One evening in early April, the same week when the Bitcoin Conference was happening in South Beach, the Solana Hacker House in Miami’s neighborhood, was guarded by heavily built and armed guards. A very important person was present in the house.
The personality was none other than Michael Wagner, the CEO and co-founder of Star Atlas, a multiplayer online (MMO) game that his group has created on the Solana blockchain. It debuted in January.
Star Atlas Game on Solana Blockchain
Star Atlas includes a scientific fiction plot-line that unfolds in 2620, with graphics matching a Triple-A game category. In the game, three warring groups are in a fierce competition for valuable resources on Iris, a newly discovered planet. It also features an in-game currency referred to as Atlas, which players use to buy ships and other virtual items.
Star Atlas also has a meta-currency referred to as Polis, which is used by players to determine the governance of the game via layers of hierarchically decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs). From local to regional to the top level, they form something like the United States’ structure of the local, state, and federal governments.
Wagner indicated that they consider what they are building to be a sort of independent nation-states. Here, people will even be able to earn via Star Atlas’ play-to-earn capabilities. Then, the tokens they earn can be converted to fiat cash.
We are Building a Nation-State Metaverse for the Next 100 Years
Wagner explains that they are creating a type of a global country and virtual economy for all to participate. As a Bitcoin advocate, Wagner says he relocated to Miami from Las Vegas because it has a supportive crypto environment that will make it possible to build the nation-state metaverse. “There is energy and a vibe here that is very supportive and conducive to building in crypto,” explained Wagner.
Wagner clarified that their headquarters are in Discord, but insisted that it is never easy to attract the in-demand Rust engineers to blockchain companies. Despite this fact, Star Atlas has not had major challenges in getting the best talents. At the moment, Wagner works with 45 engineers.
According to Wagner, there is a high probability that people will start shopping using 3D immersive environments as opposed to 2D sites. You simply log in to your Avatar, perhaps playing a game or simply hanging out with friends. After selecting the preferred items in a shopping facility, you make payment with digital currencies, and the items are physically delivered to your home.
For Wagner, creating space that people can escape to is indeed beneficial. “If you talk to Elon Musk … there is a high probability that we live in a simulation anyway,” added Wagner.
Star Atlas might become the next iteration because they are building it to live more than the next 100 years. “It is a step of getting people into the new world,” Wagner insisted.
