Could Portals be the next Decentraland
Last updated
Last updated
Portals gained attention with the entry of crypto-asset exchange Binance. On Jan. 10, Coindesk reported that Binance US will establish an office on Portals, the metaverse platform on the Solana chain, to provide the latest news, charts and events virtually.
Inspired by Tokyo and New York, Portals created a virtual space under the metaverse concept on the Solana chain, where users can start from decorating a room and gradually form city blocks.
On November 26 last year, Portals opened access to the virtual space by means of NFT. Different types of NFT "access control cards" correspond to spaces of different sizes. When the door is opened, the user's imagination of using the space begins.
This is very reminiscent of the metaverse space Decentraland built on Ethereum, where various buildings, art exhibition halls, commercial blocks have been formed... The electronics giant Samsung has created a metaverse building in the land of Decentraland .
Compared with Decentraland, which was born in 2017, Portals started later, but there are certain similarities in the picture of building the metaverse. The biggest difference between the two is the infrastructure - Decentraland is deployed on Ethereum, and Portals chooses the Solana chain with faster network efficiency and lower gas cost, which allows the latter to expand space more quickly.
For Portals to catch up with the development speed of Decentraland, the key lies in the imagination of the community and users. What these virtual spaces can do and to what extent will be a challenge for Portals. The living room seems to be the basic scene. It is reported that game halls and NFT exhibition halls have already appeared in the Portals world, and Binance US station will add office scenes to this virtual space.
On November 26 last year, when Portals opened the access control card of the virtual space, it was briefly discovered in the small circle of NFTs, but it was far from being out of the circle until the news that “Binance US will build an office in Portals” came out. , people began to pay attention to this metaverse application built on the blockchain network Solana.
Portals plans to reproduce dense urban environments like Tokyo and New York in a virtual space, where users can enrich the space and interact in a variety of rooms.
“Binance America is getting a space in Portals Downtown focused on delivering the latest news, charts and events virtually,” Chris Lund, Head of Community and Partnerships at Portals, told CoinDesk.
At present, it is not possible to see Binance in this virtual space in Portals, but Zachary Tindall, a spokesman for Binance US, said that the virtual expansion is designed to become a gathering place for exchange users, "We are in the metaverse for coins. An American Station community creates a space for them to come together.”
Previously, Binance US has built a 3D building in Decentraland, a virtual space on Ethereum, and held a virtual party there for its first anniversary. Perhaps it is conceivable that in the future, users of encrypted assets will no longer rely on existing social tools, such as Telegram or Twitter. People can talk to each other and socialize with each other in this space of Portals.
Binance isn’t the only crypto asset company building space in Portals. Lund disclosed that FTX.US, the U.S. arm of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, will also establish its own office in Portals. In addition, the decentralized trading platform Raydium on the Solana chain, the NFT trading platform Magic Eden, the music streaming platform Audius, and the domain name service provider Bonfidad will also have a place in the virtual world of Portals.
It can be seen that Portals is gaining popularity for its platform through KOLs, and inviting well-known crypto brands and leading applications on the Solana chain is one of the paths. The effect has already appeared. Binance's entry and media reports are all guiding the outside world to visit one of them.
Your space in the Metaverse" is the slogan on Portals' official website, which begins construction in early 2021, bringing together the community of builders and players from the beginning of the user experience, "We hope to be able to explore a dense virtual city center, and explore a City neighborhoods that do all kinds of fun things. We’re building a framework that inspires everyone to invite cool guests and create cool spaces for a thriving downtown.”
Official information shows that the team behind Portals comes from entrepreneurs, engineers and designers from all over the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Mexico, Denmark, etc. The founders Gomez and Wakawakajaq have built games, applications and software for brands such as Disney, Blizzard, and Microsoft. AR/VR experience.
Portals was officially unveiled on November 26 last year. It started with casting 5,000 NFT "Access Control Cards" and opened rooms of different sizes to the outside world. The three levels of access cards announced are named "Visoin", "Onyx" and "Ivory" from high to low. Each access card represents a different room size and rarity. , "Vision" card has the largest space and the highest rarity, followed by "Agate" and "Ivory" the smallest.
Portals emphasized, "All rooms will have enough space, but rare rooms will have more space to build, and the reason behind this is to allow owners to use large spaces to create communities, create large galleries, do DAO town halls, and more. "
The initial minting price of the three cards is 1.5 SOL. According to the average price of 200 US dollars on the day of SOL, the initial price of the "Access Control Card" is 300 US dollars, and the distribution adopts a first-come, first-served rule.
At present, the "Access Control Card" has been listed on the NFT trading platform Magic Eden on the Solana chain. The platform shows that a total of 102 ivory cards, 22 agate cards and 9 visual cards are on sale, and the floor prices are 26.49 SOL and 136.89 respectively. SOL and 850 SOL, the current price of SOL is around $135.
In December, users who get an "access card" can use Portals' rooms. In the demo interface provided by the platform, users can move and decorate in the room after setting and naming their own characters. The system itself provides basic furniture equipment, such as wallpapers, wall panels, floors, bookcases, sofas etc., users can also upload their own NFT items and place them in the room.
In Portals, users can use 3D avatars compatible with VRChat, and everyone can invite friends, colleagues, and DAO members into their own space. As long as the owner of the space holds an "access card", the invitee does not need to hold an NFT. Enter. Portals have been configured with online chat features in the room scene, including voice chat, where people entering the space can communicate online.
It seems that setting up a virtual living scene is standard for Portals. In fact, other scenes have already appeared in this virtual space.
Angomon, the "resident" of the Solana chain, showed off his entertainment space on Twitter, with rows of arcade machines taking up half of the area, his NFT collection hanging on the wall, and a chic mini bar by the window.
User AD LUNAM VENTURE seems to have set up his space as an NFT exhibition hall. Under the purple theme color, various NFT paintings are hung on the windows, walls and small exhibition areas, including the division of rest areas and work areas. A user named "GG77R6" on Twitter also set up his exhibition hall, with a speech stand and auditorium in the center of the venue. It seems that this place is likely to become a sharing place for NFT enthusiasts.
From the perspective of users’ use of the space, compared with the highly creative and design-oriented land space provided by Decentraland, Portals’ urban space does not have any bizarre and exaggerated buildings, but is closer to the real life scene. Settling in will also add an office scene to it.
Just imagine what people can do on Portals. If there are blocks, then residences, commercial centers, parks, and municipal facilities will appear on Portals, and residents, businesses, and various organizations around these buildings will appear in these scenarios, especially businesses, when the real commodity NFT After the transformation, the economic ecology may appear in the virtual space.
In contrast to this imagination, Portals is still very simple at present, and the scenarios for space utilization are limited. It is urgent to stimulate the imagination of users and expand the use form of space.
As Portals said in their statement, density, activity, and rich experiences are their top priorities, "For this reason, we start with NFT space sales and build downtowns and communities from there; another way to start is Selling lots of vacant land.” It is reported that holders of Portals NFT will benefit from any future token or land sales, “We are writing a white paper with consultants with extensive experience in the metaverse, not just games.”
