Building an Open and Decentralized Metaverse: Somnium Space Means BUSINESS

The Metaverse has become a buzzword. Facebook is expected to rebrand as a Metaverse company. Mainstream news media are writing about it. But whereas the Metaverse dreams of Facebook are a dream of power, Somnium Space is building an open, persistent and decentralized Metaverse. In case there was any shadow of doubt about how serious and determined Somnium Space is when it comes to building an open Metaverse for everyone, the news that just came out has crushed that effectively. Somnium Space has announced a number of exciting strategic investments, initiatives and products that will propel it further into the future. A significant driver will be the Gemini Frontier Fund. They believe so much in the vision of Somnium Space that they have decided to invest in the platform.

Gemini Frontier Fund is a strategic venture fund focused on investing in early-stage crypto projects and startups. Their backing is an important milestone and signal that Somnium Space is a unique project with a huge potential.

What’s more, Gemini founders Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss have become official advisors for Somnium Space.

“At Somnium Space, our vision is long-term. We plan in decades rather than in quarters. That is why I am extremely excited to announce this partnership with Tyler and Cameron. They have built several incredibly pivotal products and are true experts among other in social and blockchain ecosystems. Together with them, we will take Somnium to the next level. As an experience, as a company and as a decentralized and open eco-system” — says Artur Sychov, Founder & CEO of Somnium Space.

“The future of our online experience will be decentralized Metaverses. Somnium Space has created a magical, immersive world that will blow you away the moment you enter it. We’re excited to invest in this incredible team building our online future.” — says Tyler Winklevoss, Founder of Winklevoss Capital Management and Gemini cryptocurrency exchange.

As if this isn’t enough to crush any remnants of doubt about Somnium Space’s intentions, a whole range of other announcements accompanied the Gemini Frontier Fund news. The list is long. We will briefly go over them below, but rest assured we will look at each topic more in-depth in a range of upcoming articles.

Investment in TESLASUIT

During the Road to Tertiary Land Offering in the first half of 2021, Somnium Space announced an exclusive partnership with Teslasuit, the haptic feedback platform. They also sold several suits during the auction. The news caused a few shockwaves. For the first time ever, users of Somnium Space could experience touch sensations, experience the Somnium summer rain hit their body and seamlessly transfer all their body movements to their Somnium avatar.

That Somnium Space means business when it comes to deepening the sense of immersion and bring unparalleled sensory technology to Somnium Space is clearly demonstrated by their decision to deepen their partnership with this company.

The news further mentions that the two companies will continue research and development of new sensory sensations within Somnium Space, such as already supported touch, music, weather, shooting and others. Part of this partnership will be analysis and R&D regarding new potential joint product lines created specifically for immersive Metaverse purposes.

Furthermore, Teslasuit will open a VR store in Somnium Space’s in-world shopping mall.

Investment into VRgineers

Another strategic investment is in VRgineers, the manufacturer of high-resolution, professional VR headsets. Coupled to the other news that Somnium Space – under the code name Somnium Unit 01 – is working on their own all-in-one standalone headset, we see Somnium carving out a clear path to the future.

Development of Somnium Space all-in-one Standalone / PC VR Headset

For many, the appeal of Somnium Space is the relentless focus on the quality of the immersion. Therefore, the news that Somnium Space is working on a stand alone headset has many Somnium citizen’s jump with excitement. A headset developed by the company whose vision is second to none immersion. Wow.

We are extremely excited to share with all of you what we have been working on already for months — a Somnium Space VR headset. At Somnium we believe that users must have the right of choice. That VR hardware market should not consist of few big players producing headsets with closed eco systems thus creating silos and with full control over user experience and more importantly data. Moreover, as a decentralized and open Metaverse company we cannot allow Somnium Space to be dependent on hardware gatekeepers to be able to communicate and engage with our users. That is why, earlier this year we have taken a strategic decision to start working on our own VR headset.

This is truly exciting news. The VR headset will feature the following according to the announcement:

Standalone mode powered by Snapdragon XR2 chip
Native PC VR mode
Open, community driven software eco-system
Modular design

Integration of Solana; Somnium Space goes Multi-Chain

Somnium Space is spreading its decentralized footprint by integrating Solana NFT’s, which allows them to be natively used and displayed in VR /WebXR clients. This is significant, signaling that decentralization is the future for Somnium. They will also include a NEAR implementation/integration early 2022.

At Somnium Space we believe in a multichain open Metaverse with highly efficient interoperability capabilities. We have always thrived to achieve that and allow users to host and use their NFT tokens from different blockchain networks next to each other natively in Virtual Reality.

Starting from December Solana users will be able to fully utilize their NFTs inside Somnium VR / PC / WebXR clients. Build an NFT gallery, use your VR Avatar to visit VR concerts while dancing with full body tracking kit, create a whole NFT WORLD and invite everyone to experience it.

To make it all happen and create the most seamless and hurdle free experience, Somnium Space is working on a full Polygon Layer 2 implementation. They also work on the implementation of a new client.

Tertiary Land Offering (14th of Nov — 18th of Dec)

Owning assets in Somnium Space is the key to unleashing creativity. Somnium understand this and has announced the tertiary land offering, which will run from November 14th to December 18th. Assets on sale will be:

Somnium Land Parcels (S, M, XL)
Somnium WORLDs (S, M, XL)
Estates
Special Limited edition Avatars and Cars
Special genesis edition items in cooperation with Admix

Note that assets will auctioned on both Ethereum (OpenSea) and Solana (Holaplex stores). Auctions will be both Dutch-style and English. We will write much more about the Tertiary Land Offering in upcoming articles.

Somnium Connect conference

Somnium Space also announced the first ever Somnium Connect conference, which will be a combined LIVE (in Prague) and VR event. This will give Somnium, the community and friends and partners of Somnium a platform to discuss the current state of the Metaverse, make product announcements and together push things forward.

Somnium Space will announce the precise dates in a separate announcement.