Zhao Changpeng bets on the Metaverse VR track: Who will be the next hot spot?

Recently, with the market recovery, the Metaverse VR track has soared. The token HIGH of the Metaverse game Highstreet has increased by more than 300% since January 29, and the token RNDR of the decentralized GPU-based rendering solution Render Network has also increased by nearly 200% since January 28.

It is generally believed in the industry that the surge in VR track projects is due to people's expectation that Apple will launch VR products as early as this spring. At the same time, Zhao Changpeng bet on the VR project. He said, "Binance builds a metaverse, which will definitely be supported by BNB, but because Binance itself is not a game developer and does not have a game development team, he prefers to only invest in other virtual reality (VR) projects or metaverse games." It was after Zhao Changpeng spoke that the HIGH invested by Binance rose.

In the real world, although the concept of VR is hot, the sales of VR hardware products are not optimistic. In 2022, PICO, a well-known domestic VR hardware equipment manufacturer, set a sales target of 1.8 million units for itself, but failed to achieve its goal. VR is currently mainly used in the gaming field for mass consumers, but the game content is crudely produced and the experience is poor. This has led to low consumer enthusiasm for purchasing.

The roughness of VR content is due to the immaturity of technology, the high cost of creating VR content, and the low return on creation. The projects that have skyrocketed this time, such as Highstreet, are game projects that have built VR usage scenarios within the project. Render Network is a metaverse infrastructure and a rendering solution based on decentralized GPUs.

Golden Finance analyzed four projects involving the metaverse VR segment, including Highstreet and Render Network, and found that at present, the content of the metaverse projects involving VR content based on blockchain technology is already relatively comprehensive, including games, NFTs, live music, land sales, etc. The role of VR in this is mostly to increase the sense of use of wandering in the metaverse.

The following is a detailed analysis of the four projects:

Highstreet:

This is a commercial metaverse platform created by computer vision VR retail company LumiereVR, which has 100,000 followers on Twitter.

According to its official website, the project is a money-making MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing) game that provides shopping and gaming experiences. Real brands can go to the shops built in the Highstreet world, and users can play games, buy houses, and products in it.

When the game was first built, it was designed to be used in VR worlds. Users can access the game through VR devices, PC, mobile, and Oculus Quest standalone. Its target audience is VR purists and game enthusiasts who are interested in MMORPGs.

In terms of the token economy model, a dual-token economy model is adopted. The token HIGH is used to purchase limited edition products on the market, as well as commercial and residential real estate in the Highstreet world. HIGH can also be used to participate in special events in the metaverse, from concerts to PFP club events. The token Street is used for daily purchases in the game, from food and beverages (HP and MP) to digital equipment in the game. The upper limit of HIGH is 100 million and there is a deflation mechanism, but STREET is inflationary, has no upper limit, and is earned by playing games. As more and more players enter the metaverse world, the issuance of STREET will gradually expand.

At present, we can see that in terms of VR hardware, it has achieved cooperation with leading hardware manufacturers such as HTC. Binance is one of its investors. When HIGH was first issued, 1HIGH=1.00BUSD. When HIGH was first launched on Binance, it reached a high price of $40. The current price is $3.48. The current circulation volume is 12% of the total supply. The market value ranks more than 400. Because of its Binance investment background, after Binance announced that it will launch a large-scale attack on the metaverse VR field in 2023, Binance may have further pull-up actions.

Render Network:

A rendering solution provider based on decentralized GPU, it is simply the infrastructure needed to build metaverse VR applications. Its token is RNDR, and it currently has 71,000 Twitter followers.

In the process of building a real metaverse world, the 3D rendering process required for VR content is relatively complicated. It is introduced that it can greatly simplify the standard process of rendering and streaming 3D environments and other visual effects, and can increase the rendering speed by 10 to 100 times.

All transactions on the Render Network are denominated in RNDR, a token issued by Render Network. RNDR is an ERC20 program token used by creators to pay for on-demand GPU computing provided by node operators. Its supply is capped at 536,870,912, and it is currently in circulation at 47% of the total supply. Its current market capitalization ranks 98th, and its private placement price is $0.25 per token, and its current price is $1.48. In terms of token distribution, 25% of RNDR tokens are sold to the public, 10% are allocated to RNDR reserves, and the remaining 65% are currently held by custodians to help regulate the supply and demand flow of the network.

At the end of December 2021, it received a strategic investment of US$30 million led by Multicoin Capital. We can see that the project has a good foundation and is favored and invested by star investment institutions. However, it is still in the stage of centralized operation, and the transactions on the rendering network are not transparent. Moreover, at this stage, the industry is in its early stages of development and the actual demand for rendering is relatively small. However, this is a rare infrastructure project in the VR track that is committed to the development of technology and has received support from mainstream investment institutions in the circle.

Ceek:

Ceek was originally a company mainly dedicated to building AR/VR wearable devices, and its patented VR headset set has been released. At present, it is committed to becoming a metaverse digital streaming media. First of all, users can use its VR set to experience the star's concert scene in an immersive way. For artists, artists share resources through the blockchain platform equipped with CEEK wearable devices, such as a single album or song, or through VR/AR studios established by CEEK on a large scale. CEEK VR has CEEK CITY, a VR stage for live performances.

Ceek's token is ceek, which can be flexibly used for rewards, voting, competitions, virtual goods and other transactions on the platform. The total number of tokens issued is 1 billion. Its token was issued on June 12, 2018, and the current circulation volume is 81% of the total issuance volume. The market value ranks 249th. The original crowdfunding price was 0.2061 yuan, and the current price is 0.85 yuan.

The number of downloads of its app is as high as over 100,000. Its official website shows that it has many celebrities supporting it and has launched live performances of many celebrities on its platform. Ceek has 223,000 followers on Twitter. It is a project to be supported by Binance’s $1 billion cryptocurrency growth fund. If it can be listed on Binance in the future, there may be a good increase in its share price.

Virtua:

This is an NFT ecosystem and gaming metaverse platform with 124,000 followers on Twitter. It provides a space for artists, games, movies, and brands to create their own fully immersive digital experiences for fans through 3D NFTs with tangible utility. Users can display and interact with animated collectibles in Virtua's VR showroom.

This project is the first metaverse project in the Cardano ecosystem. It is quite popular and its first land sale was sold out. By browsing its official website, we can see that there are many NFT works published on Virtua. Users can use VR/AR to realize some metaverse experiences. According to Virtua's settings, users can also display their works in their personal exhibition halls.

Judging from the current development of the project, it is more like a VR promotion platform for NFT collections, focusing on the metaverse of NFT exhibitions, and its connection with VR is mainly in observing NFT exhibitions.

In the setting of the token economic system, its token TVK is mainly used in the reputation system it has built. Users gain reputation by staking TVK, and the platform will airdrop NFTs according to the user's reputation. Users can get token rewards when doing tasks, governance, and transactions on the platform. TVK is issued on the Ethereum network and is now listed on exchanges such as Binance and Bitmask. The total issuance of TVK is 1.2 billion, and the current circulation is 79% of its total. The market value ranks more than 400. Its issuance price is US$0.01 and the current price is US$0.04. Overall, the empowerment of its tokens is not particularly good.

Summarize:

The current development of the VR industry mainly relies on technological progress. Only with technological progress can the cost of VR content creation be reduced, the quality of content be improved, and finally the market application be popularized.

The Metaverse industry, which relies on the development of the blockchain industry, is actually providing excellent content for the VR industry. From the four Metaverse projects we analyzed above, we can see that there are not many innovations in Metaverse projects based on blockchain technology. They are mainly concentrated in games, NFTs, and land sales. There are many projects with similar content.

There are relatively few blockchain projects that focus on the infrastructure of Metaverse projects and technological progress. Render Network is one of them, but due to the early development of the industry, its application scenarios are not many. In the early days when there are fewer application scenarios and a narrow market, the main factors to consider for which project can come out are: first, the background of the investors behind it. A strong investment background means that there is money to burn, as well as the ability to pull the market and create hot spots. The second is the design of its economic model. If the token has strong empowerment, many usage scenarios, and can achieve deflation, then the token will have a strong driving force for growth.