“Metaverse” is the buzzword of the last few weeks, but for many of us, it’s a term we have taken an active interest in for a couple of years. For better or worse, Mark Zuckerberg’s rebrand of Facebook to Meta as an umbrella company has the search rankings for “metaverse” spiking. What is more comforting, however, is companies like Enjin are investing significant amounts into developing the partners and occupants of their ecosystem.
This isn’t the first fund created to entice projects into blockchain ecosystems and cultivate them, there is something of a game of Hungry Hungry Hippos in action. Although many created metaverses will likely interact as well as compete, currently the infrastructure is limited enough that compete is the only option. Just a few days ago we reported on Gala Games and their $100m blockchain gaming development fund.
The Efinity Metaverse Fund
There are a number of interesting strands to this announcement. Gala’s aforementioned fund is focused on only game development, whereas Enjin’s Efinity Metaverse fund looks to be more of a holistic approach.
- Enjin Ecosystem Integration: Integrating with Efinity, the Enjin Wallet, NFT.io marketplace, and the rest of the Enjin ecosystem.
- Metaverse Projects: Building collaborative NFT projects on Efinity and Polkadot, featuring assets usable across multiple projects and chains.
- Gaming: Enjin was forged in gaming, all the way back in 2009. We’ll support gaming projects on all platforms, as well as projects in adjacent spaces like mixed reality (AR/VR), esports, immersive entertainment, virtual events, and similar.
- NFT DApps & Projects: Applications such as collectibles, digital art, music, tokenized data apps, and Web 3.0 and cloud applications.
- Decentralized Infrastructure: Building cross-chain and multi-chain infrastructure.
- Pioneering Projects: Going boldly where no one has gone before, and building in other areas related to the Metaverse, NFTs, and Efinity’s core infrastructure.
It’s clear Enjin wants to develop an ecosystem that is fleshed out with many moving parts. While gamers might wish Enjin would allocate all or most of the funds into their roots of gaming, that industry is transforming quickly. Within the next decade, games won’t be isolated titles, they will be embedded in metaverses, and the metaverse’s very premise is to be as all-encompassing as possible. That means it will require more functionality than any game in isolation can provide. It will require dapps, tokens, and interfacing with web 3.0 at large.
Token Integration
One particularly interesting part of the strategy of Enjin’s fund is the approach to tokens:
“Our team will consider equity investments in seed / Series A fundraising rounds and purchases of new project native tokens for potential use in our ecosystem.”
What grabbed me about this in particular is the mention of Splinterlands, a game that has been challenging for the top slot on DappRadar’s blockchain gaming charts for weeks now, often taking it over 24-hour periods. Splinterlands uses the HIVE and WAX blockchains, and its token, $SPS, is on the Binance Smart Chain. With Splinterlands inducted into Efinity, this is one of the strongest examples of how beneficial and powerful interchain operability can be.
This is a moment of note for Enjin, but also for blockchain gaming, as Enjin looks to build a holistic metaverse, as the metaverse was intended to be.
