Things move fast in the world of cryptocurrency. Coins are launched in a firestorm of hype and promise, then flicker briefly before being consigned to obscurity.
The news that Shapeshift.io has partnered with the developers of Voxels, to manage a public crowdsale happening from November 2, should hardly be a cause for excitement.
But wait, there’s something different about Voxels. Voxelus, the Argentinian company behind the new Litecoin fork, aren’t just offering crypto. Voxels are but a small part of an audacious bid to make VR content creation accessible to everyone. And if that’s not enough to give pause for thought, note that the chairman and co-founder is none other than Halsey Minor.
The jury may still be out over Minor’s plans for Bitreserve (now rebranded as Uphold), but few would bet against the ability of the CNET and Salesforce cofounder to spot the next big thing.
The technology itself sounds like a gamechanger — a 3D design studio for PC and Mac which allows creatives to build any kind of VR spaces and content without writing a line of code. The app addresses a very real problem that needs solving in the virtual reality space right now — a lack of content.
This resonates with me — I’ve only tried Oculus Rift twice: once shortly after launch, when I was blown away by how much better and more immersive it was than I had imagined; and then again over summer. The second time I used it, I was struck by how even more amazing and immersive the experience was… but I was also disappointed by how the content itself failed to match the technology.
By opening up VR content creation beyond the remit of specialist VR games and content developers and putting it in the hands of the masses, Voxelus aims to unleash a flood of content for these new devices. Imagine journalists able to create their own 3D newsrooms by selecting and customising a template, or games designers free to visualise and bring to life their own strange worlds.
Along with Voxelus Creator and a standalone VR player app (PC only) which will play content from the Rift and Samsung VR, the team’s vision includes a marketplace for VR assets, games and pre-created worlds — and here’s the killer: you won’t be able to pay for any of this with fiat currencies.
All transactions within the Marketplace will be made using Voxels, which feels like an important step on the road towards normalising the use of cryptographically secure tokens for payments in a mass market.
