The metaverse is all the rage. And ICON has apparently been taking note.
Southeast Asian-base metaverse builder RedFOX Labs (RFOX) announced late last week that ICON would be one of the first full-time residents of its retail and entertainment-focused virtual world RFOX VALT.
From the announcement:
“At RFOX VALT, ICON will have a designated gallery and office space open to the community, where people can learn more about the project and create new social connections in a Virtual Reality environment, hot on the heels of the release of its new mainnet, ICON 2.0.”
Members of the ICON community will reportedly be able to interact in virtual reality in real time.
The announcement quotes the ICON Foundation’s Min Kim, who said, “We are honored that members at RedFOX Labs have chosen us as one of their strategic partners at an early stage in their venture and we very much look forward to the creative possibilities that a fully dedicated VR space will bring—not only in terms of how we communicate all that’s happening in the ICON ecosystem but also in terms of how the broader community will interact with each other in virtual reality.”
According to the announcement, ICON will be moving into the “Callinova Quarter” of the VALT, the first neighborhood to go live. Go to RFOX’s blog and check out some of the concept art for Callinova, including shop, showroom and corporate headquarter templates.
OK, it’s not the Black Sun from “Snow Crash,” but it still seems like a very cool place for the ICON community to hold meetups and promote products.
The metaverse may be the internet’s next frontier, especially as advancements in broadband speeds, VR headsets and other peripherals, and other information technologies make realistic, virtually inhabitable worlds possible.
Facebook and Microsoft’s moves into the metaverse have certainly elevated the hype around the space, albeit not to everyone’s delight. Still, the metaverse offers a space where, in the words of one Bloomberg headline copywriter, “crypto, gaming and capitalism collide.” And its impact on education, business culture and job creation promises to be profound.
