Ori Inbar (left) and Neal Stephenson talk about Snow Crash at AWE USA.
Image Credit: GamesBeat/Dean Takahashi
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Seeking partners for its blockchain tech for the open metaverse, Neal Stephenson’s Lamina1 has teamed up with five tech companies.
Stephenson, the author of Snow Crash and the person who coined the term “metaverse” 30 years ago, believes that blockchain can provide the “economic rails” to incentivize developers to create the open metaverse. And Lamina1 is a blockchain infrastructure startup that he started with crypto veteran Peter Vessenes to help keep the metaverse from being controlled by walled gardens.
The partners include Qualcomm, HTC, Mira, Interverse and Croquet. Lamina1 is joining Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Spaces XR platform. Lamina1 said these collaborations mark a significant milestone for the “batteries included” blockchain, offering new tools to improve performance, interoperability and user experience in the open metaverse ahead of Lamina1’s mainnet launch of its blockchain network.
Lamina1 launched its testnet in January and is nearing mainnet launch in summer 2023. It chose the five companies within the emerging tech, creative experiences, and gaming spaces in its ongoing effort to offer the most effective and innovative tools for builders, developers, and storytellers looking to create in the open metaverse.
Each partner is now an official member of the Lamina1 Early Access Program (EAP) – an initiative supporting developers, researchers, and organizations as they develop, test, and refine their projects on Lamina1.
Mira x Qualcomm
Lamina1 and Mira, a hyper-realistic experiential metaverse platform, are officially partnering to develop novel approaches that leverage blockchain tech (e.g. non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, and smart contracts) to bridge virtual and real-world environments, such as next-gen ticketing and loyalty programs.
Both companies will be joining Qualcomm Technologies Snapdragon Spaces XR Developer Platform, a thriving group of international mobile XR developers working toward an open, immersive web, and exploring the adoption of their suite of software solutions together.
Interverse x HTC
Lamina1 and Interverse, a gaming and AI company creating unique social gameplay experiences for brands and enterprises, are working to bring future XR/sports experiences to life through the power of interoperable assets and experiences across the open metaverse.
The collaboration will pave the way for sports fans to play and socialize freely in an open 3D world as avatar mascots from their favorite clubs, starting with 8 top European Football Clubs like Benfica’s Victory Eagle digital avatar. A special-edition NFT skin featuring HTC’s new VIVE XR Elite headset was also created and showcased at AWE in celebration of the collaboration.
Croquet
Croquet is making it easy to build multiplayer games with hundreds of players using a web-based platform. This partnership brings significant technology advances to the existing L1 base-layer, synchronizing the multi-user environment and offering attractive features such as built-in persistence and user data protections.
As the first-ever open metaverse OS, Croquet enables multiple users to seamlessly interact within a shared, bit-identical environment. It will simultaneously provide L1 with a robust library of proprietary tech and develop unique world-building tools that build upon L1’s newly released Metaverse-as-a-Service platform.
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