What Are The Best Metaverse Tokens To Invest In?

What Are The Best Metaverse Tokens To Invest In?

With Facebook changing its name to Meta and top investor Cathie Wood CEO of Ask Invest predicting that the future market value of metaverse would be in trillions of dollars, is it worth ‘getting in on the ground floor’ and investing in metaverse tokens? It’s worth having an investor approach, of course, not just being swept along by these headline announcements, but in such an innovative technology how do you decide what’s worth investing in? We’ve therefore compiled a watchlist of metaverse tokens that we believe will play a significant role in realizing the metaverse’s potential to become a trillion-dollar industry.

But just as importantly we’ve set our stall out by asking investors to consider metaverse tokens in terms of the wider thesis about what adds value from a web3 perspective. Apart from having a clear purpose or problem they are trying to solve, not just a white paper and a cute explainer video, they need to have a strong community foundation. Of course, every crypto startup talks the talk when it comes to community. But having a Discord server busy with airdrops and users waiting for the next price pump isn’t going to make it in the longer term. What is worth looking for when assessing which metaverse project to invest in is the degree to which they are actually community-owned, and how well they share the revenue and the control with their users.

 

Zilliqa (ZIL)

Flying somewhat under the radar has been Layer 1 blockchain Zilliqa, notable as the first Layer 1 to use sharding to solve the blockchain scaling problem that Ethereum has faced. What’s interesting is that with a recent change in leadership, and a new CEO with Ben Livshits who comes from the Brave browser, Zilliqa has already announced that is launching its own metaverse, ‘Metapolis’.

The obvious challenge for Metapolis will be its competitors Decentraland and Sandbox that currently have captured the majority of the blockchain metaverse users. Despite the current depressed value of the ZIL in 2022, the plans for a landmark event at the start of April, built around Zilliqa’s “position as the first layer-1 to build multiple commercial avenues of Web3” look exciting. The Q2 landmark event, which is built around Zilliqa’s “position as the first layer-1 to build multiple commercial avenues of Web3” is also a great opportunity for the Zilliqa team to organize PR and messaging – getting the consistency in messaging and confidence in its delivery should be a significant driver in the value of the ZIL token. The price of the token has been on a downward decline from a price on CMC of $0.2376 in mid-April 2021 to $0.0456 on 22 March 2022. But by the same token, this could be an ideal time to buy the dip in light of the Metapolis launch, the succession of new hires being announced, and the publicity surrounding the event itself.

It’s instructive that Ethereum’s co-founder Joseph Lubin recently criticized Zilliqa rival Solana for over-generous rewards to users validating transactions on the network. Solana Labs responded that “simply looking at protocol revenue doesn’t tell the full story of the long-term performance” of a blockchain’s economic model. That also begs the question as to whether in the longer term Zilliqa sufficiently incentivizes its mining community. After all the key to web3 isn’t merely community-engaged, but community ‘ownership’ in terms of the token structure and for governance.

 

Axie Infinity (AXS)

The growth of play-to-earn gaming, led by Axie Infinity, where engagement with a younger generation of gamers in countries like the Philippines shows how this can make a real financial difference to people’s lives. This is also why the role of DeFi in the metaverse, can be so important in providing people with a low-cost way to earn, save and send money from person to person. Back in October last year it hit a $3 billion equity valuation. Token Terminal estimates AXS is driving about $28.9 million in weekly revenue. Annualized, this equates to $1.5 billion in revenue, which is comparable to blockbuster games in the traditional gaming sector. Last month, Axie reduced production of its main in-game rewards to avoid what its blog post describes as “total and permanent economic collapse.” These changes should make a positive difference. However, as the chart from CoinMarketCap shows, the value appears to correlate heavily to the price of Bitcoin.

Tracking the price of AXS vs BTC (AXS: see green trend line; BTC orange trend line)

 

Decentraland (MANA)

Decentraland is an Ethereum-based blockchain-powered virtual-reality pioneer. Decentraland has the largest market capitalization in the metaverse space, and as one of the early adopters, the company is well-positioned to maintain its dominance in this space. Decentraland is divided into LAND parcels that are NFTs, and LAND ownership gives users complete control over what they build. In total there are 90,601 land parcels, and the LAND NFTs can be purchased using Decentraland’s native token MANA.

Users in Decentraland can use MANA tokens to buy and develop land, as well as some of the game’s tools to create spaces and works of art. Users are free to create whatever they want. Decentraland also holds various entertainment activities regularly, with users able to attend parties, play games, and visit digital art exhibitions. Decentraland recently hosted the world’s first multi-day music festival, with many well-known artists performing. Adding to the utility, as reported by Motley Fool, this month it will host Metaverse Fashion Week from March 24–27, featuring global brands, including Tommy Hilfiger, and Dolce & Gabbana.

 

The Sandbox (SAND)

Sandbox is similar to Decentraland in that users can use SAND tokens to purchase land, build houses, and share games on the purchased land. Sandbox has announced several collaborations in recent months, including top NFT marketplace OpenSea, Snoop Dogg, and The Walking Dead. At the same time, it recently completed a US$93 million round of financing led by Softbank, a leading investor in the blockchain space. There are three billion SAND tokens, and a third of its total supply is circulating at $3.06. Compared to MANA, SAND has been hit harder by the market downturn, with a drop in the last month alone from $4.20 in early Feb to $2.90 on March 7, a 30% decrease. However, recent price aside the fundamentals suggests SAND is a good bet for the future, based on a successful implementation of their project roadmap to date.

Coming back to the guiding thesis about the importance of community ownership for the longer-term viability of metaverse tokens one of the key benefits of Sandbox is that it’s decentralized both in name and in terms of its community governance. Indeed, the play-to-earn approach type revenue is shared throughout the gaming ecosystem via tokens, while Sandbox users can earn a passive income by charging other users to access their land. With both rewards and fees paid in SAND underline how this core web3 approach to community ownership supports the value of the SAND token to investors.

 

Somnium Space (CUBE)

Somnium Space is another metaverse ecosystem BigONE believes is worth investigating. Somnium space’s goal is to create an immersive metaverse. Users can buy lands, customize their avatars, and invest in real estate in Somnium, which was founded in 2017. Gemini supports the Somnium space, and the FTX exchange recently built a metaverse headquarters on the Somnium space.

In the last month, its native token $CUBE’s price movement has been very similar to SAND’s. The market capitalization of CUBE is $59 million, with 12.5 million circulating supply out of a total supply of 100 million. Somnium Space is ideal for users to build their real estate using their builder tools and create custom avatars using the Unity SDK. In addition, in 2019 they partnered with Sony to allow users to create full embodiment avatars of themselves in minutes alongside any 3D models for Somnium Store. Sony’s VR store in Somnium Space was among the world’s first.

 

Investing in the future of the metaverse

By providing more incentives and giving back to users, the metaverse will constantly flip the script and change how things will be done. BigONE anticipates a more transparent, open, and fully decentralized experience from the vibrant creative landscapes and avatars. The landscape itself will be visually stunning, a virtual place where the imagination is no longer constrained. Clearly, the development of a fully functional metaverse has the potential to fundamentally alter how people interact with the digital world. A collective virtual experience would reimagine the creative industry and open new doors for creators, gamers, and artists. BigONE Chairman Anndy Lian said: “The metaverse is here to stay, it’s clear the success already of Sandbox and Decentraland shows it has tremendous potential to bring people together. That potential in terms of GameFi we can see with Axie Infinity’s play-to-earn gaming which is making a real difference to people’s lives. However, there remain obstacles to its growth. Countries like China and South Korea have had laws about converting in-game tokens into fiat currency for nearly 15 years, for instance.

“However, I believe like any disruptive paradigm-shifting technology, which is attracting the attention of global players such as Facebook and governments keen to keep control of the internet, there are risks involved. But I’m optimistic that the decentralized community-owned development of an interoperable metaverse will deliver lasting value to both users and investors,” Lian added.

 

Any references to projects in this article are purely for information and should not be deemed financial advice, or promotional.

 

 

Original Source: https://metaverseinsider.tech/2022/04/25/what-are-the-best-metaverse-tokens-to-invest-in/

Anndy Lian is an early blockchain adopter and experienced serial entrepreneur who is known for his work in the government sector. He is a best selling book author- “NFT: From Zero to Hero” and “Blockchain Revolution 2030”.

Currently, he is appointed as the Chief Digital Advisor at Mongolia Productivity Organization, championing national digitization. Prior to his current appointments, he was the Chairman of BigONE Exchange, a global top 30 ranked crypto spot exchange and was also the Advisory Board Member for Hyundai DAC, the blockchain arm of South Korea’s largest car manufacturer Hyundai Motor Group. Lian played a pivotal role as the Blockchain Advisor for Asian Productivity Organisation (APO), an intergovernmental organization committed to improving productivity in the Asia-Pacific region.

An avid supporter of incubating start-ups, Anndy has also been a private investor for the past eight years. With a growth investment mindset, Anndy strategically demonstrates this in the companies he chooses to be involved with. He believes that what he is doing through blockchain technology currently will revolutionise and redefine traditional businesses. He also believes that the blockchain industry has to be “redecentralised”.

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Cloud Executive Summit Asia: Architecting a Future Cloud Ready Strategy for Metaverse

Cloud Executive Summit Asia: Architecting a Future Cloud Ready Strategy for Metaverse

Metaverse is a much talked about topic nowadays. Technology has a symbiotic relationship with the world, and humans’ interaction with technology constantly gets disrupted with new innovations. The future of the Internet and the vision of it being the Metaverse has definitely a potential for disruptive change to the way we live, work and play. The race is on for businesses looking to have a stake in building and positioning themselves for the arrival of the future. As this will be the next battleground for cloud computing, evolving your cloud strategy and tools will be the first step to lead you to this new frontier. This panel will discuss:

– Defining the metaverse and reasons why we are pursuing it
– Importance of cloud infrastructure in the concept
– How should technologies evolve to support the realisation of this concept

The speakers’ lineup includes:

– Lim May-Ann, Executive Director, Asia Cloud Computing Association (moderator)
– Anndy Lian, Chairman, BigONE Exchange; Chief Digital Advisor, Mongolian Productivity Organization
– Lionel Chok, Chief Metaverse Officer, Hatten Edge Pte Ltd (Subsidiary of Hatten Land Ltd)
– Dr. Khoo Eng Tat, Principal Investigator, Immersive Reality Lab, National University of Singapore

May-Ann Lim, Emeritus Director – Asia Cloud Computing Association: “Foundational technology and the stabilisation of all of the important bits and pieces usually not as sexy as the things that you build on top of it. So it’s important to integrate for all that we have been really exciting things on the internet. I think foundationally it’s still a wire in the ground that’s bringing us a lot of things. So that I think that stability and environmental systems are important.” (10:17)
Anndy Lian, Chairman; Chief Digital Advisor – BigONE Exchange: “In a very, in a very simple manner I will say that the metaverse is giving the decentralised network a very good use case. You know, apart from that metaverse can actually exist in both and in some ways or another is still centralized; you know whether the metaverse is being controlled by the DAO or it’s being controlled by the centralised party, in some ways, they’re still a form of decentralisation. So the simplest version that I have in mind, is an environment, a place where people can live a second life, a virtual environment apart from the life we are experiencing right now.” (6:27)
Lionel Chok, Chief Metaverse Officer – Hatten Edge Pte Ltd (Subsidiary of Hatten Land Ltd): “You don’t know if it will take 10 or 15 years, you don’t know. But what we do know is that because so many of the tech giants missed the boat or didn’t totally respond to web 1.0 or 2.0, you can be sure that nobody is going to miss the boat this time.”
Eng Tat Khoo, Principal Investigator, Immersive Reality Lab – National University of Singapore: “Moving forward, I think that what the real world is, and what the virtual world is going to merge at some point, right? And that will be truly better is truly multidimensional and truly parallel. And for that to happen, I think there need to be breakthroughs happening in the space, one is on understanding the space and objects, so we do object tracking, localization, and I think you also need to develop some intelligence for normal voice interaction and natural language processing.” (26:47)
Cloud Executive Summit Asia, powered by Cloud Expo Asia, launches on 13th April 2022 at Marina Bay Sands. It is a one-day face-to-face event that will bring together CTOs, CIOs, Heads of IT, Infrastructure, Digital Transformation, AI, Cloud Security, Architecture, IT Operations, etc. from all industry verticals. The exhibition and conference promises challenging content and the opportunity to network with your industry peers.

The theme of the event is Accelerate Business Agility Through Cloud and some of the topics that form the 2022 programme include:

Digital Infrastructure: Fast, Agile, Resilient, Sustainable
– AI in Cloud Computing
– Hybrid Cloud Strategy
– Imagine the Future (Metaverse)
– The Rise of Serverless: IT-as-a-Service
– Work Productivity
– Sustainability
– Data Management

Anndy Lian is an early blockchain adopter and experienced serial entrepreneur who is known for his work in the government sector. He is a best selling book author- “NFT: From Zero to Hero” and “Blockchain Revolution 2030”.

Currently, he is appointed as the Chief Digital Advisor at Mongolia Productivity Organization, championing national digitization. Prior to his current appointments, he was the Chairman of BigONE Exchange, a global top 30 ranked crypto spot exchange and was also the Advisory Board Member for Hyundai DAC, the blockchain arm of South Korea’s largest car manufacturer Hyundai Motor Group. Lian played a pivotal role as the Blockchain Advisor for Asian Productivity Organisation (APO), an intergovernmental organization committed to improving productivity in the Asia-Pacific region.

An avid supporter of incubating start-ups, Anndy has also been a private investor for the past eight years. With a growth investment mindset, Anndy strategically demonstrates this in the companies he chooses to be involved with. He believes that what he is doing through blockchain technology currently will revolutionise and redefine traditional businesses. He also believes that the blockchain industry has to be “redecentralised”.

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GameFi Is Driving the Future of the Metaverse: Here’s Why

GameFi Is Driving the Future of the Metaverse: Here’s Why

The gaming industry is worth billions of dollars, predicted to generate $179.7 billion in 2020, with by comparison the global film industry reaching $100 billion in revenue for the first time in 2019.

 

According to Statista, over 2.7 billion people in the world actively or passively play video games, with China ranked first as the biggest gaming market just ahead of the US. In this dynamic market, the latest innovation, a crossover genre between crypto and gaming is a new breed of play-to-earn games or GameFi. GameFi is a concept that provides monetary incentives to gamers through a play-to-earn model, as opposed to the traditional “play-to-win” model that has been popular in the gaming industry.

 

How is the metaverse taking shape?

The Metaverse concept has also recently gained popularity, thanks in part to incorporating blockchain technology into GameFi, but also clearly driven by the growth of the gaming market. Not surprisingly tech titans dominated by gaming including Microsoft, Samsung, and Sony are joining forces to form the XR Association, which is aimed at bringing this concept of an ‘experiential reality to life.

 

Not to be outdone at the end of June Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg made a big bold play, basically laying out the future for Facebook in the metaverse, before changing the company’s name to Meta, reflecting the company’s growing ambitions beyond social media. Zuckerberg declared that “the metaverse will not be created by one company. It will be built by creators and developers making new experiences and digital items that are interoperable and unlock a massively larger creative economy.” Microsoft, worth $2.5 trillion, and $731 billion Nvidia, quickly followed suit with their own metaverse visions, reported Forbes.

 

Of course, anyone who’s seen the movie The Social Network, or has seen recent evidence on how Facebook can do harm through manipulating its online users’ behavior, is certainly going to wonder if the metaverse is going to be safe with a giant like Facebook. As Tim Sweeney, the CEO of leading gaming company Epic, which has raised $1 billion to support their long-term vision of the metaverse, remarked:

 

“This Metaverse is going to be far more pervasive and powerful than anything else. If one central company gains control of this, they will become more powerful than any government, and be a god on Earth.” And as UK-based blockchain startup Outlier Ventures pointed out, the need to have a crypto decentralized core is therefore paramount: “The defining characteristic of a true Metaverse is that it needs its own economy and currencies native to it, where value can be earnt, spent, lent, borrowed or invested interchangeably in both a physical or virtual sense and most importantly without the need for a government.”

 

According to metaverse proponents, the success of GameFi coupled with the growth of NFTs may provide the solution required to make a more inter-operable metaverse which is free from domination by the likes of Facebook a reality. It’s also worth noting that China has itself started to take the metaverse seriously, presenting China with

 

“great opportunities and revolutionary effects,”

 

Zuo Pengfei, a researcher at the state-affiliated Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, argued in a September article. It’s interesting that more recently Zuo, agreed that the metaverse has “an inherent monopoly gene,” and that care must be taken to “avoid the metaverse being monopolized by a few forces”, according to a report in Quartz.

 

What’s also worth considering is that both Facebook, with its Novi wallet and cryptocurrency in the shape of Diem, and the Chinese central bank the PBOC, with its digital yuan, both have the DeFi capacity to monetize gaming in the metaverse to the tune of billions of dollars. So, any more decentralized version of the metaverse, reliant on using cryptocurrencies to power the virtual economy, needs to be aware of that reality from the get-go.

GameFi: Disrupting the online gaming industry

The play-to-earn model has shaken the online gaming industry, with traditional players looking to switch to GameFi projects like Axie Infinity. Cryptocurrencies have already been successfully integrated recently into virtual worlds created by companies such as Decentraland and Sandbox. For example, users in Decentraland can purchase virtual real estate such as theme parks and monetize them using cryptocurrencies.

 

BigONE believes that the rise in popularity of GameFi projects such as Axie Infinity played a significant role in GameFi’s mainstreaming. GameFi has been in the works since 2017, with the introduction of CryptoKitties. Still, it did not go mainstream until this year, with the popular game Axie Infinity reaching a market cap of over $1 billion in 2021. Before “play-to-earn,” gaming assets and tokens could not be used outside the gaming environment and had no real-world value. With GameFi, in-game purchases can now have real value and have applications outside of the gaming environment.

 

A key factor contributing to the disruptive power of GameFi is that it is built upon blockchain technology rather than traditional gaming apps built using Java and Unity frameworks. Plus, from a technical perspective, GameFi is generally easier to implement and develop. Such is the threat from GameFi that traditional gaming publishers such as Ubisoft and Epic Games have suggested that GameFi is the future of their blockchain-based games strategy.

 

BigONE believes that this is yet another indicator of GameFi’s meteoric rise and why it is the future of gaming. According to reports from the Philippines, Axie Infinity, the largest GameFi project, is a huge source of income for the people of the Philippines, paying some of the citizens more than the country’s average salary. In addition, reputable investment firms are beginning to invest more in GameFi initiatives, with Solana Ventures, FTX, and Lightspeed announcing a $100 million GameFi fund recently.

 

GameFi and the future of the metaverse

What’s clear is that whoever wins the battle to control the metaverse will need to use some kind of digital currency to power the virtual economy. The more monopolistic the approach the more likely this will result in something like a Novi, a dollar-based stablecoin as the de facto default currency.

 

Despite Zuckerberg’s awareness that by its nature the metaverse is inter-operable, rather than a ‘walled garden’, the amount of money and effort put into this virtual space shows that first-mover advantage will make a difference in the web3 world just as much as the current web 2.0 digital economy, where the likes of Amazon and Google reign supreme.

 

It’s up to the leading GameFi companies like Axie Infinity to show that the more choices there are for users to earn money from gaming or creating, the stronger the metaverse will be for all participants.

 

A more decentralized vision of the metaverse inspired by the likes of GameFi startups such as Axie Infinity would support the kind of metaverse that gamers, DeFi traders would welcome.

 

“While there is room for many different visions of the metaverse I believe GameFi is showing the way, with a decentralized model for gaming and earning money based on trading tokens and NFTs. This is the metaverse where people have greater choice and opportunity, to come together to form their own communities and economies.”

 

 

 

 

 

Original Source: https://hackernoon.com/gamefi-is-driving-the-future-of-the-metaverse-heres-why

Anndy Lian is an early blockchain adopter and experienced serial entrepreneur who is known for his work in the government sector. He is a best selling book author- “NFT: From Zero to Hero” and “Blockchain Revolution 2030”.

Currently, he is appointed as the Chief Digital Advisor at Mongolia Productivity Organization, championing national digitization. Prior to his current appointments, he was the Chairman of BigONE Exchange, a global top 30 ranked crypto spot exchange and was also the Advisory Board Member for Hyundai DAC, the blockchain arm of South Korea’s largest car manufacturer Hyundai Motor Group. Lian played a pivotal role as the Blockchain Advisor for Asian Productivity Organisation (APO), an intergovernmental organization committed to improving productivity in the Asia-Pacific region.

An avid supporter of incubating start-ups, Anndy has also been a private investor for the past eight years. With a growth investment mindset, Anndy strategically demonstrates this in the companies he chooses to be involved with. He believes that what he is doing through blockchain technology currently will revolutionise and redefine traditional businesses. He also believes that the blockchain industry has to be “redecentralised”.

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