Ripple-backed Futureverse will bring the Ready Player One series to the Metaverse
[ad_1]
The idea behind this new initiative is to bring Ernest Crane’s Ready Player One novels into a multi-world open “metaverse experience.”
Futureverse, a Metaverse startup backed by 10T Holdings and Ripple Labs, has announced a partnership agreement with Warner Bros. Discovery Channel to bring the “Ready Player One” series of games to the Metaverse.
In a Jan. 4 into the virtual universe. Dan Farah, a producer on the 2018 Warner Bros. adaptation, is also listed as a co-founder of the company.
While financial and technical details of the plan have not been disclosed, Futureverse said the joint product will launch sometime in 2024 on The Root Network, a distributed ledger that leverages the ROOT token for security and governance and uses Ripple’s XRP to pay for gas. According to CoinGecko, the price of ROOT surged by more than 14% to $0.073 after the news broke.
Founded in late 2022, Futureverse raised $54 million in Series A funding led by 10T Holdings, with participation from Ripple Labs. Prior to the financing, Futureverse integrated The Root Network with XRPL and supported the XRPL-based non-fungible token standard (called XLS-20 NFT).
Real risks in virtual reality
In mid-September 2023, the Center for Business and Human Rights at NYU Stern School of Business raised concerns about the Metaverse, emphasizing the need for comprehensive privacy laws to address major privacy threats. Virtual reality (VR) experiences can cause deep and lasting psychological harm, according to a report from NYU’s Stern Center for Business and Human Rights (CBHR).
In addition to privacy concerns, lawless virtual spaces provide endless opportunities for abusers. Even physical attacks in virtual universes can be psychologically damaging, the report said, as people immersed in virtual reality worlds feel “what they are experiencing is real.”
The report recommends that Congress should pass a “comprehensive privacy law” to protect consumer privacy and limit the use of body-based data. It also urges the government to strengthen the Federal Trade Commission’s role in protecting consumers from “unfair and deceptive practices by technology companies” and create a federal agency responsible for that responsibility.
