Raising $54 million in funding, how does Futureverse build an AI metaverse?

Futureverse's $54 million funding Building an AI metaverse.

Futureverse integrates 11 infrastructure companies from different fields into a collaborative ecosystem, providing the necessary components for building an AI metaverse.

Compiled by: Peng SUN, Foresight News

The voice of the metaverse has been silent for too long. Recently, Futureverse, a startup that combines AI and the metaverse, raised $54 million in funding, led by 10T Holdings with participation from Ripple Labs.

Futureverse has an interesting background. It was formed by the merger of 11 different companies, starting with 8 companies in late 2022, followed by the addition of 3 more companies. The 11 companies are:

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• Game studio Altered Phoenix

• AI provider Altered State Machine

• Multi-chain payment product connected to the MasterCard network Immersve

• Design studio Non-Fungible Labs

• Animation studio Shadows Interactive

• Digital payment system CentraLianGuaiy

• Developer of decentralized digital identity protocol and asset custody protocol CentraLianGuaiss

• Developer of decentralized communication system Sylo

• Web3 automotive community ATEM Car Club

• Risk studio Centrality

• Digital streetwear community DRx

It is worth noting that many of these merging companies are interrelated. For example, CentraLianGuaiy, CentraLianGuaiss, and Sylo are all operated by Centrality. Aaron McDonald, co-founder of Futureverse, is also a co-founder of Altered State, CentralLianGuaiy, CentraLianGuaiss, Immersve, and Non-Fungible Labs.

Through the merger of these 11 companies, Futureverse integrates infrastructure from different fields into a collaborative ecosystem, providing the essential components for any metaverse application in Futureverse. Today, I have reviewed the Futureverse whitepaper and let’s take a look at how Futureverse is building an open metaverse.

1. Basic Components of Futureverse

Futureverse provides a set of tools at the infrastructure, protocol, content, and application layers, taking into account user experience and ensuring interoperability through comprehensive integration.

• The Root Network, a decentralized blockchain network that optimizes user experience and lowers the entry barrier for Web3;

• Decentralized Identity Protocol and Asset Passport (Decentralized Identity Protocol and Asset LianGuaissport) to form the foundational data layer for interoperability and applications;

• Decentralized Delegation Protocol that allows layered access to assets, users, and content for applications;

• Decentralized Communications, Notifications & Storage Protocol that enables communication between users and applications;

• Decentralized Artificial Intelligence Protocol that allows applications and avatars to utilize this technology in a community-managed and user-driven manner;

• A payment network and wallet that helps users enter Web3 and connect physical goods, serving as the financial channel for the metaverse.

• Content assets: Rich user-owned digital assets centered around storytelling.

2. The Root Network

The Root Network is the core blockchain infrastructure of Futureverse, built with the following components and runtime, focusing on user onboarding experience:

(1) Substrate Core

The Root Network is based on the Substrate framework, which has the advantage of a large and mature developer community and the technical ability to optimize user experience by customizing chain runtime;

(2) EVM with Smart Contract Support

The EVM runs in The Root Network protocol and is capable of reading and executing Solidity smart contracts. The Root Network developers can access smart contract functionality, allowing any code previously written for Ethereum to run on The Root Network.

(3) Custom Runtimes

Custom Runtimes for non-fungible assets, GAS economy, fungible assets, DEX, oracle, etc. will provide creators with the elements to build applications and content without having to be smart contract developers.

1. Non-Fungible Token (NFT) Runtime

The Root Network NFT runtime provides a unified cross-network experience for NFTs.

In other networks, NFTs exist at the individual contract layer. In The Root Network, NFTs exist in the core network runtime. This provides a common standard for interoperability, including unified minting, royalties, and structure (metadata and content format). The NFT runtime has the following features:

• Network-wide royalty execution

• Native multi-wallet revenue sharing and tiered royalty services for creators

• Native NFT-to-NFT exchange

• Local static and cold minting options

• Build NFT DApps without developing or deploying smart contracts

The cost of the NFT runtime will be distributed to network stakers and validators. The Root Network will also integrate the XRPL XLS-20 NFT standard, making it compatible with the XRPL NFT ecosystem and infrastructure.

2. Multi-Token Economy

The Root Network proposes a multi-token economy to optimize gas fees and reduce the barrier to entry for initial user onboarding to Web3.

The main network token of The Root Network is ROOT, which is a network security and governance token in PoS consensus, not a gas token. Futureverse collaborates with Ripple and XRPL to provide basic block rewards in the form of XRP. XRP will also be used to pay for network gas fees.

The Root Network provides in-chain gas fee exchange services, eliminating the need for users to understand the concept of gas and purchase gas before using DApps, as well as the instability of gas fees. Users can join The Root Network and use the native tokens of the applications, and developers can delegate and represent users in paying fees. Developers establish a liquidity pool between their native tokens and gas tokens. Node validators can receive these gas tokens as rewards for generating blocks. For example, users coming from Ethereum can use ETH, users accessing through ASM can use ASTO, and users with the SYLO wallet downloaded can use SYLO. By default, if the native token does not have a liquidity pool, users can use the network gas token XRP.

Pledgers and validators can accumulate the index of network tokens and engage in activities within the entire ecosystem, while users can join without the need to understand the underlying network economy or interact with exchanges.

3. Homogeneous Assets

Similar to the NFT runtime, users can create and launch standardized homogeneous tokens without deploying smart contract code, and they are compatible with XRPL homogeneous tokens. 1% of each new asset created by the homogeneous assets runtime will be allocated as fees to network node validators.

4. DEX

The network exchange runtime provides an on-chain DEX, allowing users and developers to engage in asset trading, establish liquidity pools, and launch token price discovery without deploying smart contract code. The exchange fees are collected by node validators. The on-chain DEX will also be integrated into the XRPL DEX to extract liquidity from the XRPL DEX and thus enable network liquidity.

5. Decentralized State Oracle

The state oracle allows developers to link events occurring on other chains to the behavior within The Root Network, achieving cross-chain interoperability and enabling developers to build interoperability into applications and content.

For example, it allows DAO voting on ETH to initiate asset transfers on The Root Network; NFTs on a certain network can interact with utility tools on The Root Network.

(IV) Liquidity and Asset Bridge

The Root Network natively supports cross-chain asset transfers through its general cross-chain bridge runtime. Assets such as FLUF World assets on the Ethereum network or homogeneous and non-homogeneous assets on XRPL can be transferred cross-chain to The Root Network.

III. ROOT Token Economics

The total supply of ROOT tokens is 12 billion, which can be used for protocol governance, PoS network staking, transaction fees, minting fees, FLUF World game tokens, and data markets, etc. The token distribution model is as follows:

• Community Rewards, accounting for 20%: Monthly ecosystem challenges will determine the total rewards that players can obtain, as determined by FutureScore;

• Land Mechanics, accounting for 20%: Targeting game mechanics within The Third Kingdom;

• Ecosystem Development Fund, accounting for 10%: Encouraging developers, artists, and IP holders to participate in development;

• Block Reward Bootstrap, accounting for 10%: Validators and pledgers will receive a maximum of 10% of the tokens over 260 weeks as bootstrap funding;

• CENNZ Burn to Mine, accounting for 10%: CENNZ token holders can burn CENNZ in The Root Network, and for each CENNZ burned, they will receive one ROOT token at a 1:1 ratio;

• Futureverse Team, accounting for 15%: Locked for 100 weeks, released over 100 weeks;

• LP Allocation, accounting for 5%;

• DAO Treasury Allocation, accounting for 5%: Locked for 50 weeks, its allocation will be controlled by the DAO;

• Advisor Allocation, accounting for 5%: Distributed to core advisors and important IP buyers, locked for 100 weeks, released over 100 weeks.

IV. Decentralized Identity Protocol and Asset Passport

Futureverse adopts the W3C decentralized digital ID (DID) protocol to provide users and assets with a way to interact with cross-metaverse applications that protects privacy and achieves interoperability.

This protocol allows developers and users to create off-chain identities that can be transferred between applications that provide services for users and assets. It can also specify proofs for content formats, similar to stamps on a passport.

Users can also use a stateless eKYC engine to receive proofs corresponding to their IDs for potential sensitive data such as age. This engine does not store personal identity data of users, allowing developers to provide age-based content experiences.

V. Decentralized Delegation Protocol

Doughnuts is a patent-pending delegation proof protocol. They exist between two or more cryptographic key pairs and can prove that an address has delegated something to another address.

Doughnuts allow fine-grained access to assets, such as allowing an application to access them only once or allowing time-based access, making wallet transactions more secure.

VI. Decentralized Communication, Notification, and Storage Protocol

In Futureverse, the consensus of the ledger is provided by The Root Network. However, non-value-based transaction services such as communication and notification do not require consensus across the entire network but still need to be decentralized.

Futureverse provides decentralized off-chain services for DApps through The Sylo Network, including real-time events, asynchronous messaging, notifications, state management, real-time invocations, real-time data exchange, etc. These decentralized services are provided by Seeker nodes and are paid with Tickets.

The Sylo Network is the first network to gamify node infrastructure, closely linking the infrastructure itself (Sylo nodes) with metaverse roles (The Seekers, also NFTs), and introducing social mechanisms and game rewards to incentivize participation.

Usually, the rewards for running nodes are limited to token rewards, which are consistent with network token incentive mechanisms. By combining Seekers NFTs with Sylo nodes, Futureverse creates in-game functionality that encourages more network participation, thereby improving the resilience of the network.

Seekers also introduce the concepts of Orders, Factions, and Clans in the game; one can only join by contributing to the network itself. Orders, Factions, and Clans will have higher rights and can participate more extensively in the game, and will be recognized as making meaningful contributions to the infrastructure of the open metaverse.

VII. Decentralized Artificial Intelligence Protocol

Futureverse uses the Web3 artificial intelligence protocol Altered State Machine (ASM), which is a platform and protocol that utilizes NFTs to achieve ownership, tradability, composability, and interoperability of artificial intelligence. This includes the ASM Protocol and ASM Platform. ASM will allow individuals (rather than companies) to prove ownership, build, and manage their own artificial intelligence. Through the integration of ASM Agent NPCs, ASM can become avatars, pets, vendors, task providers, storytellers, companions, etc. in the world. ASM products also include an NFT asset deployment platform.

8. Content

Futureverse constructs content through three methods:

• Following the path: Story and Legend > Characters > Content > Small Spaces > Events > Large Spaces > Games [AM1]. At each step, the community must spend time creating narratives and content together;

• Collaborating with world-leading film, television, social media, and sports IP holders;

• Ecosystem development fund.

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