Animoca Brands, a prominent player in crypto gaming and metaverse investment, has disclosed its groundbreaking initiative this week. Operating through a subsidiary, the company plans to launch a distinctive metaverse ecosystem token on the Bitcoin network, utilizing the Ordinals protocol.
Darewise Entertainment, an Animoca Brands subsidiary known as Life Beyond Studios, is spearheading the development of an all-encompassing metaverse ecosystem centered around Bitcoin Ordinals. This protocol facilitates the inscription of NFT-like assets onto the blockchain and the creation of BRC-20 tokens on the Bitcoin network.
The envisioned metaverse by Darewise encompasses gaming, brand integrations, real-world experiences, and more. Life Beyond, their upcoming metaverse game with integrated NFTs, will be the pioneering platform to implement the newly announced Bitcoin-based metaverse token for in-game assets and virtual lands.
In collaboration with Horizen Labs, the company responsible for devising the smart contract and token strategy for ApeCoin (APE) on Ethereum, Darewise will craft this groundbreaking Bitcoin token. Life Beyond Studios has previously released gaming NFTs on the Ethereum scaling network Polygon.
Animoca Brands CEO Robby Yung expressed his excitement about Life Beyond Studios leading the charge in utilizing Bitcoin Ordinals. He emphasized the innovative nature of the Web3 industry, highlighting Animoca's drive to push boundaries with this new application following the emergence of Ordinals this year.
The metaverse token concept revolves around ordinal inscriptions, which are digital assets archived digitally to a single satoshi, the smallest unit of Bitcoin (1/100,000,000 BTC). Despite a recent dip in trading activity around these virtual artifacts, a steady stream of new products continues to emerge, including a social graph and a planned Bitcoin metaverse ecosystem.
Benjamin Charbit, co-founder and CEO of Darewise Entertainment, sees immense potential for Bitcoin to transcend its role as a store of value, given its nascent stage in development.
Animoca Brands, with a valuation of $5.9 billion as of September 2022, remains a key figure in the metaverse domain, having made substantial investments in numerous companies and projects. The company is known for publishing various NFT-based games, including The Sandbox, an Ethereum-based metaverse game. Recently, Animoca raised $20 million in funding for its latest metaverse venture, The Mocaverse, one among several gaming initiatives within its expansive portfolio.
Clarifying further, Robby Yung emphasized that the Bitcoin metaverse token is distinct from the Mocaverse project, although Life Beyond Studios plays a role in both endeavors. He hinted at future collaborations between the AAA universe they're constructing and the broader Mocaverse.