# The metaverse is our collective journey (first pass)

If you would have told me a year ago that by 2022, metaverse would be a mainstream concept I would have “wished that you were true”. Even though I was somebody building a career for this moment over the past 10 years in different capacities - startup land, hacker projects, open source contributions, being part of the decentralised movement etc..

“..you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards”
-Steve Jobs

Over the past 10 years, I stumbled across the web as the most democratic and accessible medium, worked towards making it even more accessible by leading the low code moment with an amazing org (webflow) as an early engineer, invented a browser for 3D web content, shipped the world's first webXR browser to accelerate VR adoption, and started building games on the web etc..

But building was only a small part of the journey, it was about making friends along the way, being part of the early underground community of hackers, philosophers and future dwellers imagining the metaverse, thinking deeply about the future, meeting and having fun in Mozilla Hubs and VRchat. It was about deeply reflecting the choices we had collectively made as a society with the Tech companies of today which were based on business models of data monetisation, locked walled gardens; our lives being influenced by newsfeed of algorithms which we have no idea about, content moderation, censorship - all the social issues we faced as a result, and witnessing larger chunk of value captured by big platforms and not creators.

I didn't think it's because the people leading or working in the Web2 companies of today are evil. Maybe, but I don't think so. It's about choices we made collectively, as a society. We chose the supposedly disguised free lunch. We handed our data. We gave up control. We took the blue pill. And we are at the crossroads to make these choices all over again.We may not make the same mistakes again but we may make newer mistakes.

Along the way over the past 10 years, I got inspired by many artists, musicians and creatives who created magic and meaning with their work. Art in its various forms has been true inspiration for me. It has given me drive and purpose. And I feel extremely lucky living through the renaissance of Digital Art which combines two of my passions together - technology and creativity..Fortunately enough I got to know many artists personally at the forefront of the NFT movement, who were not only creating beautiful soulful stories but also changing the power dynamics at play. We grew up in a world in which a handful shaped our worldview through Supermans and Batmans. The dynamics is changing as we enter the era of the Internet Cinematic Universe of decentralized brands, idols and superheroes.

Webaverse is abt these creatives. It's about you. It's the platform for creators to create beautiful stories. Webaverse is literally an MMO (a metavers makers’ organisation). And it’s built on principles. Principles which have been advocated by various thought leaders. It's about making those seemingly tough decisions. It's about taking the red pill.

Make it widely accessible - build it on the Web - but Web has its limitations..
- No, web does not have its limitations.. Web is beautiful.. Web is democratic.. It's just that nobody has done it before.
Build an open source metaverse engine for the dWeb - but building on existing game engines is quicker..
- Yes, quicker but ultimately it's not purpose designed..
Build transparency - build it in the open .. 100% open source, discussions in the open.. Build in the open.. But “how will you build moats”..
- We won't.. We will keep innovating
-
“Sell Land”
- no, we want to offer an experience first..

Again, these are not my ideas but the synthesis of ideas of various people who have influenced it on the way.. Mostly ppl thought we were crazy idealistic geeks but some believed in us.. we got backed by the best thoughtful leaders and VCs in the space I could have asked for.. The artist / creative community started reaching out to us on concepts which we had advocated for years on interoperability, digital art as well as bringing NFTs to life.. It was encouraging.. But then someone decided to rebrand their `Trillion Dollar org to focus on building the metaverse and boom! We have all the attention which we did not expect..

It is a surreal moment for me. It feels like you have finally found the promised land. The ship is nearing the shore. All we have to do is to build it. And to build it right.. still a long way to go.. but it feels a step in the right direction..

We may or may not be approaching the AI singularity.. If we do, our job is to build a world in which AI complements us.. The increasing challenge of today’s world further aggravated by AI, is to find meaning and purpose, and I believe our stories, narratives, lores, art and creativity is what’s gonna fill the void..

Webaverse is the platform for those stories to come to life, to interwove and to merge . Its not a game.. It's a game within a game.. Its about building meaningful digital social lives.. It's abt having fun.. It's about setting the foundations of an open, interoperable, transparent and fun metaverse...

Crypto / decentralised movement started the game of universal coordination..
Metaverse is our collective journey in that game..
Creators and artists are the builders, architects and storytellers of this journey..

Lets do it right..

Internet Cinematic Universe - Coming Soon To Any Web Browser Near you…

**

# What we're doing

This could be a story about how my dreams are coming true, and everything I've worked on for the last 10 years (from inventing a web browser to convincing a billion dollar company to support WebXR to crazy coincidences that dropped me in Sam Altman's back yard, to raising money from the best investors in the world, to doing exactly what I wanted to do with the smartest people in the world).

But I'd rather tell your story instead.

Who inspired you
Vlad Magdalin - low code movement
Porter Robinson - music abt struggles of writing his own music. also really good music. music that blends the best of machines and humanity.

Crypto Artists: Joy, Josie, Pak, Boomboxhead

Ben Nolan -- making cryptovoxels
Ross O'Donnovan -- Great animator, believes in creator's rites
Loomdart -- seeding the ICU
Jin -- everything

Those are the people who _should_ be our leaders
And that's why it's awesome that we live in a world where those people _can_ be our leaders. With web 3.

art with a soul and purpose

Everyone is kind of waking up to the fact that teh singularity might be a thing and AI might drastically change our lives, so a lot of people are looking for purpose. And that's why we need the artists to be the leaders that inspire us with purpose.

A creation organization to help creators
A metaverse makers organization
(also, an MMO -- literally)

Interoperability
Standards
The Web

A few months ago nobody was thinking about the metaverse but then a lizard got metaverse blue balls and now everyone wants this shit. There's a metaverse startup under every rock. That's sick.

Fuck it, we're gonna build it on the web, it will be open source
"Sell land" -- no, we want to sell a product
This is going to play out in years. The exponent is there.
"Making tough decisions": It's the only decision, and the right thing.
"Building on Playcanvas is easier/quicker" - but it wouldn't be the right thing. It would be short-sighted, just like building on Unity.
"By seconds of headset fingerprinting, users can be identified" -- the privacy pipeline has never been more important
Supporting creators has never been more important
We don't want to be like the web 2 companies who have extracted all of the value from creators
Maybe in a more creator-supportive world I would have found my life calling in my brief stint as a DJ.
Building up the trust in crypto, which a lot of Web 2 companies have lost
The system is not transparent

AI is taking our jobs, so we're using AI to elevate humanity
Doing AI experiments which show the possibilities

#

ICU
The internet cinematic universe is playing out
We need to increase the resolution

Our dreams are coming true
Social media in the web3 xr
And evolution of social media where people hang out together and bring their digital content in

Make it so much fun that people _want_ to spend time here together

We do that by supporting the creators -- their creatiojns come to life
We are launching the platform

Don't worry, this is just a trailer

# Tech stack for webaverse