Cryptovoxels Part 1

Cryptovoxels is a virtual reality world on the Ethereum blockchain where users can own, build, and sell digital property.

Originally published April 2019

tags: devlog cryptovoxels grid

Cryptovoxels is a cross somewhere in between crypto, minecraft, vr, and myspace. Right now users can build, hold, and sell property on the blocks and streets of Origin City. The world will grow very slowly from the origin (the center of the world), up to a maximum size of 36km east to west, and 18km north to south. Parcels are of varied size, in total Origin City has 3026 parcels covering 92 hectares.

Properties are a cryptocollectible, specifically ERC721 tokens; the protocol that Cryptokitties and Ethermon are built on. Only you hold the keys to your land with the ownership recorded permanently on the blockchain. It's the third metaverse project by Ben Nolan attempting to create 'The Grid'.

Game within a Game

In the mobile version of Minecraft for headsets like Oculus Go, users start out in a default room with minecraft playing on a big screen in front of them. Developers like Carmack have figured out that people are not comfortable playing long hours inside of the immersive 3D world and need to take breaks.

Thinking along the same lines, I designed the hacker homekit to be an cool place for users to play html5 games on a giant screen with bean bag chairs for friends, internet radio, and a vending machine nearby with access to the market in-world.

In the future, I hope that the transition between playing 2D and going into WebVR mode can be as seamless as the transition seen here with Minecraft VR.

Credit to RaMarcus for the clip: https://youtu.be/Avf5gteh44k

If you're already logged into metamask and cryptovoxels.com, it's possible for you to then edit parcels in cryptovoxels from janusweb. The advantage of playing inside of a janusweb world is that you can have internet radio playing in the background and it's social - invite a friend and each of you get a full screen to explore and build in the world. Also, link traversal works in the game which is demonstrated in the video below:

Currently this type of demo only works in desktop mode.

Makers

Makers is a district in Origin City that lays east of the center. The city is for people interested in things like electronics, hardware, 3d printing and started out with a small island of parcels that were generated east of the center.

Timeline of Makers

History

JanusVR and Ben Nolan have collaborated a great deal in the past.

https://imgur.com/a/3Z9s7JU

2015

April

May

2017

2018

2019

Traversing from Janusweb into Cryptovoxels:

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Unity Client

https://bnolan.itch.io/cryptovoxels

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Future Inspiration