Zilliqa, a blockchain that offers scalability through sharding, has recently launched a metaverse-as-a-service platform, Metapolis. Find out what it offers.
What Is Zilliqa?
The Zilliqa ecosystem positions itself as a software solution to incentivize computers and other compatible devices worldwide to support its blockchain network. In addition, the network offers broader scalability through sharding, allowing transactions to run in parallel. The sharding process splits the Zilliqa infrastructure into smaller pieces capable of communicating with each other.
Like other prominent builder-oriented networks, Zilliqa provides smart contracts, transaction settlement, token issuance and more. The network uses the Scilla programming language, which is proprietary.
The Zilliqa project was created in June 2017 by Amrit Kumar and Xinshu Don, researchers from the National University of Singapore. On January 2019, Zilliqa's mainnet went live. In addition, the team conducted an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) for the $ZIL token in 2017, raising over $22 million in Ether.
What Is Metapolis?
The Zilliqa team recently introduced its plans to establish Metapolis, a virtual environment for luxury brands and enterprises to create digital products and economies through blockchain-based applications. Brands and companies can leverage non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to tap into a global audience and allow users to achieve true ownership of digital items.
What makes Metapolis intriguing is how it acts as a Metaverse-as-a-service (MaaS) solution. The platform debuted in Miami on April 2, 2022, during the Bitcoin 2022 conference. The Metapolis environment offers a cutting-edge extended reality Metaverse, mixing augmented and virtual reality elements. Zilliqa's scalable blockchain powers the Metapolis initiative.
Moreover, the Metapolis environment is built using the Unreal Engine, a powerful game engine used for creating real-time 3D visuals and immersive experiences. It is also built using Unity, the most popular development platform for creating cross-platform games, and Nvidia Omniverse. These advanced technologies will enable Metapolis to provide hyper-realistic graphics and an ability for visitors to engage through social activities, gamification and e-commerce. That approach can prove appealing to luxury brands and eSports organizations looking to expand their presence in the digital world.
In essence, anyone will be able to use Metapolis as a sandbox environment to create virtual worlds and universes. Solutions like these remove the high-fee entry barrier from the metaverse equation, enabling smaller players — brands, companies and individual creators — to leverage this technology.
Who Is Interested In Metapolis?
The vision for Metapolis can appeal to many brands, companies and organizations. However, a metaverse-as-a-service solution on this scale needs substantial launch partners to build momentum. The team indicates they have secured $2 million in prelaunch revenues from various clients, including Swedish eSports franchise Ninjas in Pyjamas, Indonesia's RRQ, and Spain's eSports team MAD Lions.
Additionally, Zilliqa has forged a partnership with Agora, a global talent awards application to let users win support, visibility, and recognition on an international level. It revolves around users submitting photographs based on weekly topics or hashtags. However, Agora also supports video, music, and non-fungible tokens, making it a solid partner for Zilliqa and Metapolis.
It will be crucial for Zilliqa and Metapolis to continue forging strong partnerships and collaborations. Envisioning a future where the user experience can be more prosperous, more engaging and more involved is appealing, but it will only work if there is sufficient overall support and awareness. Creators will play a vital role in the metaverse. They will need the necessary infrastructure to connect and bring more value to the metaverse.
How Can You Access Metapolis?
The Zilliqa team hinted at how people can access the Metapolis environment through convenient and traditional means. Making the metaverse more accessible requires an intuitive onboarding process without unnecessary bells and whistles. The current objective is to let users enter Metapolis through social media platforms and other personalized handles. That approach ensures anyone can access the virtual environment without having to download extra software or sign up for new services.
Furthermore, Metapolis will integrate social media, mobile and web, which should provide a unified user experience across all devices. There will also be API integrations to enhance the personalized aspect of the Metapolis world.
Once a user enters Metapolis, they can acquire a fully customizable NFT Avatar. These avatars represent a user's digital identity and are used to complete actons and engage in activities, including attending events, concerts, fashion shows, traversing between cities and domes, exploring galleries and showrooms, and more.
What Does Metapolis Mean For Zilliqa?
It is intriguing to see this metaverse-as-a-service being built on Zilliqa's technology. It is the first time a Layer-1 network has built such an environment on its native infrastructure. It will serve as a good test to see how well Zilliqa's chain holds up and whether its approach to sharding is sufficient to power a potentially global virtual world.
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