Metaverse Review: Voxels
What is the platform about?
Voxel is an open-world digital space created by Ben Nolan that is mostly known for its art galleries. The platform focuses on the exploration of social experiences, creation of NFTs, and displaying digital collections. Through offering land parcel NFTs, it provides owners with the space to build stores, galleries, and other experiences to showcase their NFT collections to the public. The Ethereum-based virtual world provides basic player mechanics and simple interactions inside the virtual environment.
Popularity
- 50–100 active players reported by platform statistics (as of July 20, 2022)
- Most visited land parcel had 3,628 visits on ByBit per day (as of July 22, 2022).
Transaction Volume
- 130 unique wallets, 159 on-chain transactions in the past 30 days (at the time of writing)
- $45.5K in Total Sales over the last 7 days (at the time of writing).
Device Compatibility
- Web-based, Android, and VR (Oculus Quest, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive)
What makes it unique?
The solo founder, Ben Nolan, has intentionally built this platform to be ethical and “for the people” by not taking Venture Capital funding. He’s not selling users’ data unlike some of the bigger metaverse platforms. In addition, there’s no token tied to this platform. Thus, this platform is closer to being decentralized, permissionless, and trustless than the rest of its peers. As an example, the platform allows you to enter the metaverse without an account and auto-generates you with an anonymous username and avatar. You can also create a free space that isn’t connected to the Voxel world where you can invite friends to access without needing to buy a land parcel NFT. In addition, the company has partnered with Offsetra, a carbon offset company, to reduce its carbon footprint and assist in environmental sustainability.
Why should brands consider it? What makes it relevant? What are the opportunities?
Brands that believe in supporting an ethical, environmentally-friendly, and fairly decentralized platform that cares for its users should consider building on Voxel. The platform allows any company to build on its platform without requiring land NFTs to invite its customers and host events. Thus, the financial
barriers to entry are much lower. So brands that want to test out Metaverse experiences and strategies without much investment, Voxel provides a risk-free space to play and explore.
Rating
Engagement
2 — Users can perform basic movements such as running, and walking. You also can fly to gain an aerial view. The platform doesn’t have much engagement besides exploring artwork and buildings since there’s no real gameplay or sense of progression.
Immersiveness
2 — Voxels is mainly accessed through the browser, but can also be accessed through VR. In terms of audio, there’s little variation in sound. On the other hand, users can walk around the entire metaverse without restriction between land parcels.
Social Interactivity
3 — Users are able to view and teleport to popular events and destinations. When playing with others, users can emote their avatar by dancing or expressing themselves using emojis. It also has basic chat functions and provides the ability to talk to other users via mic.
Centralization
3 — Voxels’ servers and deployment are centralized as well as for its governance structure. All primary land parcel NFTs sales are regulated by the founder. Other activities such as NFT creation or transactions for land, wearables, and art can be accessed via the platform marketplace and OpenSea. Interestingly, there’s no native token which means all transactions are made through Ethereum.
User Generated Content Creation
3 — Users can create wearables for their avatars, artwork, and in-game objects. Most NFTs are created via MagicaVoxel, a third-party free-to-use 3D editor. There’s no approval system required to create and import 3D objects into Voxel so you can create virtually anything. Although, you can’t add scripts or data analytics directly to platform experiences.
Economics
3 — The platform hosts an in-game marketplace that showcases NFTs created by users accessible through Open Sea. However, there are no additional integrations with other platforms or the ability to support user storefronts.
Partnerability
1 — There haven’t been many significant partnerships and brands that have built experiences on the platform. Moreover, Voxel does not currently provide any available partner programs.
Want to learn more about other metaverses, find our other reviews in our State of the Metaverse post.
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