Gm — thank you so much to everyone who supports Phi.
We are very happy that a lot of people have played with our first demo since it was released on Goerli Testnet on March 22. We have had a total of 6324 lands created and over 14859 (if we include the starter kit objects, over 30,000 objects claimed.) objects Claimed. We enjoyed seeing so many unique lands shared on the timeline with the words “Come visit my philand”.
To move on to the next step, our 1st demo was closed on May 31 and as the first step, we just renewed our design(new logo, new landing page, brand color, Isometric view)
At the same time, we announced that eBoy, Godfathers Of Pixel, has joined our team.
eBoy’s accomplishments to date are unquestionable: they have been active since the dawn of the Internet, and have collaborated with lots of top brands, including Saint Laurent, Paul Smith, Balenciaga, and more. Especially, they co-founded Nouns and designed the iconic pixel art, which has become the symbolic CC0 IP representing Web3.
We couldn’t be more excited to visualize the entire Ethereum ecosystem in eBoy’s art style and build a crypto-native metaverse. We are currently building for the launch of our 2nd demo on the testnet in August. Can’t wait to let you see and interact with it.
In this article, we’re going to share our philosophy behind Phi with you all. Onwards!
Infinite Metaverse land
Almost all existing metaverse land projects are finite. An operating entity prefers to sell a finite amount of land to make a profit. As a result, the land becomes expensive, which makes the metaverse closed and exclusive.
Essentially, Web3 needs to be inclusive and a network where everyone can participate. Focusing on the inclusive nature of the Internet, we aim to construct a metaverse in which the laws of the Internet world, rather than the laws of the physical world, are applied.
There is no limit to the number of websites that exist on the Internet, and anyone can build a website at any time. We believe that web3 metaverse should likewise be a space in which you can start, no matter who you are (status, background, financial situation, etc…).
Utilize ENS as an address system for the metaverse.
There is no common address system among the metaverse. The current metaverse seems to be siloed. There is no comprehensive and unique way to represent the land of metaverse A and metaverse B.
We believe that ENS is an effective solution to these problems; ENS is not just for a name resolution of wallet addresses. ENS can be used for the metaverse address system by using a main & sub-domain.
For example,
Vitalik’s Land — vitalik.eth
Vitalik in the Metaverse A— vitalik.metaverse-a.eth
Vitalik in the Metaverse B— vitalik.metaverse-b.eth
and so on.
As above, the ENS-based address system allows us to connect any metaverses(including individuals, DAOs(Sub-DAOs), and Protocols.) and define the relationships between them. Utilizing ENS is more composability and network effect than building our own address system.
This is why Phi uses ENS for generating a metaverse land.
Hyperlinks for connecting lands
So how can we connect unlimited lands in a reasonable way?
Naturally, in the real world, due to physical limitations, it’s not possible to travel from Japan to the U.S. in a minute. On the other hand, in the Internet world, users can move between websites instantaneously.
Since the concept of distance does not exist on the internet, websites can be directly connected by hyperlinks. Similarly, we can introduce the concept of hyperlinks into the metaverse. There is no need to adapt the annoying constraints of the real world all the way to the metaverse.
Phi utilizes the hyperlink to connect lands by tying ENS domains, which work as a metaverse address system, to Objects on a land.
Hyperlinks represent relationships between lands. This becomes a social graph between individuals & communities, transforming each independent land into a huge network space.
How can the value of an infinite number of lands be determined?
When the number of lands is infinite, does the value of all lands are worth none? We do not think so.
Is the value of the most accessed Wikipedia page or the top page of Google zero? The number of websites on the Internet is unlimited.
Although the number of websites on the Internet is infinite, the value of many websites is not zero. The value of a website could be determined by the number and quality of its users, or by an algorithm such as PageRank, another measure of a website’s value.
Similarly, while there is an infinite amount of land on Phi (limited to ENS holders, but virtually infinite), we believe that the value of the land can be determined by the number and quality of users accessing the land, and augmented the number of hyperlinks.
About “Objects” with Wallet Activities
In the Web3 world, it is important to separate the finite from the infinite. Good examples to understand this are STEPN and Bitcoin.
STEPN calculates the distance a player travels in the real world and generates an NFT based on that distance.
What if this were “to earn” with reference to the number of websites created by the user?
Perhaps a bot could create a large number of websites, and the game would not be viable as “to earn”. Similarly, Bitcoin can be seen as a “to earn” based on the finite resource of computer calculations(mining). Thus, it is important that the resources used to create the tokens are finite and cannot be abused.
Phi has “Objects” that can only be acquired if your wallet activities meet a certain requirement.
e.g.)
- Whether you have used Ethereum before 2017.
- Whether you have made more than 10 transactions on Uniswap.
There should be a limit to the on-chain actions you can take. You can only vote once on a single proposal. You also cannot easily own 10,000 ETH and provide liquidity to Uniswap.
Of course, it is possible to cheat by using multiple wallets, but in the case of Phi, the incentive for the user is not monetary. The main incentive is the social incentive, “to be more unique”.
This is why the incentive to acquire lots of the same objects is not so strong. This makes it possible to create a situation where only the intrinsic value is likely to be accumulated on the Phi.
As we explained above, in the Phi, you can build your own web3 world with your wallet activity.
- Interact with web3 protocols
- Claim Objects
- Build your land
- Repeat 1~3 to grow your land into the most unique and coolest one.
And then, your land will be the one and the only place that represents your traction, your community, and your social graphs in the crypto-world. (we can call it “on-chain identity”.)
Through this cycle, users can learn about various protocols and get literacy of web3. It also provides positive feedback to many protocols and accelerates the overall network effect of Web3.
we can onboard the next billion people to the rabbit hole of crypto in an enjoyable way.
Phi is hiring. We are looking for amazing builders/ Creators/ Artists to join our wonderful and slightly odd journey. Please check it out.
We still have some big announcements soon. Stay tuned!
Get Involved!
Follow our journey on the following channels:
Discord: https://discord.gg/phi
Website: https://philand.xyz/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/phi_xyz
