Talking Crypto #63 - CJ From Atlantis World
Primer: Atlantis World is an upcoming pixel metaverse that gamifies DeFi, introduces social elements, and token gated communities. In this episode of Talking Crypto, Gabriel Haines speak with CJ, Co-Founder of Atlantis World, about his project and the vision he has for the future.
Origins
From the UK. Is a full-time traveller
Co-Founder of Atlantis World, a pixel metaverse
Joined crypto when he was a kid
Was involved in the Protonmail Beta when he was 9/10 years old. Sparked his interest in Bitcoin
When he was 10, he tried to raise 600k for an online gambling platform
Currently, he is 20 years old. Have been in crypto full-time for over 1 year
Have been hacking on the intersection of NFTs and DeFi since last October
Protonmail And Crypto
First kind of email provider that had end-to-end encryption
Link between Protonmail and crypto:
Digital rights
Privacy on the internet
Freedom to do as you please on the internet
"I was like volunteering and taking part in political campaigns and kind of lying about my age. So I kind of been like digital rights from the beginning. I would say." - CJ Hetherington
These values became very important to him at an early age and it sparked his interest in encryption software/cryptography, leading him to Bitcoin
How Did He Get Into ETH?
Started trading cryptos in 2017
Dad gave him some money and he lost it all
After that, did a deep dive into the technology and discovered Ethereum
Atlantis World
A pixel metaverse/virtual world
"We're planning to build this kind of buzzing entrepreneurial city, where ETH is money and culture is king." - CJ Hetherington
Mission
Gamifying DeFi products in order to reach out to people who are isolated from TradFi
Helps people to really start to understand the concepts better and be comfortable with interacting with DeFi
Features
A super lightweight virtual world experience on all devices, including the mobile web browser
Loves the current virtual worlds, but do not find them accessible:
Can be laggy if users do not have good hardware
Users can either reduce the resolution or end up being excluded from it
Atlantis World introduces DeFi and token gating (i.e. need to hold tokens to access certain parts of the community)
Really love what Gather.Town did to combine pixel gaming and video calling. Want to deliver this experience to crypto communities
Will explore the implementation of DAO votes inside Atlantis World
Going down the route of progressive decentralization
Partners And Token Gated Access
Successfully onboarded Audius, Polygon, and Yearn Finance. Received a grant from Yearn
In advanced stage conversations with 1inch, SushiSwap, PoolTogether, CoinGecko, etc.
Each community is treated as an individual virtual world, with access being token gated
"First of all, can we integrate the products of DeFi blue chips and top DeFi protocols into the Atlantis world experience, and then make that more accessible in public spaces that we're planning to build for people who aren't crypto native." - CJ Hetherington
Example:
YFI token holders can meet at Atlantis World. They can connect with one another through a video call and can even whitelist certain people from outside the community if they so choose
The community space is personalized with the brand assets
Addition of things that are native to the community
"So it could be as simple as walking into decentral bank building and heading over to the Yearn desk and handling the deposits just like that." - CJ Hetherington
Will be adding interactive learning modules about the protocols
Their Vision Of The Future
Currently, people in crypto spend their time on Twitter, Discord, and Telegram. Atlantis World plans to bring communication on these platforms to their virtual world environment
Mini-Games
Planning to add mini-games
Encourage people to come and develop games of their own
Speaking with people to integrate their games with Atlantis World
Businesses
People can apply to open a business inside Atlantis World (e.g. virtual cafe, co-working space, movie theatre, etc.)
A couple of projects are already exploring the building of co-working spaces within Atlantis
Fleshing out land parcels, which are a productive asset class that generates revenue
Land parcels serve as their "governance token"
"Land in Atlantis World is going to be a governance token, it's going to be governance rights. And it's going to enable you to vote on the proposals on the future of the ecosystem." - CJ Hetherington
Why Would Anyone Buy Virtual Coffee?
Cafes are less about coffee and more about the enriching conversations with your friends
Maybe there is no sense for people to buy virtual coffee, but there is a sense in providing a space for people to gather and socialize
Ownership Of Assets
In traditional gaming, players do not have ownership over their in-game assets
Enabling user ownership from the start and distributing value among participants in the ecosystem is important to him
The metadata of their assets are all on-chain and loaded directly from IPFS
Profile Picture NFTs And Atlantis World
Currently, profile picture NFTs do not have any utility
Thinking of creating spritesheets for them and turning them into in-game avatars
If anybody has ideas to do this in a permissionless way, do contact him on Telegram or Discord
On Loot
Found Loot very intriguing
After Loot was distributed, the users themselves became creators and started to add value to it
Token For Atlantis World
Have plenty of interest from top investors
Does not want to rush out a token that has no utility
They are taking the hard route by crowdfunding and exploring alternative fundraising methods that provide value to their community
Their priority is to provide value first. Talks about a token will come later
Beta Test
Can go to demo.atlantisworld.io
Their design is reminiscent of 1990s video games
Integrated with Audius, so music streaming is possible
Can visit the bank building in Atlantis World to deposit crypto assets on Aave Polygon
In the process of integrating with Rarible. People will then be able to buy NFTs inside Atlantis World
Already cross-chain since they are on ETH Mainnet and Polygon
Biggest Challenge So Far
Hacking together from 6-7 different time zones and getting it together without any funding
Community Building
Had 300% growth of their community over the last 3 days
Their go-to-market strategy is to create individual virtual worlds/token-gated communities outside the walls of Atlantis World
Conservation Efforts
Planting virtual trees inside Atlantis World
Certain amounts of funds are locked up inside these trees
Use Superfluid Finance to send DAI/USDC every second to a climate finance protocol to offset carbon in the real-world
Any Project That He Particularly Likes
Love Nouns
Exploring collaboration opportunities with Nouns, Crypto Punks, Bored Ape Yacht Club, etc.
How Can Listeners Take Action
Jump into their Discord
Start contributing and thinking of ideas
"The people who can't currently access DeFi and virtual worlds are the people that stand to benefit the most from it. And that's why it's such a really cool part of our mission is to really increase the accessibility, grow out in corners of the world which you would never expect, and really start onboard billions of users into DeFi." - CJ Hetherington
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