How will the metaverse truly land? Futureverse raises $54 million to focus on digital infrastructure

Futureverse secures $54 million to develop digital infrastructure for the metaverse.

“The Pioneer of Metaverse” is a column we set up for the development of the metaverse. It is mainly targeted at practitioners who are deeply engaged in the metaverse industry or “gold mining” in the metaverse. We share the stories of these companies or entrepreneurs, and gain a unique perspective into the enterprises or individuals that lead the global development of the metaverse. We firmly believe that the curtain of the metaverse has already been raised, and the technology internet that will lead the next 20 years has embarked on the wave of the times. The following is our 43rd issue, in which Futureverse, like a lone hero in the AI frenzy, resolutely chooses the path of metaverse infrastructure construction.

The concept of the metaverse, once highly anticipated, seems to have fallen into a “obsolete” state today. During the peak period, we saw the emergence of various metaverse projects, but these attempts did not seem to bring stunning practical experiences, and people’s enthusiasm for the metaverse gradually cooled down.

At present, the darling of capital is undoubtedly artificial intelligence. A large number of start-up companies and innovative projects have set their sights on AI. However, there are still some companies that firmly choose to explore and innovate in the metaverse field, by providing infrastructure and content, to contribute to this “elusive” metaverse.

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Futureverse, which has recently raised $54 million in Series A financing, is such a company that provides metaverse infrastructure services. This round of financing is led by venture capital firm 10T Holdings, with Ripple Labs, the creator of XRP Ledger, also participating. True to its name, Futureverse focuses on the future and firmly believes that the metaverse holds tremendous business opportunities and unknown possibilities. The new funds will further advance its Metaverse goals.

Nevertheless, we are still curious as to why it chose to do infrastructure for the metaverse industry at this “obsolete” moment. How did it, as a metaverse startup, secure such a large amount of financing? What kind of “future” will Futureverse bring to us?

01. The All-encompassing Invisible Metaverse

However, before formally introducing the company, let’s first understand a concept – what is the metaverse?

The term “metaverse” first appeared in Neal Stephenson’s science fiction novel “Snow Crash” in 1992. The book mainly describes various activities of humans in a virtual world through technology, and the author refers to the virtual space built by humans as the metaverse.

Today, with the development of various fields and technologies, the concept of the metaverse is constantly changing. Although there is currently no universally recognized authoritative definition, generally speaking, the metaverse is a virtual world composed of digital and internet technology, which maps the physical world through high-tech means such as artificial intelligence, virtual reality, cloud computing, digital twins, and blockchain.

There are many projects related to the metaverse, such as Meta’s Horizon, Nvidia’s Omniverse, Roblox, Otherside, The Sandbox, etc. However, according to Aaron McDonald, the founder of Futureverse, these projects all have a drawback: they are closed off from each other and limited to metaverse games.

Meta’s Horizon

McDonald pointed out, “Most virtual world companies just make a game and call it a virtual world. We truly believe that no one can build ‘an’ metaverse, only ‘the’ metaverse – a collection of user-owned, interoperable identities, data, and content that can be used across the entire application universe.”

In McDonald’s view, the metaverse is not a forthcoming phenomenon but should be seen as today’s internet, with a focus on user experience and technology coming second. The metaverse must be built around communities and public infrastructure because “without them, you don’t have personal ownership of digital things.”

And Futureverse’s main mission is to facilitate the creation of a comprehensive experience where users don’t have to worry about the underlying blockchain or NFT usage. Its goal is to make technology invisible and allow users to fully enjoy the seamless experience it brings.

Therefore, from the very beginning, Futureverse has been searching for a technology that can build a truly user-centric community and has found it in the integration of blockchain and artificial intelligence. So, based on this concept, how does Futureverse build its unique metaverse system?

02. Future Digital Trading Platform

Strictly speaking, Futureverse is a consortium of 11 different companies. It merged eight companies at the end of 2022 and acquired three more companies in July of this year. The company’s main goal is to combine artificial intelligence with blockchain technology to create an open, scalable, and interoperable metaverse world for users. The following will introduce the main companies and projects included in Futureverse, which constitute Futureverse’s metaverse ecosystem.

AI+NFT

The ASM (Altered State Machine) protocol is a Web3 protocol developed by Futureverse to build an AI collaboration ecosystem. It is an innovative project that encompasses cutting-edge technologies such as NFT, AI, and machine learning, and provides the world’s first open AI infrastructure platform. ASM has a grand vision of creating a world where everyone can create AI and realize value return.

In simple terms, you can use this protocol to train, create, and sell unique AI, which is currently mainly used to drive characters and content in the metaverse or gaming world.

Non-Fungible Labs, which was also merged, was originally a foundation that supported traditional artists and creative communities to improve the digital world through investments. It now provides a 3D dynamic object converter NFT Asset Pipeline, which helps developers quickly and easily create and publish NFT assets.

There are many NFT projects under Futureverse, all gathered in FLUF World. FLUF World is an NFT project based on the Ethereum blockchain, using the ERC-721 standard to create and trade NFTs. The most famous series is Flufs.

Each Fluf is a programmatically generated 3D rabbit, with 10,000 avatars. The dance, expressions, scenes, and music are all different. They can not only be collected, named, and customized with background stories, but also serve as avatars in the virtual world.

When you purchase a Fluf, you have complete ownership of the knowledge and can create your own creative kingdom based on a series of 2D and 3D digital files.

Futureverse has also partnered with popular NFT projects on the market, such as Cool Cats, to help them utilize AI technology to achieve personalized assets and transform 2D forms into 3D, and more.

Game

With the groundwork of AI technology, Futureverse has integrated game studio Altered Phoenix and animation studio Shadows Interactive. Last year, they collaborated with FIFA to launch the 4v4 women’s football team manager mobile game “AI League”. The behavior of the selected team members is driven by artificial intelligence, and the characters can be directly sent to the NFT market for sale.

Futureverse has also collaborated with Muhammad Ali Enterprises, the intellectual property rights holder of the famous boxer Muhammad Ali, to develop a Web3 game called “Muhammad Ali – The Next Legends”. Players can train their own AI boxers and compete to become legendary champions.

In the eyes of Futureverse, the AI brain gives life to the boxers in the game, influencing their combat power and personality charm. Each AI brain is unique and combining it with a boxer can produce different basic skills. Players can strengthen their training in the gym and enhance their skills.

Blockchain

Most of Futureverse’s composition is made up of companies related to blockchain, such as the multi-chain payment project Immersve, the digital payment system CentraLianGuaiy, the decentralized communication platform Sylo, and the decentralized digital identity protocol CentraLianGuaiss. The Root Network is the core blockchain infrastructure of Futureverse. It is a high-performance, low-cost, scalable, and secure public chain that enables seamless user experience and asset interoperability in an open metaverse.

The Root Network can run EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) and support the execution of Solidity smart contracts, allowing any code previously written for Ethereum to run on The Root Network.

FutureLianGuaiss is an intelligent wallet SDK launched by Futureverse, which allows users to easily, quickly, securely, and passwordlessly experience Web3 applications and games. Futureverse provides a range of tools at the infrastructure and application layers, not only serving as a financial channel for the metaverse but also enriching users’ digital content assets.

In its white paper, Futureverse also outlines its plans for future content construction, realizing community storytelling through story, character, space, and game, and collaborating with world-leading popular IP and establishing a corresponding ecological fund. On the financial level, Futureverse will further optimize digital asset management and payment systems and build a new digital trading platform.

03. What is the future of the metaverse?

Where is the future of the metaverse? The metaverse is considered to be the next stage of human society, a new field full of infinite possibilities. However, with the continuous development of technology, this field also faces many challenges. Is the metaverse just a short-lived carnival or a long-lasting transformation? Where will the future lead?

Disappointment and abandonment after the hype

Just when ChatGPT was enjoying great popularity, the metaverse seemed to gradually lose its heat.

Tech giants always have a preference for the latest, and the popularity of the metaverse seems to have been “stolen” by ChatGPT, the AI chatbot. Many companies have started to abandon the metaverse and instead venture into the field of artificial intelligence. Is the metaverse really outdated?

The metaverse is actually an ecosystem that encompasses various technologies and platforms, and ChatGPT is just one component of it. The increased focus of tech giants on artificial intelligence does not mean that they have lost interest or confidence in the metaverse, but rather represents their exploration of more possibilities in the metaverse.

Therefore, AI tools like ChatGPT seem more like a key for us to enter the metaverse.

Meta’s commitment to the metaverse

If you ask which company is the most committed and invested in the metaverse, the answer is undoubtedly Meta.

Formerly known as Facebook, Meta is one of the largest social media platforms globally. Meta’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg, stated that he hopes to transform Meta into a metaverse company in about five years, and the renaming itself confirms Meta’s ambition to go all-in on the metaverse.

According to Meta’s latest second-quarter financial report, its Reality Labs division, responsible for virtual reality and augmented reality businesses, incurred a huge loss of $3.73 billion in this quarter, higher than the expected $3.68 billion and higher than the $2.8 billion in the same period last year. When talking about this loss, Zuckerberg admitted, “What we need to look at is the long-term perspective.”

He believes that the new platform will open up new user experiences in a very profound way in the coming decades. From a business perspective, although the recent performance of the reality laboratory has been poor, the company is making corresponding attempts at future infrastructure. Meta will still focus on the layout of the metaverse, although it may make investors feel uneasy in the short term, but “this is a long-term bet.”

Meta’s persistence in the metaverse not only reflects its exploration and creation of the future, but also demonstrates its concern and responsibility for users. Together with Meta, we will witness the miracles of the metaverse in the future.

The underlying technology of the metaverse quietly integrates into life

Perhaps you still think that the world of the metaverse is far away from us, but in fact, the underlying technology in the metaverse has quietly integrated into our daily lives.

For example, in the field of sports, the Chengdu Universiade for the first time used VR live streaming technology, allowing viewers to immerse themselves in the opening ceremony; in the cultural field, the Palace Museum in Beijing has launched an AR guide system, allowing visitors to scan exhibits with their phones and view 3D models and related information; in the field of education, AI technology is widely used in intelligent tutoring, intelligent assessment, intelligent recommendation, etc., providing personalized and efficient learning services for learners.

Of course, these are just the tip of the iceberg of application cases of the underlying technology of the metaverse. With the continuous progress and popularization of technology, we can foresee that in the near future, the metaverse will bring us more surprises.

04. The metaverse stepping down from its pedestal

Everyone says that 2023 is the year of AI, and the metaverse is already out of date. However, the persistence and efforts of companies like Futureverse to build the metaverse, as well as the recognition of capital, are enough to prove that the hype about the concept of the metaverse has passed, but the peak of actual operation has not yet been reached.

Gartner’s report points out that by 2026, no less than 25% of the population will be immersed in activities in the metaverse, including shopping, working, learning, entertainment, etc. Forrester also predicts that more than half of Internet users will be early adopters of the metaverse.

The founder of Futureverse once said that the metaverse is by no means an unattainable concept or a vocabulary that professionals show off their knowledge, but a world form that is bound to come with the development of technology.

The metaverse is a world full of infinite possibilities and creativity. Futureverse is precisely to create such a world and invites us to join. Short videos were also not favored when they were born, but thousands of companies followed one after another, and in the end, they achieved Douyin, leading the era of short videos. Can Futureverse create all of this? We will wait and see.

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