story of Bitcoin thus far’ took me five months to convert into an artwork, and a further six months with the 3D wizard Frank Spalteholz, as well as composer Mighty33 to transform it into an exclusive VR artwork.
Predict the price of BTC & AAB and win up to 5,000 USDT!
The piece has a 30-minute mini-documentary about it, explaining the substance. Watch here
The first out of 10 NFT is reserved for the mystery OG, who may be one of the eight people, and nine others will now be sold to the market with a Varjo headset. The Finnish company Varjo has the world’s most advanced VR headset, only available for industrial players like Apple, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Volvo, etc. The headset is not commercially available and has an astonishing 8K resolution that people fly airplanes with and perform surgery in major hospitals – and you. The NFT comes with the headset, controllers, a powerful laptop, and a physically signed big print copy of the original version. It is set up for troubleshooting remotely to ensure a smooth transition.
You can see a 2D preview of the work here, as well as hear the glorious soundtrack by Mighty, which captures the danger, tension, and power of the Bitcoin island perfectly in its purgatory.
The 2D version
Wanna own astronaut grade VR goggles unavailable elsewhere on the market? The artwork comes with a beast of a laptop, The Varjo VR2pro headset, and a remote troubleshooting mechanism. Check out Varjo.com
100K USD minimum bid
The bids for the 2/10 version will start from 100K USD, but as we know that people like exclusive things, for this very first version only, we will offer a ‘buy now’ option for 1M USD, which means no other versions will come to market. It will then be a 2/2.
Watch VESA address this in a tweet earlier this morning
Few more #VR Brave words regarding the market situation, @elonmusk tweets, and the hottest #NFT around with @TerraVirtuaArt @Mighty_33
Have a look at this interview with the co-founder Gary about why Terra Virtua is a big deal in the NFT space, and their art segment will soon be a force to be reckoned with here.
V E S A
Crypto & NFT Artist All links to physical, NFTs, and more below
Dvision Network is extending a cross-chain bridge to Binance Smart Chain (BSC).
Dvision Network is Now on BSC
In a bid to offer its users multiple blockchain protocols to choose from,Dvision Networkannounced it is enabling the bridge between Ethereum mainnet and the Binance Smart Chain. This means that soon enough, DVI ERC-20 tokens can also be used in the form of a BEP-20 token with a multi-chain functionality aided by the bridge built in close cooperation with Curvegrid.
Dvision has already announced their readiness to launch on BSC in their blog post and also started a countdown in their website, which pinpoints to the official launch of the bridge on 20th May.
Notably, Dvision Network will partially migrate to Binance Smart Chain via the asset portal bridge “Looking Glass” developed on top of Curvegrid’s MultiBaas blockchain middleware to enable smooth and convenient cross-chain transfers of DVI in both BEP-20 and ERC-20 tokens.
Reasons to Extend to Binance Smart Chain
According to the team at Dvision Network, the project’s decision to integrate with Binance Smart Chain (BSC) largely stems from its vision and belief in BSC as an ecosystem that is committed to become a hotbed for the next generation of decentralized applications (dApps).
The project highlights the high scalability of the BSC ecosystem and its compatibility with smart contracts and Ethereum Virtual Machine programmability that boasts of high TPS (transactions per second), and rapid decentralized trading with minimal fees.
Moreover, the integration with BSC will facilitate advanced smart contract functionalities and immense computation for Dvision Network on top of Binance Smart Chain to enable users to tap the network’s low transaction fees and high throughput efficiency.
Truth be told, BSC is now considered to be the largest ecosystem in the blockchain industry and recently also eclipsed the Ethereum network in terms of daily transactions volume where it recorded 9 million in daily transactions compared to Ethereum’s all-time-high transactions of 1.5 million.
Compatibility with BSC and Ethereum
While Dvision Network is expanding to BSC, it is worthy of note that the BEP-20 DVI token will not replace the existing ERC-20 DVI token. Rather, the two token smart contracts (BSC and Ethereum Mainnet) will exist concurrently to power the interoperable bridge to move one token from one network to the other.
This way, Dvision will continue to thrive on Ethereum as an ERC-20 token and on Binance Smart Chain (BSC) as a BEP-20 token.
As mentioned earlier, the cross-chain bridge has been developed in close cooperation with the Curvegrid team which holds expertize in developing asset portal bridge enabled via the Looking Glass which is built on top of the MultiBaas that functions as a link between the Ethereum mainnet and BSC.
To make things easier to understand, the above dashboard is the user interface of the ERC-20 = BEP-20 transfer bridge that is primed to live roughly next week.
More information pertaining to guidelines for the use cases of the DVI on BSC will be shared with the Dvision Network community later, presumably right before the BEP-20 = ERC-20 DVI Bridge goes live on BSC.
About Dvision Network
Dvision Networkis a VR content ecosystem powered by blockchain technology. Dvision Network offers a wide range of VR-based products and services such as NFT-Market, Meta-Space, and Meta-City, among others.
The team at Dvision Network boasts of VR industry veterans and stalwarts that are committed to bringing the project’s vision to fruition. To know more about what’s in the pipeline for the Dvision Network community, check out the project’s roadmaphere.
You can now go to a museum in Japan to experience moving digital art. You can also go to a digital platform like Somnium Space, or Superworld, to experience further digital rabbit holes.
Something has been cooking in Helsinki, Finland for a while now though, and we are finally ready to show the world the first snippet of it.
5 BTC + 300 Free Spins for new players & 15 BTC + 35.000 Free Spins every month, only at mBitcasino. Play Now!
So what is now possible?
What you couldn’t yet do, up until yesterday:
Go to a physical immersive crypto art space, in which you can podcast about, sit on, and buy digital art, made physical, that comes with #NFT certificates.
Be guided to buy digital NFT art, on display via digital screens
Have the physical representations come alive via AR apps, so you can watch mini-docs about the art, as well as watch their still representations come alive
Become art yourself, via a bodypainting, stills, video, and psychological process titled Artevo, which is then transformed into multi-disciplined digital NFT & physical art.
Sit on an art couch, put on VR glasses, and go experience the various rabbit holes created by and on the already existing digital platforms, again available for you to collect also.
A special segment corner of this space, will become a green screen studio, for capturing live performances for NFT art. Brittany Kaiser will be the first international guest, whose life will be turned into integral digital art, launching in Q3 in Dubai & the metaverse. For those still unfamiliar with her story, I recommend “The Great Hack” on Netflix, which now has around 100MM views, revealing the true impact of social media on our lives.
The meta inside the art
Many of you know by now how much effort I put into these artworks, and I’m proud to announce we’ve quietly been working on an AR/VR/AI integrating NFT version of “The Br8ve”, which will drop in a couple of months time. The physical representation of this piece, which took five months to make just into its first version, is now one part of the studio wall in 3x6M size. Soon enough, in Helsinki, Finland, some will be able to point their mobile devices on it, to watch it become alive.
They can then sit on the couch, and experience the full VR experience of it to make further mind-melt bridges on what is possible in this art renaissance of meaning, technology, and purpose.
Here are some insightful influencer comments on FB.
Be Brave
Watch the 30-minute explainer video on “The Br8ve”, revealing the skillset of the potential team behind #BTC – now about to be turned into Physical/AR/VR/AI art.
In order for this space to tranced to earn the meaning behind the word ‘metaverse’, it shouldn’t forget the multi-sensory capacity a human being has in both spirit, matter, and aspiration. I’m incredibly excited to say that this space has a green screen segment for video, a pull-down stills studio inside the circle, sauna facilities, make-up room, chillout area, and much more.
Collect multiple factors of crypto & NFT art history, at once, for less than 1 #ETH.
I recently joined the new Mintable platform with two new experiments. Due to the evolution of how my transition from the legacy art world came about in 2017, most felt my digital art was way too expensive and looked too much like classical renaissance art. The mostly silent critique was that people in the space at the time couldn’t afford it, and the way that I expressed myself ‘was a bit much’. I go into that story more in this episode with Bitcoin LIVE with Nicholaas, which was a real pleasure to do a deep dive with.
I made efforts to course-correct the price thing along the way, but not as significant as these value offers.
The 3D render of the space, with multiple art pieces featuring the whole site, is now available for less than 1 #ETH. All funds will go to build it further. As you might guess, the whole operation will cost significantly more than the edition of 10 will provide, so this is a real opportunity to benefit from helping the independent metaverse culture to thrive.
My long time supporter Mr. Ben Leff already acquired the 1/10 but you can collect:
The 2/10 version here.
The 3/10 version here.
I will mint more as they go, and the price will increase towards the end of the edition.
The other available piece is “Delicatessen”, again, on Mintable.
If someone wants to super secure dip their toes into NFT’s, to guarantee double value #NFT + physical print access, the size of the file that comes with the piece “Delicatessen” allows you to make a wall-size print.
The $99 drop of an edition of 99 (now $130 due to price rise of #ETH) can be found here. The pieces are minted as they sell, and you can get in on the very early mints now for a very affordable price by today’s NFT standards on long-standing career-level work. It’s also a good way to get acquainted with Zach’s printable series concept, in which the piece mints as it is sold, as opposed to floods your store with NFTs and gas fees.
The idea was that you might have 99 problems but affording a cool limited edition #NFT isn’t one. Of course, as we are in a bull run, ETH has gone up a bit, so the price is now at around $120
Delicatessen is now a 150x150cm print on the wall of Flavorium in Helsinki. The file that comes with the NFT allows you to blow it up to the size of the whole wall or more if you like.
Blockchain Valley Virtual
Another worthy mention is all the incredibly exciting things happening with Blockchain Valley Virtual. There will be big news regarding developments soon, but for now, here is a demo on how Niko ain’t playing around when it comes to making our avatar swag.
Last but certainly not least, I’m just going to leave this here with #subtext.
So, we all have at least 99 problems but keep at it folks.
We are in the best possible sector to be in right now – unless if you are the mercilessly ruling class robbing the world blind. In which case you, still, are in the best sector in the world.
V E S A
Crypto Artist All links to physical, NFTs, and more below
If someone wants to super secure dip their toes into NFT’s, to guarantee double value #NFT + physical print access, the size of the file that comes with the piece “Delicatessen” allows you to make a wall-size print.
