Founders

Nolan Consulting, the founding entity of the Voxels project, was inspired by previous works on A-FrameVR and SceneVR.^[1][2] Ben Nolan, an independent game developer based in New Zealand, played a role in the development of Voxels. Following the rebranding of Cryptovoxels to Voxels in May 2022, Nolan celebrated the event with a Metaverse party during VoxCon, where he participated in an Ask Me Anything (AMA) session.^[3][2]

Launch

Voxels was launched on April 1, 2018. The project was initially released through a secret beta key in 2018, with the first land sales made to the creator's friends and advisors.^[4]

In June 2018, the virtual land parcels were made available to the public through the OpenSea marketplace. The beta key was removed in July 2018, allowing anyone to purchase virtual land parcels. The platform allows users to make financial decisions and create virtual spaces, which are isolated and can be accessed through a URL.^[1]

Rebranding

On May 3, 2022, the project officially rebranded to Voxels. The rebranding was celebrated with a Metaverse party during VoxCon, a virtual event that included live DJ music and an AMA session with founders Ben Nolan and Benjamin Larcher. The rebranding was intended to reflect the project's new goal of reaching the mainstream public and expanding the benefits of Web3 to Web2 and non-crypto users. The rebranding also marked the introduction of a new character, VIDDA, an artificial intelligence entity that symbolizes the platform's commitment to visuals, intent, design, direction, and atmosphere.^[3][5]

Roadmap

The roadmap for Voxels has been outlined with plans for several major versions. The roadmap was designed to focus on improving social tools, building tools, and performance. The social improvements include better user interaction, voice chat, user profiles, and private chat rooms. The building improvements are planned to include import/export scene support, full color tiles, and a mode selector for place, drag, or paint voxels. The performance improvements are aimed to reduce load times and prevent dropped frames.^[6] Planned improvements for the future include the integration of augmented reality technologies to enhance the user experience by incorporating real-world objects.^[1][5]

Platform Architecture

Centralized and Decentralized Elements

Voxels operates using a combination of centralized and decentralized elements. The ownership of parcels, represented by ERC-721 tokens, is decentralized and can be bought on OpenSea. However, the rendering of these parcels on the voxels.com website is a centralized process.^[7]

Virtual Land Parcels

Virtual land parcels are unique parts of the in-world land that users can own by purchasing Land Non-Fungible Tokens. These NFTs represent specific locations within the virtual world and allow users to control, build upon, and monetize the three-dimensional space. Users can also add or remove blocks and embed multimedia content such as video, audio, and images on their virtual land parcels.^[1][4][7][8]

Membership Benefits

The Voxels NFT project provides several benefits to its members. The NFTs within the Voxels community act as membership passes, offering access to discounts and real-world meetups. The project also provides access to gated virtual and real-life experiences. Users can also participate in various activities such as visiting art galleries, nightclubs, conference areas, and games. The Voxels community also offers its own branded marijuana products, which California residents can order for delivery through a link in the metaverse space.^[9]

NFT Wearables

Voxels offers utility in the form of NFT Wearables. These are limited edition virtual clothing items for avatars that fit the platform's voxel-based aesthetic. Users have the ability to create their own NFT Wearable items, providing a level of customization and personalization within the virtual world.^[8]

Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality Integration

Voxels is a metaverse platform that is compatible with popular virtual reality (VR) headsets such as Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and Oculus Quest. The platform also has plans to integrate augmented reality (AR) technologies to further enhance the user experience by incorporating real-world objects into the virtual environment.^[1]

Asset Creation and Ownership

Voxels is a platform in the metaverse where the primary function of the land is to serve as a location for placing assets. Users can display or sell collections such as NFTs after constructing on the land. The platform enables users to create new experiences or assets on their virtual land parcels. It uses the Ethereum token for building, selling, and renting these land parcels, thereby creating an independent economy.^[1][10]

No Content for Ownership Rights as of now.

The rarity traits of the Voxels NFT collection are primarily associated with the scarcity of virtual land parcels within the platform. Additionally, the platform's NFT Wearables, which are limited edition virtual clothing items for avatars, also contribute to the rarity traits within the Voxels ecosystem.^[11][8]

The main rarity trait categories for Voxels are as follows:^[12]

• closest-common
• has_basement
• island
• suburb
• title
• waterfront
• area
• depth
• elevation
• height
• width