Wagner James Au / New World Notes
Author, strategist, virtual world reporter
recent posts
- Welcome to New World Notes’ 2006-2025 Archive!
- Virtual World Usage Stats from S&P Global Market Intelligence — Plus VRChat & Second Life Specifics!
- Top Five Posts Including: Huge Rec Room Layoff & Meta Boots Neal Stephenson Off Facebook (Briefly)
- Four Glorious Second Life Sims to Explore — After Watching Sabina Valeska’s Machinima Tributes to Them!
- Virtual World Usage Stats from S&P Global Market Intelligence — Plus VRChat & Second Life Specifics!
about
Category: Blockchain
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Core, the upcoming Unreal-based, Epic-backed, user-generated game development platform, just announced (somewhat unexpectedly) that it's adding NFT integration to its platform: Today we’re excited to announce Core is expanding to include blockchain technology, starting by integrating with the largest crypto wallet, MetaMask, and the largest NFT marketplace, OpenSea, for a first-of-its-kind API that enables creators to make…
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Valid question from reader "Mitch", responding to my post last week pointing out the tiny weekly active users of blockchain-based metaverse platforms: What qualifies an active weekly user in this chart? The Sandbox is still in Alpha. I joined to check it out, I thought it had potential, and then I uninstalled it and I'm…
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Axie Infinity developer Sky Mavis tweeted some important information last night, responding to my post citing Arcane Research, which originally claimed that the "play to earn" game had slipped beneath 1000 weekly active users. On the contrary, COO Aleksander Leonard Larsen said that the accurate number is currently 588,000 DAU / 1.5 million MAU. https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js…
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Writing about the Metaverse increasingly becomes (sorry) meta: [30 years ago] Neal Stephenson was just about to publish “Snow Crash,” the book that literally defined the Metaverse and in the process inspired a generation of technologists. I’m from a generation of technologists inspired by Neal as well — the slightly later 1999-era “Cryptonomicon” reading group.…
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Update, 6/10: In a conversation with Axie Infinity's developer on Twitter, Arcane Research amended its report of Axie Infinity usage, saying it's much more than initially suggested in this infographic; Sky Maven COO Aleksander Leonard Larsen claims current usage is 588K DAU / 1.5M MAU. Read this post for more details. Many crypto enthusiasts insist that…
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Star Atlas occasionally appears on my Metaverse Radar as a virtual world to potentially follow, but this report from CoinDesk leaves me wondering if it actually is a metaverse platform at all: … Star Atlas has two tokens that drive all game operations: POLIS and ATLAS. POLIS is the governance token with a market cap…
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While I've written about how The Sandbox's blockchain-based metaverse platform has a small user base despite (because of?) NFT sales from major brands, Indiana University associate law professor João Marinotti recently made an equally salient point — you don't actually own the NFTs associated with The Sandbox: If The Sandbox “reasonably believes” you engaged in…
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Shocking or hilarious (depending on your point of view) stat of the day from the sarcastically-named Web3 is Going Great blog: [Though Coinbase] claimed to have 3 million users on its [NFT marketplace] waitlist, the public marketplace release has gone shockingly poorly given Coinbase's existing reputation. The platform has yet to see more than 200…
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My post yesterday questioning the logic behind The Sandbox's reported $4 billion valuation (by Bloomberg) led to an interesting conversation on LinkedIn. Staff members of The Sandbox took some umbrage in the thread, pointing out that the co-founder recently reported that The Sandbox client now has 300,000 monthly active users, which is pretty solid growth…
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Headscratcher of the day: The Sandbox, a platform that allows users to trade and monetize virtual assets in the Ethereum blockchain, is considering raising fresh funds at a valuation of more than $4 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. The company is looking to raise about $400 million from both new and existing…
Wagner James Au / New World Notes 