Written by Josh Kim, Jake Ku from Catalyze Research

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

2. Overview of the Open Metaverse

3. Futureverse: A Full-Spectrum Metaverse Enterprise

4. Key Solutions by Futureverse

5. Projects Based on Futureverse

6. Implications of Futureverse

1. Introduction

Once the term "Metaverse" buzzed as a synonym for technological innovation, its significance has seemingly diluted over time as it became relegated to just another buzzword. Nonetheless, even as the initial fervor cools, considering the persistent issues within our digital environment, the importance of the Metaverse is increasingly coming into focus. We are confronted with unprecedentedly complex technical challenges, and the rapidly expanding digital world is now calling for adequate solutions. Take, for example, the fragmented flow of information in existing systems, which hampers users' ability to smoothly find, utilize, and share the information they need. Issues of data sovereignty complicate creators' ability to receive due recognition and compensation for their work, muddling the origins of information. Additionally, constraints on user participation diminish the richness of digital experiences, thereby hindering the societal acceptance of digital technology.

The core value of the Metaverse lies in providing a technological framework capable of fundamentally addressing these flaws.

1. By unifying the flow of information, the Metaverse creates a new mode of operation where people globally can instantly share and access dispersed data and knowledge.

2. It also returns control and ownership to the community by empowering users with governance over their assets, data, and transactions.

3. Lastly, by expanding user participation, individuals and communities can freely express their thoughts and creations through the Metaverse, reaching a broader audience.

The Metaverse is a collection of technology with the potential to solve these entrenched issues. It has the capacity to evolve beyond a mere virtual space, fundamentally altering nearly all aspects of human interactions, including society, economy, and education.

While numerous Web3 projects promise to offer solutions to such problems, they often fall short of expectations. The pivotal principles of Web3—decentralization, clarity of ownership, and freer creative opportunities—have not been fully realized in practice. Amidst this disparity between the ideal and the actual, and as public and capital markets begin to lose interest in the Metaverse and Web3 as “hot topics,” Futureverse emerges as a striking new player. In July of this year, under the leadership of global private equity firm 10T Holdings, with major participation from Ripple Labs, one of the world's largest blockchain companies, Futureverse secured funding in Series A at a valuation of $1 billion USD, raising $54 million USD. At a time when many declared the "end of the Metaverse," Futureverse boldly made its entrance, broadcasting its unique approach to the existing problems of the digital environment to the world.

This report analyzes how Futureverse intends to overcome the barriers currently faced by Web3 and how their approach may create new opportunities for users and developers within the Metaverse ecosystem.

2. Overview of the Open Metaverse

1. Futureverse's Interpretation of the Metaverse: Connectivity and Openness

Before delving into how Futureverse is addressing the current issues within the digital environment, it's crucial to understand their perspective on the Metaverse. According to Futureverse, the Metaverse "represents the future of digital where the boundaries between siloed digital experiences gradually fade, paving the path for more immersive and open experiences.

The online apps and infrastructures we frequently use are currently operated predominantly by a few large corporations. These services utilize their proprietary systems and databases, managing user information in a compartmentalized manner. This tendency is driven by each company's desire to retain users within their platforms, a competition for user data that further exacerbates this issue. Consequently, user experiences become fragmented, with apps and services operating in competition rather than collaboration, hindering the integration of the overall digital ecosystem.

In contrast, the concept of "immersive and open experiences" reflects the Metaverse's goal to integrate these separated digital services, offering users a unified digital space experience. For instance, users could access multiple services with a single account, move smoothly between different apps, and freely share and utilize data and content. This facilitates easier and more efficient navigation of the internet and the use of digital resources. Furthermore, the open Metaverse environment creates opportunities for developers and creators to engage and create freely based on uninterrupted imagination, enriching the digital experiences available to users.

As mentioned above, the Open Metaverse is the next generation of a decentralized internet and digital economy where users can enjoy immersive experiences within a seamless environment, while having control over their assets, data, and transactions. Interestingly, the Futureverse team consistently refers to the Metaverse with the definite article "The," commonly used for singular entities like the sun or vast, undefined expanses like continents. This signifies that the Metaverse is not something that can be whimsically created by anyone—even major IT corporations—but is a collective akin to the Amazon rainforest, a unique ecosystem that grows and evolves through the collaborative efforts of users and creators.

2. Futureverse’s Approach

The Open Metaverse is ideal in that it integrates fragmented user experiences and resolves enduring Web2 problems such as the weakening of data sovereignty. However, to fully leverage the potential freedoms and opportunities the Metaverse offers, two primary obstacles—technical complexity and barriers to entry for developers and users—must be surmounted.

The Open Metaverse is ideal in that it integrates fragmented user experiences and resolves enduring Web2 problems such as the weakening of data sovereignty. However, to fully leverage the potential freedoms and opportunities the Metaverse offers, two primary obstacles—technical complexity and barriers to entry for developers and users—must be surmounted.

Mindful of these challenges, Futureverse is committed to creating an environment where users can freely create contents and apps within the Metaverse. Their core approach simplifies the user experience and makes creation tools more intuitive, thus lowering the technical threshold. This empowers users to express their creativity within the Metaverse and to convert their creations into economic value, offering tangible opportunities. Futureverse's strategy is designed to realize the fundamental promise of the Metaverse—ushering in a new dimension of social and economic interaction. It provides an essential perspective on why the vision of the Metaverse they aspire to realize is so important.

3. Futureverse: A Full-Spectrum Metaverse Enterprise

3.1 The Ecosystem Structure of Futureverse

The reason I refer to Futureverse as a "full-spectrum Metaverse company" is because it indeed offers an impressive array of products and services that support nearly all conceivable endeavors for users and creators within the Metaverse. Futureverse’s ecosystem can be broadly categorized into 1) blockchain infrastructure, 2) tools for content and software development, and 3) services.

Figure 1: An overview of Futureverse Ecosystem

Despite being a startup, Futureverse boasts an impressive range of products and services, underpinned by substantial capital and a global workforce of over 250 employees. Futureverse’s roll-up strategy involves merging other Web3 and Metaverse companies that align with its vision to build a large, cohesive ecosystem. There are more than 11 public projects under Futureverse’s umbrella, with key projects operated by its own technology and manpower as follows:

1. Altered State Machine (ASM): Developing technology that enables the creation, training, and ownership of Non-Fungible Intelligence.

2. Sylo: Provides decentralized networks, protocols, and a communication platform.

3. Non-Fungible Labs: A content creation and engineering studio operated by skilled developers and creators, utilizing its proprietary technology, the Digital Object Transformer (D.O.T – to be detailed later).

4. Centrapay: Offers a digital asset payment SDK that enables Web3 payments within global payment networks.

5. Centrapass: Developing digital identity protocols, SDKs, and decentralized asset custody protocols.

6. Immersve: A multi-chain payment protocol, working in collaboration with Mastercard to build Web3 and Metaverse payment infrastructures.

7. Shadows Interactive: An animation studio managing a collection including Party Bear.

8. Altered Phoenix: A gaming studio specializing in creating games across various genres.

Under the larger umbrella of Futureverse, these entities collaborate based on their individual technical expertise, contributing to their specialties, and making varied attempts to realize the Open Metaverse. While the multitude of projects may seem complex at first glance, a closer look reveals that the core focus remains on simplifying user experience and lowering technical barriers for creation.

3.2 The Root Network

As Figure 1 of the Futureverse ecosystem structure illustrates, Futureverse operates its own mainnet called The Root Network as the foundational network of the ecosystem. Before diving into The Root Network, one might ask why the Metaverse inevitably requires a public chain. The answer is clear. The Metaverse's intrinsic attributes include decentralization (immunity to infringement upon data sovereignty), interoperability, and openness, all of which are met by a public blockchain. Through this report, I aim to explore how The Root Network contributes to realizing Futureverse's vision through its functionalities.

1. Overview of The Root Network

The Root Network is a public blockchain optimized for Metaverse and Gaming applications and stands as a pivotal technology within the Futureverse ecosystem. Focused on enabling users with little technical knowledge to onboard Web3, it is tailored for enhanced user experience and the ease of constructing within the Metaverse. Also, The Root Network is integrated with the XRP Ledger (XRPL) in which Ripple is contributing as a developer. The network also supports XRP as a gas token and XRPL-based NFTs (XLS-20 standard). The main features of The Root Network are as follows:

• Integrated EVM 

• Facilitating the execution of Solidity-based smart contracts within The Root Network protocol, thus allowing all Ethereum-written codes to run natively.

• On-Chain Assets

• Enhancing user experience by allowing interactions of various on-chain assets between different applications within the Open Metaverse

• On-Chain Collectible Protocol

• Allowing new collections to be created without deploying smart contracts by utilizing The Root Network's in-built digital collectible protocol.

• Cross-chain Bridge

• Supporting the transfer of tokens to other networks (Ethereum & XRPL).

• Non-Fungible & Fungible Assets Runtime 

• Providing a common standard for interoperability by having a digital collectible runtime on a protocol level.

• Maintaining consistent standards across the entire digital collectible ecosystem, and providing a unified experience across the entire network by allowing for free use of digital collectibles across the different applications and networks

• Standardized fungible tokens can also be issued without the need for smart contracts.

• Multi-Token Economy

• Networks using a single token economy often lack sufficient liquidity initially to provide incentives to node operators.

• However, The Root Network possesses a unique multi-token economy system, optimizing onboarding for new users and optimizing gas fees.

• ROOT tokens are designed as network security and governance tokens used in the Proof of Stake (PoS) consensus.

• The gas fee structure is designed to allow payment in $XRP tokens as well as any other tokens, increasing convenience for users.

• Decentralized Exchange (DEX)

• The Root Network offers an in-chain DEX that enables the construction of liquidity pools and the searching of token prices without smart contracts.

• The in-chain DEX is integrated with the XRPL DEX to bootstrap liquidity within the network.

• Decentralized State Oracle

• The oracle within The Root Network can connect events issued from other chains into internal operations.

• Utilizing the oracle, contracts can request the result of a remote contract call, and the accuracy of these results is guaranteed.

3.2.2 Tokenomics

Currently, the tokenomics of The Root Network are as follows:

Figure 2: The Root Network Tokenomics Design

Upon examining the tokenomics, we find that all rewards are paid out in Vortex tokens. Vortex tokens can be redeemed to unlock the corresponding proportion of tokens ($XRP, ROOT, $ASTO, $SYLO) held within The Vortex. Gas and network fees accumulate over a reward cycle (90 days), with bootstrap rewards and gas/network fees contributed to The Vortex each cycle.

• Bootstrap Rewards 

• Bootstrap rewards are distributed over 260 weeks to early backers and supporters (10% of the total ROOT token supply).

• These are disbursed based on the amount of ROOT tokens staked during each reward cycle.

• At the end of each reward cycle, bootstrap rewards for each participant type are calculated, transmitted to The Vortex, and Vortex tokens are issued and distributed to participants.

• Gas and Network Fees Rewards

• This reward pool is based on the collected gas and network fees.

• At the end of the reward cycle, these fees are used to issue Vortex tokens to compensate participants.

• 30% of the issued Vortex tokens are distributed to stakers, nominators, and validators based on the amount of ROOT tokens staked and the total duration of ROOT staking by all participants.

• The remaining 70% is distributed to validators and nominators based on proportional work points earned during the reward cycle.

The introduction of Vortex tokens is notable for its potential to enhance liquidity across various assets within the Metaverse, providing users with the flexibility to easily switch between different tokens.

3.2.3 Staking Protocol

The level of participation is divided into three categories: stakers, nominators, and validators, each with different responsibilities and rewards. All participants receive rewards at the end of the 90-day cycle, and must be staking at the end to receive their rewards without any problems.

3.2.4 Bridge

The Root Network includes an Ethereum Bridge and an XRPL Bridge that allow for the safe transfer of tokens between networks. The Ethereum Bridge supports bi-directional transfer of ERC-20 tokens and native $ETH, offering secure token transfers, liquidity provision, cross-chain capabilities, and other various functionalities. Ethereum Bridge operates using The Root Network validators and involves a deposit and withdrawal process from Ethereum to The Root Network and vice versa.

The XRPL Bridge supports secure token transfers between The Root Network and XRPL, enabling bi-directional transfers. Like the Ethereum Bridge, it offers secure transfers, liquidity provision, cross-chain capabilities, and various functionalities.

3.2.5 Foundation Vault

The Foundation Vault is a wallet storage infrastructure and system designed to eliminate the risks associated with centralized key storage "honey pot" (critical data storage sites). The Foundation Vault is divided into three areas (vault, user, and service) to distribute risks. It is designed to simplified and better user experiences for clients not yet adequately equipped to handle Web3 requirements. 

3.2.6 Self-Sovereign Data Store (SSDS) SDK

The Self-Sovereign Data Store (SSDS) SDK manages account creation, data encryption, and secure storage access. Typically, the SDK is embedded in websites or mobile apps. Access is serialized using a username and password into access and encryption keys. The access key grants secure storage access, while the encryption key is used by the SDK to encrypt the secondary access key pair stored in secure storage. Key rotation for ongoing security is also managed within the SDK. Both sides of the CentraPass decentralized OAuth 2.0 SSO flow are managed by the SDK.

Verifiable credentials are stored in the SSDS and signed by a trusted party. These files are created by the issuer and transferred to users through the Vault or provided via login access or returned to users to store. Such credentials are used by users to present attested data to verifiers, such as restaurants, events, construction sites, online services, and the Metaverse, and can be transmitted using any available sharing methods.

4. Key Solutions by Futureverse

As previously mentioned, Futureverse leverages its proprietary technologies to provide users and creators with the necessary tools and enhanced convenience to realize their ideas within the Metaverse.

1. AIGC (Artificial Intelligence Generated Content) Tools

We are entering the era of generative AI, where creators use AI for a simple reason: with a knack for crafting prompts, one can generate incredibly creative outputs that one might not have conceived, and the cost of content creation is nearly zero. In the vast ecosystem of the open Metaverse, the future isn't just hundreds of apps, but potentially thousands to millions. For creators, this would mean astronomical costs just to generate essential game elements like background music and NPCs every time an app is created. What if highly trained AIs could handle character design, create background music based on text-based prompts, and implement NPCs that truly think like humans? Let's explore the solutions that Futureverse provides to create such a future.

4.1.1 Digital Object Transformer, D.O.T 2.0

The Digital Object Transformer (D.O.T 2.0) is a tool for creators and developers to create dynamic asset pipelines (the process and system from initial idea to final production) quickly and easily  and generate a vast number of 3D characters/props instantaneously. With D.O.T 2.0, developers can create a variety of characters with different attributes and abilities, crucial for game development as character diversity enriches the game world and provides new experiences and challenges to players.

The D.O.T 2.0 isn't limited to characters but can also be used for props, enabling the rapid creation and efficient management of various in-game assets like items, buildings, and weapons. Such dynamic asset pipelines streamline the development process and enhance the quality and completeness of games.

Therefore, the D.O.T. is an invaluable tool for game makers, enabling easy creation and effective management of characters and props. This enriches and diversifies the game world, offering players a variety of experiences and challenges.

4.1.2 Altered State Machine (ASM) 

The patent-registered ASM is a decentralized protocol allowing for the creation, ownership, and exchange of unique and ownable artificial intelligences. This protocol lets anyone own unique AIs, train them, and trade them via digital ASM brains. ASM brains can be utilized in avatars, games, worlds, and other Metaverse applications, harnessing the power of AI for personal ownership and NFT trading. ASM is creating a new type of digital economy by merging AI and blockchain technologies, as a decentralized protocol that generates ownership of AI agents through NFTs. 

ASM could be used to create agents for games, financial applications, virtual assistants, and online worlds. The ASM platform allows any application to generate AI agents and own them as NFTs. Agents are represented by a combination of Brain, Memories, and Form, signifying the agent’s core, learned behavioral strategies (AI model training), and physical attributes (appearance and functionality). Moreover, the ASM protocol can invite third-party 'form' projects like Meebits or Bored Apes to upgrade their NFTs to include ASM agent.

Agents in ASM can be trained in 'gyms,' with network GPU Cloud compute providers executing training algorithms for specific ASM applications (e.g., popular games, trading bots for DeFi markets). Owners pay for training costs using $ASTO tokens. Agents can be owned (individually or collectively) and traded on NFT marketplaces. $ASTO tokens can be used to enhance agents, and these enhancements can be traded or sold. This indicates ASM's potential to propel a widely distributed economy across various Metaverse, gaming, and financial applications.

The ASM platform utilizes $ASTO tokens, which manage the Altered State DAO and the economy. They are used for new agent creation (minting), training agents, trading between agents, liquidity mining, play-and-earn, etc. Thus, ASM's vision is to be the ownership and monetization protocol for NFT technology using AI. ASM has various use cases, including game players/characters, Metaverse assistants, DeFi trading bots, chatbots, digital twins (e.g., "Super Siri"), advertising, and more.

Hence, ASM is building a robust economic layer for autonomous agents within the realms of gaming, art, and finance, securing its place as these converge into one vast new Metaverse world.

4.1.3 JEN-1: Text-to-Music Generative AI

Lastly, developed by Futureverse's research team, JEN-1 is a text-to-music AI model. This model generates music corresponding to text inputs describing specific scenarios, instruments, or genres. For example, if you input a prompt like, "a pop dance song for parties with an addictive melody, upbeat rhythm, and grand bass," JEN-1 will instantly create the desired track.

JEN-1 has been presented as a solution to the complex task of converting text into music. This model shows superior results compared to models developed by Google and Facebook. It utilizes contextual learning and is trained for tasks with multiple objectives, allowing a single model to create music, ensure musical continuity, and make musical corrections. JEN-1 represents a significant advancement in the field of converting text to music. Futureverse provides a powerful, efficient, and adjustable framework for generating high-quality music based on text prompts and melody structures through JEN-1.

In early November, Futureverse entered into a partnership with Alibaba Cloud. Through this partnership, they will receive robust cloud computing services to further develop the JEN Music AI platform and products. It is worth noting that a demo can be directly accessed on the official website.

5. Projects Based on Futureverse

Within its vast ecosystem, Futureverse hosts a unique system where numerous projects collaborate based on their respective technologies and expertise. Here, we introduce a few projects built upon the various offerings previously mentioned, highlighting only four projects that may be of particular interest to Korean readers.

1. FLUF World

FLUF World provides 10,000 3D rabbit avatars, each with unique characteristics and stories, catering to individual users. These avatars are programmed based on 14 categories and 270 traits, each differentiated by at least three distinct features, signifying the array of personal expression options available to users. The growing Scenes & Sounds collection allows users to personalize their Flufs, reflecting FLUF World's respect for user creativity and support in crafting their unique Flufs.

Therefore, FLUF World focuses on expressing individuality and creativity within the Metaverse, offering users opportunities to enjoy new adventures and experiences through their unique avatars. This contributes to exploring new possibilities within the Metaverse.

Moreover, FLUF World captured the attention of the global NFT community and media at SXSW2022 with "FLUF Haus" in their space known as "FLUF Village." At that time, each FLUF collection was valued around $20,000, signifying the high regard within the NFT space. While anyone can issue NFT collections due to their decentralized nature, evolving into a blue-chip NFT involves a different level of challenges and complexities. The fact that the Futureverse team has managed to create a globally recognized project underscores their proven community-building capabilities.

Figure 3: FLUF World at the SXSW2022 (Source: FLUF World Official Twitter)

2. AI League: FIFA Women’s World Cup AU·NZ·2023™

AI League is an AI-powered mobile game developed in collaboration with FIFA, one of the world’s largest sports brands. It presents a new form of football manager game where players lead a soccer team as the manager. In the game, players oversee four unique AI All-Star soccer players, each endowed with distinctive abilities and personalities.

As managers, players focus on assembling their team and enhancing the capabilities of their teams. Utilizing strategic skills and AI technology, they can optimize their team's performance and devise the best team composition to outmaneuver opposing teams.

AI League allows customization down to the players' gear, inspired by millions of digital styles and patterns, as well as AI-generated artworks. This personalization makes each player stand out and adds fun to the game. Matches take place in various arenas modeled after street football venues around the world, and as players progress, they unlock new arenas.

AI League leverages AI technology to provide a fresh football manager game experience, combining strategic skills with AI for a unique gameplay experience. Thus, it stands as an exemplar of the potential brought by the amalgamation of gaming and AI technology.

3. Immersve

Immersve supports both centralized and decentralized payment experiences, fostering a versatile payment ecosystem. Through its partnership with Mastercard, Immersve empowers users to make digital, real-world, and even metaverse purchases directly using cryptocurrencies from their Web3 wallets. This convenience is available wherever Mastercard is accepted, highlighting Immersve's adaptive capabilities across various payment environments and its role in enhancing user convenience. Immersve plans to partner with third-party payment providers, allowing customers to use USDC (for an example) for all purchases. Subsequently, USDC is converted into fiat currency and settled within the Mastercard network.

Ultimately, Immersve increases the flexibility of payment systems while providing users the opportunity to realize the value of their digital assets in the real world. In this way, Immersve plays a pivotal role in exploring and materializing new possibilities in digital payments. This positions Immersive as a key player within the Futureverse ecosystem, offering users an enhanced payment experience.

4. FutureScore: Dynamic Engagement and Reward System

FutureScore is not an app-based game project like AI League; however, it has been included due to its clear demonstration of Futureverse’s philosophy and expertise in fostering a vibrant ecosystem. FutureScore is a dynamic scoring system based on various factors such as the rarity of owned Futureverse collectibles, holding duration, and the level of interaction with the Futureverse community and experiences. FutureScore quests amplify the base ROOT rewards based on the user’s FutureScore—the higher the score, the greater the ROOT rewards from each quest. Completing FutureScore Quests enhances the user's FutureScore.

Designed to offer experiences ranging from simple interactions to immersive challenges, FutureScore Quests deepen user engagement within the Futureverse community. The score is fluid and changes over time—acquiring new collectibles increases the FutureScore, while selling or relinquishing ownership decreases it.

Connected to FuturePass, FutureScore is tied to each unique wallet address. Changing wallets does not affect the existing wallet's FutureScore. Instead, the new wallet's score increases with each collectible obtained. Should a user take a break from Futureverse, their FutureScore remains linked to their wallet ID and adjusts upon their return, rewarding continued participation. This ensures that all participants, whether new or returning, have opportunities to engage, grow, and earn rewards.

6. Implications of Futureverse

Futureverse holds a vision that unlocks a new world as a digital new world. The significance of Futureverse lies in the way it drives the advancement and innovation of the digital economy, and Futureverse provides users with creativity and freedom, while offering developers opportunities to create new apps and games, thereby fostering growth and diversity in the digital economy.

The approach to building the Metaverse ecosystem by Futureverse holds significant implications, not only in technology but also in their philosophy. Ultimately, for an ecosystem to thrive, it must be widely used. The intrinsic value of technology that no one uses is "zero." Futureverse is acutely aware of this fact. According to CEO Aaron McDonald, to attract and engage more people to join and contribute to the network, it's not enough to stop at simple airdrops; diverse gaming elements must be created. What makes a "good game"? The CEO believes at the heart of good game elements (that activate the network) lies a compelling story. Many fail to grasp this and spend astronomical amounts creating "Metaverses" that no one uses. However, if we look back, universally recognized IPs like Pokémon and Harry Potter all started from great stories. Therefore, "Metaverse companies" should focus their primary resources on crafting good narratives.

If the Open Metaverse is the goal for the next generation of the internet, this has significant implications for South Korea as well. Known for its strong capabilities in the gaming industry, South Korea's content has substantial potential to integrate with the cutting-edge digital economy of the Futureverse ecosystem. With high internet penetration and IT infrastructure, South Korea provides a conducive environment for its users to engage with and benefit from the Futureverse ecosystem.

The Korean gaming industry already has successful global market experiences and technology, and Futureverse brings new dimensions of interaction and experience to the gaming industry. Based on its experience and expertise, Korea's content industry and Futureverse can significantly contribute to mutual development and growth. Moreover, since Korean Metaverse players are already garnering a lot of users' interest, they are ready to offer even more diverse experiences through Futureverse's technology and services.