---
title: 6.3 Metaverse on NEAR
description: NEAR Hub, Octopus App Chains
---

# 6.3 The Metaverse on NEAR: NEAR Hub, Octopus Appchains, and The Role of a Metaverse For An L1

In our final lecture on the Metaverse, we will zoom in specifically on the different Metaverse projects building in the NEAR ecosystem, and also focus on the natural advantages that NEAR may hold to accommodate a Metaverse in the future. We conclude this module on the Metaverse by identifying the role that a Metaverse may play for any L1 in the future, as well as key areas of innovation within Metaverses going forward. 

## The Metaverse Projects Currently Building on NEAR

There are two primary Metaverse plays building on NEAR as of January 2023. Interestingly, they each take radically different approaches: The first, is known as NEAR Hub, and is built on NEAR Native, with a specific emphasis on world creation and artificial intelligence integrations. The second, is a Metaverse factory, allowing users to generate their own metaverses as an App-chain on Octopus Network. 

### NEAR Hub [Pre-Launch]

Designed and created by Jeff Gold, NEAR Hub is NEAR’s community-developed Metaverse, designed specifically for composability needs within the NEAR Ecosystem.


![](@site/static/img/bootcamp/mod-em-6.3.1.png)


Similar to Decentraland and Sandbox, Avatar generation and Scene building is included, as are 3D infrastructure of the likes of storefronts or luxury apartments. 

What differentiates Near Hub are a number of factors: 

* Jitsi based communication enabled inside of the Metaverse (for talking, screen sharing, and calls). 
* AI generators capable of creating geNFTs and other forms of AI worked art. 
* Built in scene editor, allowing any user to customize a specific scene or parcel of the Metaverse of their choice. 

_Business Model:_ The business model for NEAR Hub largely centers around setting fees for use of services, and eventually in providing community, marketing, and socialization services to different dApps inside of the ecosystem. For a dApp on NEAR, the value proposition of having a parcel of the Metaverse, or a place inside of it is exposure specifically to the NEAR community that accesses that Metaverse. The question remains (addressed fully below), to what extent is an active community inside of an L1 ecosystem, a necessary prerequisite for a successful Metaverse to thrive? 

### Reality Chain

Significantly different from NEAR Hub, is Reality Chain. Reality Chain takes an entirely different approach to the Metaverse. Launched as an Appchain on Octopus Network (discussed in Module 9) Reality Chain brands itself as a Metaverse generator, such that any builder can create their own custom Metaverse using the tooling and specifications of Reality chain. 


![](@site/static/img/bootcamp/mod-em-6.3.2.png)


Branded as a _social metaverse_, Reality Chain limits itself to attempting to create a more enhanced and immersive social experience, that does not attempt to over-intrude:

_“Reality Chain is an award-winning Social Metaverse that seeks to give you a non-immersive Metaverse experience with the power of Web 3.0. A Metaverse shouldn’t replace your social interactions; and instead, it should be a complementary part of your social life. Reality Chain’s Metaverse provides a “casual” experience while still giving you the benefit of owning pieces of it as NFTs.” ([Reality Chain](https://www.realitychain.io/))_

Monetarily, the $REAL token is utilized to mint land and parcels for anyone looking to create their own social Metaverse. To date, the most successful dApp built on top of Reality Chain is known as [Myriad Social - a social network that is attempting to create a Metaverse component to its service. ](https://www.myriad.social/myriad-metaverse)

## Natural Advantages for NEAR: Social, Account Model, and More

Looking ahead into the future, there are a number of opportunities for NEAR to capitalize on the future emergence of the Metaverse, specifically centering on unique design propositions of the NEAR Ecosystem: 

* **Cheap Transaction Costs:** Unlike Ethereum, which averages a transaction cost from between $8 to $50 dollars (depending on network congestion), NEAR can sustainably handle millions of users at a time, at a cheap and cost effective rate. This is evident but should be emphasized specifically for any thriving metaverse.
* **[NEAR.Social:](https://near.social/#/)** NEAR already has its own social-network, capable of establishing profiles, identity, and communication between users. This as an open-source starting point is already providing the groundwork for pulling NEAR social into any Metaverse of the future. 
* **The NEAR Account Model:** The inbuilt NEAR account model, provides the equivalent of a domain service for the NEAR ecosystem. While currently naming is only possible with a name.near ID, subaccounts, as well as new high level accounts name.usa, name.australia, etc. are in principle also possible. This is an optimal in-baked logic, for the future identification of metaverse avatars, the buying and selling of accounts that own metaverse real estate, and the seamless onboarding of new users into the Metaverse with a familiar name ID. 
* **Robust DAO Tooling and Role Based Decision Making via Astro DAO:** Metaverse governance, collective decision making, and partitioning of ownership over certain facets of the Metaverse, via Astro DAO and Sputnik DAO, create an easy plug-and-play type model from which decentralized governance can be directly imbued into any or all of a given metaverse. 

## The Role of a Metaverse For An L1

As crypto continues to grow and mature, the place of the Metaverse in a given ecosystem remains an untapped super-dApp that has yet to be successfully tapped into. 

This final, closing part of our treatment of the Metaverse zooms into the _macro trends_ surrounding its development into the future, and specifically its intended function in an L1 ecosystem. 

To start, let's imagine a robust L1 ecosystem, crawling with users across a diverse product stack of DeFi protocols, storage solutions, NFT Marketplaces, practical NFTs (music, fashion, etc.), a number of diverse communities, ecosystem wide governance, and a sizable portion of ecosystem generated value. In short, an L1 ecosystem that is thriving with users, value, and activity. 

### What does a Metaverse do in this situation?

Simply put, it provides an aggregated interface and platform for easing transaction costs, improving exposure among dApps, strengthening community - including visibility of OG community members or reputable leaders, and creating an all-in-one interface for visibility into the larger ecosystem at hand. 

By establishing property and ownership inside of this Metaverse, it establishes a further level of permanence that can later on be connected with the physical world via hardware (glasses, headsets, physical locations and portals into areas of the Metaverse, and so forth). 

Remembering that we are early to the concept of virtual worlds and open-decentralized community operated Metaverses, this has nevertheless led industry predictors to see growth in the Metaverse as an [industry cluster in the hundreds of billions of dollars](https://www.globaldata.com/store/report/metaverse-market-analysis/#:~:text=According%20to%20GlobalData%20estimates%2C%20the,crucial%20technologies%20driving%20its%20development.) over the coming 7 years. 

A full thesis is outlined on this topic [by Delphi Digital](https://naavik.co/deep-dives/into-the-void), but the most important high level takeaway - and in line with what was discussed in lecture 1 of this module can be summarized as the following: 

_“The Metaverse Represents Our Next Great Milestone, As A Networked Species.”  ([Naavik](https://naavik.co/deep-dives/into-the-void))_

## Key Areas of Innovation in the Metaverse

In the NEAR future, we can imagine innovation in further developing the metaverse in the following manners: 

* _Metaverse Complexity:_ Whereby scarcity of parcels,  access to certain areas of a metaverse, and the capacity to create items inside of the metaverse, is gamified further through metaverse native elements or building blocks that can be extracted and harvested at scale. Conversely, this also applies to requiring certain thresholds or access levels, to different areas in the metaverse, either based on a reputation system or through staking certain amounts of a token. 
* _Composable Integrations and dApps:_ Integrating different dApps, generators, and marketplaces from an L1 ecosystem, into the Metaverse, such that it becomes an ‘integrated’ and ‘composable’ product, as opposed to a stand alone isolated product. 
* _Exclusive Launches and Events:_ Hosting unique and rare events in the Metaverse, including original launches of PFP collections, music album releases, special events and announcements, and even ecosystem wide elections. 
* _AR/VR Integration:_ Creating a symbiosis between the digital and the physical world, such that physical hardware can enhance the digital experience, and digital locations can be specific to physical areas (Pokemon Go style). 
* _AI / Crypto Synergies:_ [Bridging the gap](https://www.intechopen.com/chapters/77823) between crypto and AI, the Metaverse offers an ideal and holistic platform for AI generators to be inserted for use. 
* _Crypto-Economic Design:_ Increasing the sophistication of Metaverse crypto-economic systems, such that synergies can be established between the mother ecosystem hosting the metaverse (the L1 token in question), and conversely, partner dApps with their own tokens, that can be used within the Metaverse. In the long-term future, this would also relate to bringing in new types of value to gamified features of the Metaverse (carbon credits for example), and overlaying different tokens (both fungible and non-fungible) into the underlying world and mechanism design for users to participate in.