A metaverse can be defined as an alternate world where different technologies work together to provide the user with a unique experience. Apart from the conceptual aspects of such a project, the most difficult and complex part represents the creation of the world. How do you actually build such an environment that mimics real-life in some ways but also provides new experiences and activities for users to engage in? Join this tour through the backstage of Lootverse and discover the perks and challenges of coding this fantastic parallel world.
Technical Challenges
Some of the most important challenges include the fact that the technologies that are being used to develop these systems are fairly new and untested. Companies in this field are disrupting the current ecosystem and have little or no reference point. This brings to the forefront technical challenges, which include the use of NFTs, smart contracts, and traditional cloud-based and web-based systems. The main issue resides in making sure that all these very different systems work harmoniously together. It is not a small feat, given that centralized systems need to communicate and work with decentralized systems. At the same time, it is important to ensure that they follow the regulatory framework for the regions that it is currently supporting.
Lootverse, among its numerous features, also includes its own blockchain: Talos Blockchain. Blockchains are in themselves full-fledged systems that require the dedication and effort of a full team to be properly maintained. Lootverse stands to benefit a lot from Talos Blockchain in reduced transaction costs as well as a high transaction throughput. At the same time, it includes added complexity in not only maintaining the blockchain but also making sure that it can serve the entire Lootian ecosystem.
Developing the World
Lootverse is a whole world in itself. The question that comes to one’s mind is: how do you code an entire world? This requires a set of skills and a specialized team to make it work. In roughly seven months, Loot NFT was able to release The Arena, The Fund, The Government, Satoshi’s Lounge, and the Lootverse Interactive Map. These are in themselves big platforms that include functions like KYC, transaction management, NFTs management systems, wallet management software, real-time bidding systems, and UI elements, ranging from interactive maps to gorgeous NFT designs.
Developing the world also required tremendous effort to be able to churn out one system after the other. All of those had very specific needs, from high availability, scalability, and stability, to excellent usability. High availability systems are difficult to architect, primarily because of the uncertainty in the traffic that is expected to reach them. Having the proper balance between feature development and platform maintenance becomes an important part of the whole project.
Another critical aspect when building a metaverse from the ground up is the necessity of making the world extensible. Lootverse, as with the real world, is expected to evolve over time. So it becomes inherently important to make sure that all systems developed are flexible enough to allow for upgrades and changes without breaking the existing world. Building stable systems highly customizable and extensible provides us with its own set of challenges.
Different Outlook on NFTs
NFTs are primarily smart contracts created to represent unique physical and digital items. They have been around for a number of years, and as a result, they have evolved to be fairly standard in the way they work. However, within Lootverse, NFTs are only one of the multiple building blocks. They represent the base layer or core technology component on which other more complex systems are built.
This provides a very different take on how NFTs are viewed and used across different projects, where they are usually limited to minting, buying, and selling. Lootverse aims to have NFTs as building blocks to more interesting and interactive systems. One fitting example is the way NFTs are used within The Arena to allow users to mint the official redeeming tokens, called Lootian Tickets (LTT), which then provide the holders the ability to either list them in in-world exchanges or participate in activities within the Lootverse, spending their LTT.
Coding Lootverse feels like playing God, but at the same time, it requires one to be humble, given the gargantuan task of coding to bring a whole world to life.
