Rebounding Crypto Market
After several stagnant months, we finally see some action on the crypto market, and it seems to be showing signs of a rebound towards the potential $50k BTC price.
There are many coins in the green today, especially Metaverse-based projects, which have seen double-digit gains due to the market recovery.
Amid the positive developments in the crypto market, the Bloktopia team announced its new Technical Roadmap today.
BLOKTOPIA Technical Product ROADMAP 2022
In its new Technical Product Roadmap, the Bloktopia team outlines a complete set of development plans for 2022.
The plans aim to provide the Bloktopians with a transparent view of everything that is in store for them over the coming year, starting with the launch of the VR Alpha, the NFT Land Sale Portal, the Bloktopia Marketplace, and the Multiplayer feature.
AMA CTO Simon Benson and CMO Paddy Carroll
In order to help bring the Bloktopia Product Roadmap to life, an AMA (Ask Me Anything) session will take place at 1 pm UTC on Wednesday 13th of April 2022, on the Bloktopia Discord server to allow customers to ask Simon Benson and Paddy Carroll anything they want.
Simon has worked on AAA games such as Call of Duty, World Rally Championship & Motorstorm and has over 25 years of commercial immersive development experience, pioneering stereoscopic 3D console gaming.
Benson’s LinkedIn bio reveals an experienced technology consultant specializing in immersive and real-time interactive development. A rare find outside Silicon Valley, he is a commercial immersive development expert with over 25 years of experience in the military, motorsports, and consumer entertainment.
Highlights of his career include:
- Leading multimillion-dollar AAA games.
- Pioneering 3D console gaming.
- Founding the PlayStation VR project.
Simon has worked on AAA games such as Call of Duty, World Rally Championship & Motorstorm and has over 25 years of commercial immersive development experience, pioneering stereoscopic 3D console gaming.
His previous role was Director of Immersive Technology at Sony, and he is cited as an inventor on more than 50 patents.
Last week, Bloktopia announced its new Roadmap, and this will be the focus of the AMA on the 13th of April.
AMA Exlusive Details
Bloktopia’s CTO Simon Benson and CMO Paddy Carroll answered the questions from the Bloktopia community in the long-awaited and exclusive Bloktopia Discord AMA session (Ask Me Anything) held on the 13th of April 2022:
Q: Could you tell about the options for earning cryptocurrency in Metaverse?
Simon Benson:
“As many of you will be aware, Bloktopia’s strapline is Learn, Earn, Play, Create. Earning potential is fundamental, and as the home of crypto, it’s only right that investing cryptocurrency earns crypto. The upcoming land sale is really key here, Bloktopia real estate REBLOK, and advertising space ADBLOK will be made available for Bloktopians to purchase.
REBLOK comes with 10% APY earning potential and ADBLOK earning potential really boils down to how many daily active users and therefore impressions our adverts get. The $BLOK token will be needed in the land sale. Once the metaverse is live, there will be multiple play to earn games, like BLOK Party.
Rewards for event participation, a marketplace to purchase speculative digital wearables in the form of NFTs. And also, if you have your own space in Bloktopia, you have effectively got your own area that you can merchandise from. These are just a few examples, really the options to earn in Bloktopia are vast.”
Q: When will the Alpha be released for everyone? Will there be more testing alphas as upgrades before the release of the main metaverse? When will the metaverse be open to all and when will all 21 floors be completed?
Simon Benson:
“I can reveal today that the first phase of the Alpha is now closed. But yes, there will be lots more updates to the Alpha before the release of the main metaverse. The next of which will showcase the work that we have been doing with URP to release Alpha VR version 1.0, compatible with Oculus Quest 2.
Updates will continue from there, building up to the full launch of Bloktopia in Q4 2022. Initially, this will be 10 levels, we hope to complete the full 21 within Q1 2023.”
Q: Will Jobe holders receive any NFTs to represent their share(s) of the Jobe?
Simon Benson:
“The idea of the JOBE was to make owning land within Bloktopia affordable to all, so owning a share of one is a real positive for members of the community. The JOBE itself is more like a staking pool, so it gives people the ability to move BLOK in and out easily to gain rewards, rather than an NFT.
The REBLOK NFT associated with JOBEs is taken off the market, as they are never actually tangible as a tradeable NFT. Whereas other REBLOK NFTs will be on the market (when the land sale portal is out) and will be tangible as a tradeable NFT.”
Q: Do you have a shop agreement with a company other than crypto? Will it be possible to do real-world shopping from Bloktopia in the future? Will payments be made with $BLOK and how is progress on filling the floors?
Paddy Carroll
“OK, so yeah it’s been an exciting few months. We’ve had conversations with major brands, celebrities, musicians, and sports clubs. Jake Paul is currently our best example of a name not associated with just crypto.
We are also about to make an announcement next week in the ‘Learn’ space. I’m probably more excited by this than anyone we have announced as a partner so far, because of how focused I am on Bloktopia being a place to educate the masses on cryptocurrency!
It’s been humbling to get as many Tier 1 crypto brands on board as we have. But also, they get it. The honest answer is that brands and the people that work for them who aren’t blockchain-savvy, don’t always get it, because the sector is early and we are early in our development.
These brands love the look and feel of Bloktopia, and many will come in, but they also want to see development and progress and have to go on an educational journey themselves. We are way over-subscribed with interest from the crypto and NFT space, and as such, we are saving spots for when that progress is made because we appreciate that people will want to see real-world brands and have retail experiences in Bloktopia.
Our ask is that those brands either accept crypto as payment in their retail space or have an NFT collection or show some element of support for what we are doing here, which is to actively encourage mass adoption of cryptocurrency.”
Q: What’s the main key differentiator of Bloktopia when compared to its main competitors in the metaverse space? And how will it stay ahead of the likes of Meta?
Simon Benson:
“The main differentiator of Bloktopia is that it is more focused on the commercial side of crypto. The skyscraper will give us an enclosed environment. We won’t have a sprawling world, which can be difficult to understand where to start and what to visit.
Bloktopia is the first example of a platform that has been built specifically for crypto users to navigate and network.
It will hold all of the crypto content that they could ever need. If you layer on top of that unique content, which will command large audiences.
And global brands, which also command attention and retail opportunities, people will know exactly what or who they can go to see, where it is, and how to get there quickly.
When the world wide web first emerged, companies such as AOL attempted to create “walled gardens” where they offered their version of the web experience in one place – now, however, we expect websites to be more focused and co-exist with other websites on the web.
Bloktopia aims to focus all efforts on being the best place for Crypto enthusiasts to learn, earn, play and create together and we believe that this focus will provide huge value as a key factor in the success of any experience is to share it with a community that has common interests, rather than a general audience.”
Q: Is there any plan to extend Bloktopia out of the 21-level building. Or do we just grow the floor size of each floor for expansion? Will there be an option to leave the building? to visit other places? @rand Hi Simon, as someone with AAA game experience, is there a possibility of gamification outside of the tower on the future roadmap?
Simon Benson:
“Yes of course this is possible. But we’d have to really define a use case for that. We intend on the 21-level skyscraper holding the key to everything cryptocurrency and NFT-related.
We wouldn’t need or want to build outside of that unless there was a really good reason to. We are also really busy delivering against our roadmap, so any progress here would ultimately be a very long-term decision. Having said that, there may be possibilities to link through to curated experiences across the wider metaverse too.
For example, we might run a gaming competition that utilizes an external metaverse game and set a competition to get a high score, etc. It’s all about adding the right value in the right way and not always looking to reinvent the wheel.”
Q: When will the land sale start? Which floors will be available to purchase? How will it work/ what will the process be?
Simon Benson:
“We set the ambition in our roadmap to deliver the land sale this quarter. That will happen. I’m not going to give a date, because we have been there before and it hasn’t happened, so I don’t wish to over-commit.
The difference is that, whilst previously the work had been outsourced, we decided to start again and are building the portal 100% in-house with our team of carefully selected experts. That gives us way more control and way more confidence.
I can tell you that the first phase will be a sale of REBLOK on Level 1. $BLOK will be needed to purchase and the portal will integrate with MetaMask. Once we are ready to fully commit to a date, full instructions will be made available on our Medium.”
Q: Share with us your vision, where do you see Bloktopia in Q4 2022, and how about in 2-3-5 years?
Simon Benson:
“The vision for Bloktopia is a metaverse/virtual space for cryptocurrency and NFTs. Crypto newbies and experts can socialize together, join events and learn, earn, play and create with established projects and real-world brands.
I think that I have already touched on this, but Q4 will deliver the first live version of Bloktopia, assuming we stay on track from a Roadmap perspective and nothing so far has suggested that we will deviate from it.
Longer-term, we will be an alternative to the physical world.
You should be able to do everything that you can do in real life, but without the boundaries of geographical location. – Hope that’s a big enough answer.”
Q: How many DAU (Daily Active Users) will be able to be on a floor at the same time?
Simon Benson:
“This is an interesting question. Ultimately we want daily active users of Bloktopia to be well into the millions – that is our long-term ambition. Obviously, there are a few technical things to consider here too (which is very much in my camp)…
As Bloktopia is designed to replicate a 21-level building, we want to ensure that everyone gets a great experience of this concept.
As you know, it would not be the best experience if we tried to cram 10 million people into a single building, so we are planning to use a mechanism called “instancing”.
This means that as you travel around Bloktopia, each space will have a limit on the maximum number of users that can occupy the space whilst still providing a good experience – much like the way most real buildings work.
The key difference is that when this number is exceeded, we won’t turn anyone away or make them wait, we can simply “magic up” another version of the space in the exact same location, but for another group of users.
This mechanism is used in several AAA games and we feel that it will work well for Bloktopia.
Hope this explains the concept clear enough and isn’t too techie but you were the one who brought the techie guy to the chat Paddy.”
Q: Are you planning the development of a marketplace? Can you buy special clothes to dress the avatars? Will these purchases affect the ability to interact with the different events? And can we sell digital wearables from our own stores?
Simon Benson:
“This is set in our roadmap as a Q3 deliverable. The idea will be that it will allow users to buy and sell and trade NFTs for use in Bloktopia.
Yes, we are going to launch our own Marketplace.
These can be digital wearables for an avatar, or they can be things to use to furnish virtual stores and apartments. All these NFTs can be merchandised and sold.
There is no reason that these purchases will affect the ability to interact in events, but we certainly see events as a good way for brands to showcase digital wearables.
We are currently investigating customizable Avatar solutions and really like “Ready Player me” as a possible solution.” – this isn’t as committal and allows us to change our mind if necessary.
We’d like any digital wearables purchased for an RPM avatar to be purchased in Bloktopia and portable across any game or metaverse.”
Q: Thank you for the great work on the roadmap. Thinking of a mass adoption idea here. Do you think Bloktopia in the future will ever partner/work with a VR Cloud gaming service that helps eliminate the need for high in pc rigs for users that want to use the VR but don’t have the resources for an expensive gaming pc rig?
Simon Benson:
“This is definitely in our thinking, what you need to remember here is that
our general mantra is to make Bloktopia as accessible as possible with mass adoption in mind.
There are lots of ways to achieve this and new mechanisms are emerging all the time. It is likely that eventually, Bloktopia is entirely cloud-based and accessible on any device.
In the short term, we are developing using the Unity game engine which has the widest range of device support options available, giving us lots of options to reach as many people as possible.”
Q: In Q3 it should be possible to communicate with virtual assistants. What dit that mean in detail? For example, I and 500 Bloktopians stand in the KuCoin Store and need some help. Did the assistants are bots or real humans (with waitlist?) (voice or text chat?) and if yes did you maybe create virtual jobs with that?
Simon Benson:
“This will be a live chat experience with a real person/ representative of the brand. Realistically Q3 is going to allow an experience of this which will showcase that the feature works.
When Bloktopia is fully live, we anticipate that brands will have to manage this in the same way they do a Live Chat function. It would require manpower/ opening hours/ and potentially queues.
That means it will be one of a number of features within the metaverse which will create virtual jobs.
Longer-term, it may be possible to integrate AI-based solutions where we can all interact with realistic avatars that can answer all of our questions at any time.
The key point here is that Bloktopia has a focus on helping you to learn as much as you want and we want to ensure that we are providing the best mechanisms for this.”
Q: Will bloktopia use a Layer zero platform to interact with multi chains within Bloktopia or will BNB and MATIC chain users be separated? Does BLOK act as an intermediary between chains? like, BLOK wallet bridge chains easily? Will the Blok wallet be an extension? Can you go over all of the uses and implementation of the upcoming wallet release?
Simon Benson:
“On the beta release, users will be able to interact inside Bloktopia with other users regardless of the chain on which they have their BLOK.
Initially, we will be developing direct integrations with a small number of blockchains (Polygon, BNB Chain, Algorand, Solana, and Chainlink are all examples of partners of ours, so we are in discussions with them all) but
in the future, we intend to integrate with a solution that provides a bridge to multiple chains.
The upcoming wallet is still in its planning phase, but we are anticipating a mobile application which will support the chains we are building Bloktopia upon.
It will become a convenient place to hold your BLOK tokens and NFTs and will act as your access key to the Bloktopia skyscraper. Hope that covers all of the questions.”
Q: How will Blok develop its brand in the future? whether you plan to release your own line of exclusive clothing or service. benefits for Bloktopians. Like for example the vertu brand with its bonuses.
Simon Benson:
“It’s quite a broad question and again brand development is maybe more for Paddy, but I will take this on from a product and tech development perspective (as I feel like I’m cheating when I pass questions to Paddy). First of all, given the example is about clothing, yes.
It is within our thinking to have our own digital wearables.
It makes a lot of sense as they are items that can feature in the Bloktopia Marketplace very easily.
The bigger point I’d like to make is that our initiatives should be use case tested and we will be adopting a community-first mentality. We’ve focused on setting up Discord because we think that this is the right channel to talk to our community.
And so during and beyond 2022 gives us a strong starting point to take feedback and build our metaverse in a way which is defined by Bloktopians.”
Q: Hi Simon, Unreal 5 is just released now, will bloktopia take the opportunity of it for the best gaming experience? Was it considered in the roadmap?
Simon Benson:
“It is no secret that we are building Bloktopia in the Unity Gaming Engine. We did consider the Unreal Engine and many other engines very carefully.
We felt that Unity was the right choice for Bloktopia as we feel that we can develop features and content much faster using Unity – ensuring that we can react quickly to our community’s needs and the rapidly changing Crypto and tech world.
Also, Unity has much wider platform support, so we are not constrained to just delivering on high powered devices, but have more options to build a broader community on a wider range of accessible devices.”
Q: Please go into detail about the different partnerships Bloktopia has with other crypto projects. What does the future look like for these partnerships?
Simon Benson:
“It would be impossible to cover every partnership, given we have so many. So first of all I will tell you about what we are working on now, which is modular store capability…
It basically gives us the option to design and build the store interiors through a content management system with drag and drop NFTs. That means we can offer customizable solutions to all of our tenants, and the furnishing will be really easy to manage. They will also be able to change their messaging to relate to things like their latest service notices or marketing campaigns.
To give a specific example of what one of our partners is doing in practice, I’ll refer to Kucoin. They are going to integrate a live welcome desk, roadmap display, NFT gallery, hold live presentations, show trading information and have working ATMs to withdraw cryptocurrency.
I can’t say too much more than that though, because their Web 3.0 strategy is going to be revealed in a TV feature very soon, which includes Bloktopia and is very exciting!
Q: Is there a concrete possibility to connect different metaverses making it easier for the perception to move in different worlds/dimensions? For example Sand, Mana, Hero, etc. directly to the Bloktopia Universe? Are other metaverse projects found in Cardano or Luna prevented from connecting to Bloktopia’s metaverse due to interoperability issues or layer issues?
Simon Benson:
“Yes, we see this as being vital to the future of the metaverse and Web 3.0. We have already announced through our partnership with Wilder World that the BLOK21 Clubhouse will act as a portal into Bloktopia, giving users the ability to explore and roam in both dimensions.
The Wilder World virtual store in Bloktopia will offer the same opportunity as well. We expect more announcements to be made in this regard…
Overall, our view is that the metaverse is for all, and just like websites, jumping from one “site” to another, should be as simple as following a link.
Our aim will be to link to the right content in the right place within Bloktopia, ensuring that Bloktopia remains a hub for our community to reach the content they love in the most convenient way.”
Q: Will Bloktopia ever be able or have the capabilities to be accessed via PlayStation or Xbox stores? Or will it be just PC-based? What about mobile – Specifically the creation of a Web3/iOS/Android app. Is there a way to render Bloktopia without sacrificing the quality fully?
Simon Benson:
“Great question to end on, here goes… Our overall goal is to reach as many people as possible, so nothing is off the table at this time.
Cloud-based technology such as cloud rendering will be the key to this reach and this technology is already in use on platforms such as PlayStation Now and Xbox Cloud Gaming.
Fundamentally, this could mean that we would need nothing more than a web browser to access Bloktopia on any device and the quality could be awesome as cloud-based services are already able to deliver a high frame rate of 4K streams.
Bandwidth will be the main requirement as everything else will be solved in the data centers (i.e. high-end PCs with top tier graphics capabilities), and with 5G rolling out, this could even allow access on the move too.
Overall, the future is looking great for helping us to deliver a high-quality experience to as many people as possible on a wide range of devices.”
Paddy Carroll:
“Simon, I know how busy you and the team have been. So thanks for taking the time to hang out with the community. And thank you guys for sticking with us for the last 75 mins.”
Simon Benson:
“It’s been a pleasure to answer the questions and also to be part of the creation of the new “flag game” love to all.”
🚨 Date for the diary! 🚨
— Bloktopia (@bloktopia) April 5, 2022
🗓️ 1pm UTC, on Wednesday 13th of April
❓ AMA with Bloktopia CTO, Simon Benson
👾 'ask-me-anything' channel on Discord
👉 https://t.co/ZUQMK5sLwA
Find out more about how to get involved 👇https://t.co/LDzQmKFBKz pic.twitter.com/X2Si4DIykf
Simon also commented on the new Bloktopia Roadmap 2022 release:
“We have been working very hard behind the scenes to establish a scope of work and subsequent set of milestones which allows us to move in line with the pace of the sector.
We are really happy with where we have got to, but appreciate that there is a lot of detail to cover in the roadmap, and as such I will be hosting an AMA to help answer any questions that Bloktopians may have.
We’re really looking forward to hearing the communities thoughts on our development schedule.”
The 2022 Bloktopia Product Roadmap
More details are provided in the video below.
Q2 (1st April- 30th June)
- Multichain Token Launch (Users will be able to enter and interact in Bloktopia on multiple chains)
- HDRP to URP formatting (Rebuild of base code to allow for VR capability)
- NFT Land Sale Launch
- Bloktopia Wallet Launch
- Multiple Avatar Selection
- Private Key Store Ownership Access (Allowing store owners rights to update stores and grant access rights)
- Modular store capability (Design and build the store interiors through a Content Management System with drag and drop NFTs)
- Multiplayer (Transition from Singleplayer to Multiplayer allowing users to meet with friends and make new ones within Bloktopia)
- NFT API (allowing the community to create NFTs for use and sale within Bloktopia)
- Alpha VR Version Launch V1.0 compatible with Oculus Quest 2
- User Voice chat (Chat with fellow Bloktopians)
- Alpha V2.0 downloadable version
Q3 (1st July- 30th Sep)
- Custom Avatar integration (allowing users to customize and create their own Avatar)
- Bloktopia Wallet integration (for use within Bloktopia Metaverse)
- Chat in-store with Virtual Assistants
- Bloktopia Marketplace Launch (allowing users to buy sell and trade NFTs for use in Bloktopia)
- Added character interaction (different movements, jumping, sitting, etc).
- Optimization and integration across multiple devices.
- REBLOK & ADBLOK reward collection system(rental fees and advertising revenue to be paid to REBLOK and ADBLOK owners)
- Play to Earn games launch
- Beta 1.0
Q4 (1st Oct- 31st Dec)
Q4 will be about building the first ten levels out so that they are complete with tenants. And adding Social networking tools, allowing people to add friends, have private chats, and form DAOs. These remaining features will be integrated ahead of the full launch of Version 1 of Bloktopia, by the end of 2022.
🚨ROADMAP RELEASED!🚨
— Bloktopia (@bloktopia) March 28, 2022
Check out the Bloktopia roadmap for 2022 here 👇https://t.co/XmG0ohnsbD#Roadmap #VR #Metaverse #BLOK pic.twitter.com/Vhj0tCvyJa
About Bloktopia
Bloktopia is a decentralized Web3 Crypto Gaming Metaverse powered by Polygon, designed to deliver an unforgettable VR experience to the crypto community and connect users in one immersive and engaging virtual world.
The Bloktopia Web3 Skyscraper is essentially a building with 21 floors dedicated to honoring 21 million Bitcoins.
The Bloktopia Skyscraper will represent the central hub and be the gathering place for all cryptocurrency-related levels of expertise.
With Bloktopia, VR is utilized to interact, play crypto-based games, enjoy, and engage in many ways, enabling the first-person perspective unavailable anywhere else.
Bloktopia will bring crypto-related information and interactive content under the same roof for the very first time.
Token owners will be known as Bloktopians, and Bloktopia will serve as a central hub for crypto enthusiasts at all levels.
In the Bloktopia Metaverse, players will earn revenue through a variety of opportunities, including real estate ownership, advertising revenue, and Play-To-Earn games and activities.
Bloktopia’s four guiding principles
Learn
This is the first segment that takes into account how difficult it can be to navigate the crypto world.
The Internet is flooded with resources and information on Crypto and Web3, including YouTube, Telegram, and Crypto Twitter, and they are very fragmented at the moment.
Bloktopia is geared towards addressing this challenge by positioning itself as a central hub where users can gather and learn in a safe and open environment.
Earn
With the many income streams offered by Bloktopia, there are many ways to earn revenue. Bloktopians have many options for building wealth, including Bloktopia real estate, passive earning, advertising, and staking.
Play
Play is another essential component of any metaverse ecosystem, and competition, fun, and relaxation cannot exist without it. Through Bloktopia, users are able to interact with friends, play interactive games, and network while exploring a virtual reality world from a first-person viewpoint.
Create
Finally, developers will give their users the chance to push the limits of their creativity by designing scenes, challenges, artworks, and more, creating them with a simple tool, and then participating in events to win prizes.
The native token of Bloktopia is BLOK, which can be traded on exchanges such as KuCoin, Gate.io, OKX, QuickSwap, and others.
Disclaimer: The information provided on this page does not constitute investment advice, financial advice, trading advice, or any other sort of advice and it should not be treated as such. This content is the opinion of a third party, and this site does not recommend that any specific cryptocurrency should be bought, sold, or held, or that any crypto investment should be made. The Crypto market is high-risk, with high-risk and unproven projects. Readers should do their own research and consult a professional financial advisor before making any investment decisions.
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