BAYC Owner Yuga Labs: Metaverse NFT Open Standards Coming ‘Very Soon’
by James · November 3, 2022
One of the unique selling points of Web3 metaverse has always been the idea of interoperability; which users can port their NFTs between metaverse platforms. But to date, interoperability between metaverse platforms has been very limited.
It can be set to change, too Bored Ape Yacht Club founder Greg Solano, aka Garga, says Decrypt, “We will publish our object standards as they become available; some coming very soon, and others coming within the next year.” Those object standards will, Solano said, be “open standards that anyone can adopt, and can build on top of.”
The idea is that a designer can create a 3D character model for BAYC’s Otherside metaverse and “just as easily take it to another metaverse.” And vice versa (or metaverse-a).
Bored Ape Yacht Club owner Yuga Labs, the company behind the Otherside metaverse, wants to build a “truly interoperable” metaverse; one that “is going to allow you to play as whatever character you are,” said Yuga Labs CEO Nicole Muniz Decrypt. “Maybe you’re a monkey. Maybe you’re not; maybe you’re not Yuga property, that’s okay.”
The goal is ultimately to create an open world where “everyone is able to have a shared fun experience,” she added.
Building a metaverse creative economy
What sets Otherside apart from other metaverse efforts, Muniz said, is that “it’s rooted in mythology, in lore — something that will lead to gameplay and other shared experiences that our community has.”
The other selling point for an open metaverse, as opposed to a Web2 “walled garden” like Fortnite or Roblox, is “real ownership,” Solano said.
“The best innovations that have come out of gaming in the last 20 years have been from modding communities,” he said. “Some of the biggest games in the world started with some anonymous developers building on top of another platform.”
The open metaverse offers these creators a means to monetize their work beyond begging for Patreon donations or YouTube subscriptions, he explained.
“If there was a native incentive structure, where they can own assets and ancestry there, then hopefully we create the creator economy that actually drives value back to creators, just by virtue of the existing incentive structure.”
Yuga Labs isn’t the only metaverse company pushing for open standards.
Earlier this month, the Open Metaverse Alliance (OMA3) launched with a vision to ensure the metaverse “remains open and becomes truly user-owned,” part of which includes a working group to develop interoperability standards.
However, while Yuga Labs was initially announced as a member company of OMA3, it was later clarified that its inclusion in the group has not yet been finalized.
