Aether.city — A virtual city powered by the blockchain
Overview
Aether is a virtual city powered by the Ethereum blockchain. You’ll find access to this immersive and interactive world from the familiarity of your web browser. The city is shaped by properties stored on the blockchain. Those with ownership of these properties have control over the content and are free to create unique experiences unlike anything in existence. To make this all possible, Aether uses blockchain technology as an unforgeable record of ownership. Our goal is to be the worldʼs largest blockchain based community.
This is a platform for personal spaces, communities, shopping, and business where anybody can own a property. Aether is a network of these properties that are connected through a visualized environment to allow for discoverability. The platform is defined in a smart contract powered by the Ethereum blockchain. Aether property tokens are ERC721 tokens that define ownership in the Aether universe. These tokens are virtual properties with an open source addresses. The register of properties and accounting functions are written to the blockchain, ensuring ownership security. Property may be transferred or auctioned to other users through the contract.
Property Ownership
The Aether platform is based on property ownership. Aether city consists of a finite amount of property placed over100 x 100 units of space that can be found under 3 different classes: districts, buildings and units. Users can fill any property with applications, collectables, multimedia, and much more.
Units
A unit is the smallest unit of property ownership in Aether. It is a property that is defined by its coordinates occupying an area of 10 m³. A unit is a part of a building and is adjacent to neighboring units. The owner of a unit determines its appearance, fills it with content, and has the ability to connect the unit to its own domain.
Buildings
A building is a property that is defined by its coordinates and size. The first unit level is managed by the building owner. A building’s space is also occupied by a number of units. A building’s height expands with the progression factor in Aether. The maximum number of units that a building can home is defined by the building’s space and height and therefore grows as the world progresses to equilibrium. A building can have an exclusive owner, who creates the basic design of the building and has the ability to connect the building to its own domain.
Buildings are the seeds of the city and are not meant for entry level investors. Similar to how it would be difficult for one individual to afford a skyscraper in the real world. These buildings will be auctioned off to investors to raise funds for the project.
Districts
A district is a property that is defined by its coordinates and size. A district holds any number of buildings. It may have an exclusive own owner, who manages the district and has the ability to connect the district to its own domain. Districts are top level regions that will not be released to the public at time of launch. They are meant for the division of the city and will be available to community leaders in the future.
Use cases
We are building a world that will be home the blockchain community of the future. Aether lives and thrives off the community behind it. Here are some possible applications of our platform.
1. Community
Dedicate properties to communities formed and united by common interest. A community could organize itself and claim a certain number of units. Large communities could claim entire buildings. For example, imagine a Reddit community which occupies the entire building, named after the community.
2. Residential
Allow any user to create a make their property their residence. Once occupied, you could post the link with its unique address to existing social networks. For the first time, your friends will have a chance to visit your virtual address on the blockchain. Entire buildings could be bought by anybody with the aim to resell or rent the units to the public. They shape the units how they wish and then offer unit for auction on the platform.
3. Shopping
Launch a showroom that would promote their merchandise and drive traffic to their stores. For example, electronics or virtual collectables store could choose to create a virtual showroom that would attract significant traffic from Aether visitors.
4. Business
Build an office and allow it to be visited by potential customers. Having an opportunity to visit its virtual address first would help users buy into a service. Imagine a company which has recently managed a successful token sale and sets Aether as home to its own virtual office.
World Mechanics
Aether’s buildings are pre-determined by a procedural algorithm and are then seeded into the world contract. Buildings fill up the universe as more people join. Since the city is centered at an origin point at (0,0) we incentivize early investors by letting them shape the heart of the city. Building locations are immutable and building heights increase alongside the natural progression of the world. For example, a building may only be at half of its final height if the world has only reach half of its total capacity.
Next Steps
Building a decentralized city of the future is no easy task but our team at Aether Labs is excited for the challenge ahead. Visit us at aethercity.org to register for updates.
