2Dverse Wins the NEAR METABUIDL Hackathon 2021
The NEAR METABUIDL is series of three hackathons from August through the end of the year designed to provide endless possibilities to boost groundbreaking business ideas. Participants get access to countless community-driven innovations from across the NEAR ecosystem.
The recent NEAR Metabuidl Hackathon had entries from all over the world from almost every continent. The first-place winner of the Play Hack competition category, 2Dver.se, is a social network multichain metaverse project seriously being looked at for potential collaboration by Paras, an NFT Marketplace built on NEAR, in addition to the Octopus Network appchain candidates Myriad and Unique One Network.
2Dverse Solves the Social Media Mass Immigration Problem
The 2dverse team has been building since early 2021 and brings years of research and development in social networks collectively to the multichain metaverse platform.
Before metaverse populations can seek interactions and user experiences, the populations themselves need to migrate to and adopt the new platform. This is a huge feat for both Web2 and Web3 solutions alike, requiring time and effort for users to transition and adjust. An easier way would be to accommodate users where they already are.
2Dverse solves this mass immigration problem by offering a casual experience accessible over multiple existing platforms. Even though this early version of the 2Dverse isn’t fully built, it has fully functioning voice and text chat features in a comfortable UI that can easily be run on mobile devices and older PCs.
What sets 2Dverse apart is that it lets casual users join a less technically intimidating space than the more immersive VR platforms like Decentraland and Facebook Horizon. Most VR platforms today put headset users and high-end graphics above the total user experience. The refreshing nostalgic 8–16 bit 2Dverse gives a relaxed and fun feel from the 80s and 90s which may be inviting to many users turned off by the cost barrier and learning curve of heavy-tech VR platforms.
While 2Dverse is nowhere near its final product, it is currently focusing on assembling an incredible user experience across Polygon, BSC, Ethereum, xDAI, and other chains before it applying to the Octopus Network as an appchain candidate.
Like the Octopus Network, 2Dverse leverages the scalability and efficiency of the NEAR blockchain for identity — assigning wallet ID values as usernames. NEAR has RPC connections that can be used with a Javascript/Typescript API, a helpful tool available on many blockchain platforms, (which is commonly known to crypto users as the Network setting to change in Metamask to communicate with a different blockchain.)
2Dverse Supports In-World Custom NFT Galleries
For their first cross-platform integration, the 2Dverse app pulls in NFT art from the Paras.id marketplace, allowing it to be used directly in-world. Users simply copy and paste the NFT URL from the Paras marketplace and the game will load the media content along with the description and metadata, allowing users to display owned artwork in-game without complex extra steps.
The information attached to each NFT will be visible when clicked, just like an image in any digital art gallery. This provides a perfectly convenient setup for NFT galleries and users that may not be able to afford expensive gas-consuming operations on the Ethereum blockchain. Compared to the competition, the 2Dverse solution is faster, cheaper, and easier to use as a metaverse platform with integrated NFTs.
The 2Dverse Roadmap
It’s exciting to see the 2Dverse team building on multiple blockchains and platforms. Having won their category in the recent hackathon, more innovation from their team is expected.
2Dverse’s future developments include a planned Octopus Network appchain application, a 3d module for unifying many more chains, and a native token to support their generation of new metaverses.
With their metaverse-as-a-service model, we expect to see great growth and progress from this protocol. To date, the early metaverses under construction are currently being considered as additional features by the Paras, Myriad, and Unique One Network communities.
