Modern Media Group, a Hong Kong-listed company, officially announced on February 10 that the company’s English name was changed from “Modern Media Holdings Limited” to “Meta Media Holdings Limited” and its Chinese dual-foreign name was changed from “Modern Media Holdings Limited” to “Super Media Holdings Limited” Co., Ltd.”, which is the first magazine media group in China to take the lead in entering the metaverse era.

2. Bandai Namco plans to invest US$130 million to develop "IP Metaverse"

Video game company Bandai Namco has announced its plans for a metaverse, investing $130 million to create an "IP metaverse" aimed at creating a community for fans of Bandai Namco games.

3. The parent company of PUBG announced to cooperate with Naver Z to build the NFT metaverse platform

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG) parent company Krafton has announced that it has signed an agreement with Naver Z, the operator of the metaverse platform Zepeto, to jointly develop a new Web 3.0 and NFT project aimed at building an NFT metaverse platform.

4. Gucci announces land purchase in The Sandbox, plans to release virtual wearables

Luxury brand Gucci has announced the purchase of an undisclosed number of virtual plots in the "metaverse" concept project The Sandbox. Allegedly, Gucci may launch Gucci-themed NFTs and retro bags on the platform. In addition to the fashion-focused virtual space, Gucci will also release virtual wearable items for The Sandbox players to purchase and wear in-game.

5. Samsung will use Metaverse to host the Galaxy S22 series launch

Samsung launched the Galaxy S22 series at the Galaxy Unpacked conference held at 23:00 on February 9. Samsung introduced the concept of a "metaverse" in this launch event, allowing fans to watch the Galaxy S22 in action through the Metaverse through its Samsung 837X Decentraland portal.

6.Gaming giant Ubisoft announces partnership with The Sandbox

Gaming giant Ubisoft is continuing to explore new frontiers for Web3, today announcing a partnership with The Sandbox, which will bring its famous gaming franchise to the Ethereum-based metaspace gaming world.

7.Canadian-listed Tokens.com acquires three virtual parcels of land in Decentraland

Canadian-listed Tokens.com, through its subsidiary Metaverse Group, has acquired three virtual parcels of land in Decentraland from JMD Capital. The acquired virtual land, named The Gen Estate, is located across from a transportation hub in Decentraland and is a hub that players use to quickly navigate the virtual world.

8.Skechers global CEO: Metaverse plans are in the works

Robert Greenberg, global chief executive of Skechers, said: "Our Metaverse plans are on the way and 2022 will be a record year.

9.Metaverse APP topped the AppStore, focusing on face pinching, social networking, etc.

On February 11, the social concept application software "jelly" surpassed WeChat and QQ and ranked first in the AppStore. According to reports, the description of the gel app in the app store is: a friendly apartment only for yourself and your best friend.

10.Playboy will launch Centerfold digital social platform and build a Playboy mansion in the Metaverse

Playboy Group has ditched NFTs featuring bunny avatars, turning instead to launching a digital social platform called "Centerfold," with plans to build a Playboy Mansion in the metaverse.

11.Wanglaoji applied for Metaverse trademark

12.McDonald's files for McMetaverse trademark

13.Yuanfudao applies for the Zebra Metaverse trademark

14.Bing Dwen Dwen, the licensed manufacturer of "Bing Dwen Dwen", will enter the Metaverse and apply for related trademarks

The metaverse concept has wide-ranging potential, and at one level it could be a 3D social media channel, perfectly targeted to each user via AI, that is the vision of META (formerly Facebook). It also has the potential to be all-encompassing information, entertainment, and work platform.

There will be multiple metaverses, at least initially, some tailored to specific interests such as gaming or sports. The main difference between current technology and virtual worlds is the immersive possibilities that virtual worlds offer, which is why Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, and others are investing so heavily. It could also be the next version of the internet.

Instead of watching the news, you will feel as if you are in the news. Instead of learning history by reading an event in a book—such as Washington's crossing of Delaware—you can actually witness the event from shore or boat. Instead of watching basketball on your TV, you can experience it in a 360-degree People can attend conferences, watch keynotes and meet others virtually. In the metaverse, our digital presence will increasingly complement our real presence. According to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the metaverse could be the next best option for teleportation devices at work.

As Monica White described in Digital Trends, “The Metaverse is designed to replace or improve the functionality of reality in virtual spaces. What users do in their daily lives, such as attending classes or going to work, can be done in the Metaverse. ” For example, Metaverse could provide a whole new 3D platform for e-commerce. Imagine a virtual reality shopping experience, virtually walking down the aisles of a large-scale store tailored just for you by numerous platform partner companies, where promotions are designed with you in mind and the only items displayed are what's in stock and what's available. Shipping. At this store, choose specials based on your tastes and anticipated needs, with value-based pricing dynamically updated based on product age (in the case of perishables), supply and demand, real-time, or both.

VR+Blockchain=Infinite Possibilities

Some technologies that enable the metaverse, including virtual and augmented reality and blockchain, have been slow to mature, but are approaching the level of capability critical to success. Everyone is missing the killer app that will drive development and widespread adoption. The Metaverse could be that app.

For VR, most headsets still need to be connected to a PC or gaming console to achieve the processing power and communication speeds needed for a smooth and immersive experience. With faster processors and higher-speed wireless communications on the horizon, better visual resolution and an untethered experience should come in the next few years.

AR has largely achieved niche adoption driven by the metaverse concept and competitors, with Apple expected to release its first AR/VR headset by the end of 2022. Apple tends to be the first mover that has proven feasible and then continues to dominate. It's a reasonable conclusion that it's the company's plans for the Metaverse.

Blockchain is the foundation of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, and virtual goods and identities can be purchased and transferred seamlessly between various metaverse platforms. New blockchain applications such as NFTs are leading to more adoption, possibly pointing to a new economy. The Wall Street Journal reports that the technology is now being extended to all types of assets, adding that blockchain-based payments are superior to our traditional financial infrastructure. Likewise, The New York Times reported that venture capital funds invested around $27 billion in crypto and blockchain companies in 2021, more than the past 10 years combined.

Kirby Winfield, founding general partner at venture capital firm Ascend, sees the Metaverse as "the latest evolution in the transition to an increasingly digital life." When it arrives in full, this transformation will fulfill the immersive sci-fi vision of many.

Decentraland： The highest transaction price (ETH): 1.03K Reserve price (ETH): 4.6 Number of Issues: 97.3k Owner: 6.8k Total Transaction Volume (ETH): 272.8k Official website URL: https://decentraland.org/ Community size: twitter: 551173 discord: 161476 instagram: 104,000 Decentraland (MANA) is a virtual reality platform based on the Ethereum blockchain, which aims to solve the problem of platform operators earning intermediary platform profits for decentralized open-source projects, thereby enabling low-cost payments between content creators and gamers Model; the project uses blockchain technology to acquire and transfer virtual property rights, and allows users to hold these virtual property rights permanently, and even generate revenue for their own content through operations; no intermediary fees are the biggest feature of Decentraland. In addition, it allows users to create, experience, and monetize content and applications. The Decentraland virtual world consists of approximately 100,000 real estate NFT parcels of 16mx16m. The value of land depends on its location, similar to the physical real estate market. In Decentraland, proximity to public areas or public roads such as Genesis Plaza has become a value driver. As user traffic on a piece of land increases, so does the potential opportunity to monetize the land through the sale of NFTs, advertising, or other services. There are currently 90,601 parcels of land available, of which about 50% are zoned “private land” owned by thousands of individuals and companies, the rest are zoned “areas”, “roads” or “plazas” — these are for community use such as Concert venue, public town square, and discovery area. Economic activities in Decentraland include land (LAND) sales, avatar registrations, wearable clothing sales, and other digital goods and services in the future. When these NFT asset transactions take place in the Decentraland economy, the protocol charges a fee denominated in MANA, which is “burned” (i.e. removed from circulation), creating scarcity and deflationary token price pressure. In addition, Decentraland is one of the earliest projects in the Defi world to adopt the DAO community governance model. The Decentraland DAO is a fully functional decentralized autonomous organization where community members (MANA owners and LAND owners) can create polls or votes in response to binding actions that will result in changes to Decentraland’s smart contracts on the Ethereum network. Includes land contracts, real estate, marketplaces, and all smart contracts in Decentraland. The Decentraland DAO has a MANA fund to help sponsor and facilitate the continued development of the Decentraland platform. Summary: Decentraland is one of the most successful metaverse projects out there, its success is not accidental, it has many advantages.

1. compared to traditional games, Decentraland uses blockchain technology, which is decentralized and immutable. In the traditional game industry, game coins and game characters can be issued indefinitely, but in Decentraland, all game assets are on the chain, and all created content is also on the chain. Decentralized operations can prevent users’ game assets and creative content from being tampered with.

2. there is no reliance on centralized server infrastructure. A decentralized distributed system allows Decentraland to work without any centralized server infrastructure. So as long as there are users distributing content and shifting the cost of running the system to other actors who can benefit from it, virtual worlds will continue to exist. Additionally, the system could provide strong censorship resistance for Decentraland, removing the power of a centralized authority to force changes to the rules or prevent users from participating.

3. compared with traditional games, Decentraland users and project parties benefit together. Traditional games aim at the interests of the project and directly exist in the game between the project party and the players. Generally, the project side earns money as the end game. In Decentraland, due to the introduction of the token mechanism, the project party can earn the appreciation of the currency price. Therefore, the project party and the players need to be mutually beneficial and win-win, jointly create a good game, achieve a win-win situation, and jointly maintain and build the game. , to achieve an increase in token value or currency price.

4. the feasibility of the project is good, the future is promising, and the product has completed the closed-loop. In the game, the land is scarce, and MANA is required to purchase land, and after the land is acquired by auction, it can be created through SDK tools, and players can complete any of their own fantasies.

   However, there are also some problems with this project: on the one hand, with the birth of a creative economic system in the virtual world, virtual real estate is a scarce resource that creates more possibilities. Due to market competition, the price may rise to a greater extent. The threshold of Decntraland has also been raised. For individuals who do not have secondary development capabilities, the identity of participation is more of a consumer than an opportunity to make money.

   On the other hand, from a bottom-up perspective, Decentraland is technically dependent on Ethereum and IPFS, and its future development is limited by technology. The overall technical requirements of the project are relatively high, but there is still a lack of technical reserves, and there are certain uncertainties in technical implementation.

   Of course, the combination of VR + blockchain brings some possibilities to this project, and the future market potential is generally great.

The Sandbox: Highest transaction price (ETH): 100 Reserve price (ETH): 3.1 Number of releases: 163.1k Owner: 20k Total Transaction Volume (ETH): 154.2k Official website URL: https://www.sandbox.game/ Community size: Twitter: 857500 discord: 277666 telegram: 120403

The Sandbox is an ecosystem for players and creators that consists of three main components: the Voxel editor (VoxEdit), the marketplace, and the game. The Sandbox aims to bring blockchain into the mainstream by attracting more crypto and non-crypto gaming enthusiasts through the benefits of true ownership, digital scarcity, profitability, and interoperability that blockchain technology brings to the game world. Players can use the platform token SAND to create, own and monetize their own gaming experiences in the Ethereum blockchain. The core mechanic of The Sandbox is a Play-to-Earn sandbox game similar to Minecraft, the best-selling open-world game of all time; through SAND, an Ethereum-based utility token, gamers can The Sandbox Game Maker, to create digital assets (non-fungible tokens, or NFTs), upload them to the store, and create a game experience with a simple drag and drop. In the virtual world, people can unlock real estate, land, etc. in the game by obtaining the non-fungible token (NFT) LAND created based on the Ethereum ERC-721 protocol. And $SAND is a functional token based on the Ethereum ERC-20 protocol. It will form a dual-token system with LAND in the world of The Sandbox, and its role is to allow players to participate in the decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). Platform management operations, $SAND holders can cast a key vote on changes to the game environment of The Sandbox. In the virtual world of The Sandbox, there are three main types of assets: land LAND, token SAND, and other NFT asset classes (characters, props, etc.). These types of tokens build the economic system of The Sandbox. There are 166464 (408 * 408) blocks of land in The Sandbox, and each land (1*1) is an ERC721 token. Players can buy the land use tool Game Maker to develop and publish it themselves or rent it to other game developers for rent. The price of land around ESTATE with well-known IP is generally relatively high. Players can buy on exchanges such as Sandbox’s Market and OpenSea. Only if third-party developers own the land (or buy or rent) can they develop games on it, allowing users to entertain or do tasks to make money, thereby generating income. If the game really can’t make money, third-party developers can sell or lease the land in their hands for other developers to use. Summary: The Sandbox is one of the leading projects in the Metaverse sector of the current blockchain project, and it can be said to be a bright moment with Decentraland. The reasons for its explosion can be summarized as follows:

1. The extremely high degree of freedom: Players can create anything they want on The Sandbox, and fully unleash their creativity.

2. Certain commercial value: LAND owners can make full use of their LAND for commercial promotion, or even rent it to others for benefits, so as to realize commercial value.

3. Realistic asset attributes: The personal assets on The Sandbox have real asset attributes, which can be sold to third parties through the platform Market or Opensea, and the owner can obtain benefits from this.

4. Security and fairness of transactions: The transaction of resources is based on blockchain technology, which is decentralized, cannot be tampered with, and is completely open, subject to the common supervision and reference of the public, and security and fairness are guaranteed.

5. Resource appreciation potential: The total amount of resources issued in The Sandbox is quite limited. With the increase in the number of participants in the future, resources will become more scarce. According to the supply and demand relationship in the market, the value of resources will also rise.

6. Absolute autonomy: Players have absolute autonomy over land and equipment, and no one other than the owner, including the platform, can transfer player assets. The Sandbox is becoming a mainstream system of NFT-based, open metaverse, where content, economy, and even governance will be in the hands of players, creators, and users who contribute to this virtual world. And this may also become the development trend of the metaverse in the future.

Cryptovoxels:

Highest transaction price (ETH): 4

Reserve price (ETH): 1.5

Number of Issues: 7.22k

Owner: 2.18k

Total Transaction Volume (ETH): 24.2k

Official website URL: https://www.cryptovoxels.com/

Community size:

Twitter: 783510

discord: 16685

Cryptovoxels — a parallel world that truly belongs to the user

Cryptovoxels is a virtual world built on the Ethereum chain where players can buy, sell, and build virtual art galleries, stores, and just about anything you can imagine. The site has built-in editing tools, live avatars, and text chat.

This concise introduction lets us understand that digital assets such as virtual land and other NFTs will be permanently protected on the blockchain. As Cryptovoxels, its original intention is to use the creativity of individuals and communities to create art social places such as art galleries and shops. At the same time, as a blockchain sandbox game based on Ethereum, Cryptovoxels also carries the magnificent fantasy of human beings on the digital parallel universe:

Consists of parcels of ERC721 tokens.

Consists of Minecraft-style voxels.

On the left half of the official homepage, the most popular buildings are listed by day/week/month/year traffic.

Cryptovoxels focuses on a few core features to set the stage for NFT artists Ben realizes the huge development space of NFTs in the future. It is very simple. In addition to putting it in the WEB3 wallet, we also need a space to show our unique collection to others. As an example in the article, the core function of Cryptovoxels focuses on encouraging the construction of spaces, which is a positive spiral. Creators and institutions will build or choose suitable spaces to showcase their own NFT collections. As the owner of the land, creating an interesting space will not only get more attention on social platforms but also increase the value of your land. As we all know, the most important link in the planning and installation of the art museum is the opening ceremony and seminar, that is, social networking. Everyone gets information on social media, gets rid of the constraints of space, replaces themselves with their own avatars, and meets interesting people and interesting NFTs in the exhibition. The rich activities make the Cryptovoxels community more dynamic and sustainable. There is an increasing focus on NFT creations and imaginative architectures on Cryptovoxels.

1. Full of futuristic, simple operation and convenient construction Compared to Decentraland, Cryptovoxels look rough and new. But it is similar to Cryptopunks, the most successful project on NFTs. The creation of many artists in this land is such a cyborg aesthetic. Compared to Decentraland, Cryptovoxels are obviously easier to control and get started with. Like Minecraft, Cryptovoxels is open to everyone. In terms of building, I believe most people are familiar with the Lego-style experience. While it takes a lot of skill to create incredible creations like the pictures in the article, most users can quickly build simple structures without your background in 3D modeling software.

2. Real estate and NFT appreciation expectations themselves play a role The first sustainable monetization model created by the Cryptovoxels team is character skins. Creative arts buildings also bring value to the land itself and its surroundings. We’ve also seen that users can rent land from other players. Cryptovoxels user Conlan developed an interesting model of buying a set of adjacent parcels and using them to develop a core theme, much like a real estate developer. He added townhouses to Gangnam, creating interesting themes that made the area so popular that land prices skyrocketed. After the popularity of Jiangnan District exploded, some users began to rent land in the district, which developed into another way to make money. Additionally, artists such as Rewa have established studios and become virtual land contractors, helping others realize their architectural dreams in a virtual world. While it is too early to monetize the Cryptovoxels platform, fortunately, Cryptovoxels is designed to be very open and connected to Ethereum’s global financial infrastructure, so it allows users to monetize game assets. We will continue to see different monetization experiments as it develops. Perhaps one of the interesting ways is the built-in game on the Cryptovoxels platform. In addition to these exciting points, after some experience, we have to feel that the ideal is beautiful and the reality is very skinny. Judging from the completion and development progress of most products at present, we are far from a game with a complete experience and rich playability. There’s still a long way to go, not to mention the grand and distant story of the metaverse. Judging from the current situation of the development team and community of Cryptovoxels, the game may end up in a hardcore and niche state. After all, for most players who don’t know how to build buildings, all they can do is look in the game. Various arts and architecture. How to get through reality and ideals requires practitioners and players to think and explore together. But as version 1.0 of the blockchain metaverse concept, platforms like Cryptovoxels, Decentraland represent the first iteration of the virtual world. The future is full of hope.

In the early stages of 2021, Elon Musk had the cryptocurrency market wrapped around his finger.

A single tweet about dogecoin by the Tesla and SpaceX founder sent prices flying as much as 50%. For a time, bitcoin price action seemed reliant on the opinion of the world’s richest man.

Tuesday offered a bit of deja vu: Musk’s tweet that Tesla would be accepting DOGE for merch sent the meme coin soaring 43%.

Musk is far from the only person to move the crypto market for no apparent reason other than making an endorsement. A sizable portion of the industry from meme coins to NFTs has proven to be highly responsive to celebrity shilling.

Inspired by Jeff Wilser’s profile of Musk for CoinDesk’s Most Influential 2021 series, here is a look into the role social media and celebrities play in the crypto market and how it has changed over the course of the year.

Trying to measure the exact impact any single event has on the market is often futile, but the correlation between dogecoin’s rise and Musk’s praise is undeniable. While other billionaires (such as Mark Cuban) and celebrities hopped on the DOGE bandwagon, Musk was often the most outspoken in his attempts at memeing the canine cryptocurrency “to the moon.”

Musk’s Top 3 most impactful tweets:

• On Feb. 4 he sent a string of tweets professing his love for DOGE, sending the price flying nearly 10% within the hour and over 50% within a day.

• “You can now buy a Tesla with bitcoin”: One of the largest companies in the world accepting BTC as payment helped push the asset to new highs; BTC would reach nearly $65,000 within a month of the tweet.

• On Dec. 14, Musk announced Tesla would trial run accepting DOGE for merchandise and the price subsequently jumped 43% over the next two hours.

Musk eventually found himself within the bitcoin conversation and Tesla played a vital role in price action throughout the spring. Disclosing Tesla’s purchase of BTC, accepting BTC as payment, eventually selling a portion of the BTC holdings and canceling BTC as a payment method all had significant effects on the market, amplifying crypto assets’ already considerable volatility.

On Feb. 8, Tesla announced its purchase of $1.5 billion in BTC and the price skyrocketed 19.5% from $38,850 to $46,400 within the day. The amount of BTC bought by Tesla and used to purchase its vehicles was relatively small compared to daily trading volume on the nearly $1 trillion asset, yet it controlled the narrative in the market for months. On May 12, an “Elon effect” of a different sort took place when the CEO announced Tesla would no longer accept BTC as payment. While the market had already fallen hard off of its highs in the months before, this tweet put the nail in the coffin, sending the price of BTC from $56,800 to $49,500.

However, Musk’s impact on prices diminished over the course of the year. Has the market grown stronger or are participants simply sick of hearing from him? Perhaps the billionaire wore out his welcome or perhaps the market became more rational. BTC was able to withstand a three-month bear market over the summer and retake April’s highs this fall without the constant help from Musk. DOGE had fallen from its glory and “the dogefather’s” latest dogecoin-themed tweets struggled to excite the market.

Or so it seemed until Tuesday morning.

Average Bored Ape sales price (Dune Analytics)

The market will likely continue to mature with further regulation and innovation. If so, celebrity influence will continue to diminish as it seemingly has for Musk. While crypto natives are still very fond of the occasional meme coin , blockchain technology has showcased its potential and attracted real investors and billions of dollars in institutional capital.

The depths of crypto will likely remain the Wild West, but hopefully we have seen the worst of it.