🧱 The Weird World Of Cryptovoxels — Issue No. 101

In recent months, the quirky crypto world-building game called "Cryptovoxels" has garnered increasing attention. Total sales of the in-game non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are fast approaching 10,000 ETH ($2.3 million). So what gives? Is there anything "there," or is this just the latest cryptokitties craze? Link.

In this edition of Build Blockchain, we'll learn a bit about how this idiosyncratic crypto project works, why it's oddly compelling, and what, if anything, games like this might mean for the adoption of crypto. Fair warning: this might get a little weird— but I hope you find it interesting.

It's worth noting at the outset that Cryptovoxels shares a lot in common with a number of other games, most notably Decentraland, which is at least equally as popular. I've focused this edition on Cryptovoxels because it happens to be booming right now, and because it's the game I'm most familiar with. Ok, onward!

How It Works

The basic concept behind Cryptovoxels is relatively simple. The browser-based game allows you to explore a sprawling three dimensional world built with chunky, pixel-like blocks commonly referred to as "voxels." Minecraft is the most famous voxel game, and its success popularized a whole genre of blocky free-play worlds. Like Minecraft, Cryptovoxels lets you explore and build without any strict goal or directive.



Where Cryptovoxels differs from a game like Minecraft is in its integration of— you guessed it— crypto! While anyone can explore the Cryptovoxel world freely, to build in the world you have to own property. Ownership is tracked through NFTs on the Ethereum network. The game integrates with web3 enabled browser extensions, like MetaMask, to determine your property ownership.

This simple mechanic has created a small-but-vibrant marketplace for virtual real estate. As I alluded to earlier, nearly 10,000 ETH worth of Cryptovoxel NFTs have traded on the OpenSea marketplace.

The main landmass of the Cryptovoxel world is a large square continent called "Origin City," which is further subdivided into neighborhoods with names like "Memes," "Mars," and "Kitties." In addition to Origin City, the game's creators have been adding small satellite islands in recent weeks, and selling the new spaces as they are created each Tuesday. The new parcels usually sell out in less than hour for a few hundred dollars each.

Creative Expression

A fair question to ask at this point might be: what exactly do you do in this game? The short answer is, whatever you want! Games like Minecraft have gained traction specifically because they allow players to be so creative. They've often been compared to "digital LEGOs" in this sense. Link.

Cryptovoxels adds some other fun features to facilitate this creative spirit. In addition to building structures with chunky blocks, you can also use external tools to make more intricate voxelized models and import them into the world. In addition to being displayed as static objects, tokenized vox models can be "worn" by players' avatars in the game. Link.

What's more, Cryptovoxels allows players to display other non-fungible tokens in the game. If you own, say, a piece of tokenized art, you can display the artwork on your property. Many enthusiasts in the budding "digital art" ecosystem— a growing trend that deserves its own newsletter issue someday— have taken to Cryptovoxels for this reason. Digital art galleries are a common sight while exploring the world. Link.

A Social Network and Real Adoption

Creative expression is the obvious appeal of a game like Cryptovoxels. A less obvious reason players might be drawn to the game is the social aspect. Ultimately, this could prove even more profound. Already, Cryptovoxel enthusiasts schedule "meetups" and "parties" in the digital world.

The game allows you to chat— with text or with voice— with those around you. Is it so hard to imagine these spaces being used as an immersive social network of sorts? Add in support for VR headsets, which was recently built into Cryptovoxels, and the social use case becomes even more intriguing.

To be clear, I'm not predicting we'll see billions of people— with VR goggles strapped to their heads— roaming around the Cryptovoxels world anytime soon. This game, and other crypto-powered ones like it, are still incredibly niche. The broader gaming community is huge and very much comfortable with technology. Despite seeming like a logical fit for early adoption, crypto games have failed to gain widespread traction with gamers so far.

Still, I'm not ready to dismiss games like Cryptovoxels as "just" an oddity. If you walk around the Cryptovoxels universe, you see the results of countless hours of labor by creative individuals who have chosen to inhabit this world. Moreover, every voxel-builder who painstakingly created a structure in this world had to pay a non-trivial amount of money for the parcel on which they built. When a group of users— even a small group— is willing to spend large amounts of time and money on a product, this is usually a strong signal that something is working.

Something certainly is working for Cryptovoxels, even if it's hard to put one's finger on exactly what that may be. Frankly, I've struggled to articulate, in this very issue, why I find the project so strangely compelling. But I do. And based on their actions, a number of other folks do as well. Keep an eye on expansive world building games backed by crypto ownership. They're dark horse contenders to be the apps that bring crypto to a much wider audience.