The Metaverse: Where Blockchain-Based Technology is Making the Virtual World a Reality

The metaverse is no longer a buzzword or a concept - it's becoming reality, even if virtual. In the world that's going digital at an enormous speed, where social interactions are transferred through the Internet, blockchain-based technologies shine.

The notion of owning digital land is no longer a fantasy but one that many people acknowledge and accept. The power of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) has had an impact on the nascent industry, and Next Earth is leveraging it to create a platform that allows users to purchase, develop, and sell virtual land which is mapped right onto our planet Earth.

At Gábor Rétfalvi's interview with CryptoPotato, he talks about his experience in blockchain, what makes their platform unique and the hurdles they have to overcome.

How did you get into crypto, and why did you decide to stick around and build?

In February 2021, my friends showed me the Earth2 project. As a businessman, I was immediately impressed by its potential, but I didn’t understand why it wasn’t blockchain-based.

I always say to be the first one, but never the first one. That way, you can spot promising projects. After you have examined them and corrected their mistakes, you can think ahead and come up with a market-changing new solution.

We have investigated Earth2 and found that the crypto market's development (DeFi, NFT) has brought technology to "blockchainize" this industry. There were no technical barriers, so we began work on the project and launched it live in July.

In only 10 months, the project has more than 240 000 users and 45 000 landowners. This makes it the platform with more landowners than in both of the two big metaverse projects combined.

When did you first hear about NFTs?

After I began looking for a technical solution on how we could do the Earth-based Metaverse. In fact, if I remember correctly, the first time when I heard about NFTs was from a Gary Vee video on Youtube.

Please tell us more about Next Earth – the project you’re leading. What are you building?

Next Earth is a blockchain metaverse that enables the creation of communities based on nonfungible tokens (NFTs) of real Earth properties. In Next Earth’s blockchain system, users can own land as NFTs, which means that only those who “mint” it, that is, buy it and make it NFT, can own it.

The concept of Next Earth is straightforward but powerful: to create a digital replica of the planet that people can use to buy and sell land, just like in the real world. The map is divided into small tiles, each of which represents a spot on Earth. You can buy and sell these tiles just as you would buy and sell real estate.

Four things are essential to our ecosystem: the platform, where users can mine, buy and sell 10x10m blocks of virtual land. The land is the basis for the platform; our native currency, NXTT; and Platform as a Service (PaaS) model.

To make Next Earth a viable product for the public, we have created it in a complex "Platform as a Service" model. This allows any external entity - such as crypto providers, large multinational companies or community members - to create web3 businesses on the platform.

Next Earth is a community-driven project. The business can be funded by the community on the Next Earth launchpad. The users are the biggest winners, since they can monetize themselves while using services/products of an entity that they also own. This creates a triple-win situation where the platform provides infrastructure in exchange for an immediate allocation from each transaction in a traceable way.

How does Next Earth differ from other Metaverse land-related projects?

The first metaverse ecosystem that aims to democratize the metaverse and make the world a more connected place is Earth. We want to create a sustainable and decentralized version of the internet where users can interact without centralized authorities.

Earth is not just about owning the land, we aim to make it useful to users in the real world by extending the metaverse and bridging it to the real world. It acts both as its own metaverse (built as a replica of Earth) and as a middleware layer for anyone to connect and develop their own metaverse with our technology.

We believe that by giving people the tools to create their virtual world, we can inspire a new generation of creators and innovators who will shape the future of the metaverse.

What is the purpose of the NXTT token?

The Next Earth token – NXTT- is the basis of everything that the company does. All Platform Fees, Rewards, land purchases, and marketplace sales will be done in NXTT in the future.

NXTT, the token introduced with the launch of the platform, is a significant evolutionary step that will enable us to achieve our goal of creating a fully self-sustainable digital ecosystem that can deliver real benefits for society and the environment.

Climate change is an existential threat that I believe must be addressed through innovative thinking and new uses of technology. With this project, we have the chance not only to profit from our efforts but also to donate to important causes right from the start, which is what we are doing; for every piece of land we sell, 10% of its cost will go into a pool used for charitable initiatives. At present, there are four organizations that are dedicated partners: The Ocean Cleanup, Amazon Watch, Kiss the Ground and SEE Turtles.

On Next Earth, businesses can offer services to landowners and use NXTT as the main token for transactions and incentives for their services. Every service provider and launchpad project uses NXTT in their business model, making it useful. That's where our token comes into play in our PaaS model: every new partner will provide additional utility to NXTT, building up the entire economy.

What can the Next Earth community see in the near future?

Our first pack sale release was on the 23rd of July, and the main birthday we celebrate is when the map officially launched on the 17th of August.

We also intend to finish the first major stage of development in IT, which Dynamic NFTs and the API layer will be included in, by October. After that, we can focus on Growth.

In the coming few months, we will be able to expand our business and grow to the next stage when we become more established.

If you could summarize and explain it in layman's terms - what is it that you're most excited about Next Earth?

The blockchain industry, NXTT, crypto, web3, charity and the future entrepreneur generations are giving a new type of narrative.

The roadmap is a long-term plan that outlines what we'll be doing in the future.

After the reorganization of the IT department, our team has a clear understanding of Next Earth’s development goals. Now that we have overcome all obstacles, we are looking forward to releasing these developments to our community. From this point on, we make no other promises than delivering.

The four areas where we will be making improvements are Core Platform, Land features upgrade, NXTT, and PaaS (Platform-as-a-Service).

We have made significant progress in each of these areas and are confident that we can deliver a far better experience for our users, and we hope that our community will be as excited about these improvements as we are.

NXTT's price is rising while the market is falling, but what makes your token stand out?

NXTT's performance is a reflection of the strength of our token architecture and community. Although the entire market is bleeding, NXTT is still green and holding strong compared to its January launch price.

Even though the token is still trading at double its "worst" pre-sale price, it has fallen more than 80% since our launch. Our token is special because we are gradually releasing new utilities and ways to add utility to NXTT, as well as supporting the building of this ecosystem through the NXTT Fund which will be launched in the coming months.