Verses raises $6 million to set up blockchain-based property rights in augmented reality Posted on : Aug 15 - 2018

Verses has launched a protocol for virtual and augmented reality to help people establish ownership of virtual real estate, 3D space, and other goods in the virtual world. The company likes to refer to this idea of owning things within the virtual world as Web 3.0.

Just as websites have a proprietary address, Verses is using blockchain technology to identify specific 3D spaces in augmented reality. That allows people to own parts of the virtual world, or Metaverse, if you will. And Los Angeles-based Verses has set up the nonprofit Verses Foundation to serve as arbiter for the protocol that will delineate this “spatial web.”

The Verses Spatial Web Protocol is a universal and open standard for the next generation of the web that exists in AR or VR, connecting people, places, things, and currencies into a single digital network.

“Every 15 years or so, you get a change to the technology interface, like from mainframes to desktops to laptops or from Facebook or Apple to Magic Leap and augmented reality and virtual reality,” said Gabriel Rene, executive director of Verses, in an interview with VentureBeat. “The big problem we identified is that web protocols were designed to link pages together. To do AR/VR, there’s no way to move virtual things across the real world. There’s no address.”

He added, “We create a geospatial internet protocol address that works inside virtual worlds. So you can move between virtual worlds and move virtual assets across real space. We see this as the basis for Web 3.0.”

The protocol lets people apply to augmented reality the same ownership principles that we have in the physical world, such as owning the land on which a house is built or owning a website.

It sets up ideas such as property rights, monetization, geolocation, and tradability of digital goods. For instance, if I own a property in the real world, and I can see the virtual space in my home using augmented reality glasses, then I should make sure that I own the augmented reality space in my home. I don’t, for instance, want someone else to set up their own property inside my house and then draw people to the location by advertising it as a virtual night club. I think this sets up some fascinating discussions about the kinds of rights physical property owners should have in cyberspace.

Verses wants to create a new economy for tradable and transportable digitized assets that combines the virtual with the physical, allowing the digital world to leap off the screen with interactions never before possible. With the integration of blockchain technology, a new generation of secure digital trade and immersive experiences becomes possible.

Rene believes that companies will be able to create interconnected game worlds and virtual worlds, establishing a transactional economy like the Oasis, the virtual universe of the novel and movie Ready Player One. View More