FULL DISCLOSURE: I am choosing to participate in the Virtual Universe (VU) Initial Coin Offering Partner Program. Why? Two reasons:
- After my recent guided tour of VU, I feel very strongly that this is going to be a successful and popular virtual world/MMO hybrid platform, and I want to be a part of it when VU launches their beta this summer. This is the very first blockchain-based virtual world that I actually feel excited about!
- As a Canadian citizen, I reside in one of the three countries where I am currently legally forbidden from purchasing VU tokens (the other two are the United States and China). This means that the only way I can legitimately earn VU tokens to use in this social VR space before the beta launch is via the VU ICO Partner Program.
I want you to know this up front: this blogpost is a promotion for VU, in exchange for VU tokens. You can follow on this webpage to see how many VU tokens I have earned by completing tasks in this Partner Program if you wish (right now, I am at number two on the VU Token Leaderboard). There’s nothing stopping you from participating in this Partner Program yourself, and earning some VU tokens!
IMPORTANT: VU Tokens are not a real currency. They are ERC-20 based blockchain tokens intended to permit players of Virtual Universe exclusive access to digital assets within a VR game known as Virtual Universe (VU). They are a form of in-game virtual currency. Virtual value attributed to the VU Token will be as a result of in-game efforts by players, and no future value is represented or guaranteed.
The private beta launch of Virtual Universe has been pushed back from July to the final quarter of this year, according to a recent message from Jeroen Van den Bosch, VU’s Chief Creative Officer and co-founder, posted to the official Virtual Universe Discord server. (By the way, the Discord server is a good way to find out what is going on with the project. Use the link provided above to join the Discord server and chat with the developers and other interested users!)
VU is still looking for people to join their beta test. You can register for the private beta at this link. Please note that you do have to have to be a Pioneer member to sign up for the closed beta. To become a Pioneer member, you must purchase VU tokens, or you must be a part of the VU Token Partner Program and complete tasks in their Earn & Win program to promote the platform (like this blogpost!).
If you haven’t seen what Virtual Universe has to offer yet, I suggest you take a look at my half-hour guided tour of VU with Jeroen Van den Bosch. There’s also a second tour you can watch here. And there’s a third tour here:
In addition to the tour videos, which give you a good sense of the platform, there’s already lots of information about the project on the Virtual Universe website, so you might want to explore that to pick up the backstory of the game and look at some of the artwork.
The first set of apartments and penthouses for VU users has already sold out completely, but there will be more apartments built, including some super-luxurious homes for the high rollers! You will also be able to set up and run your own business in Virtual Universe. The game will be free to play, and you can earn VU tokens by doing daily quests, so it does not cost anything to take part (although obviously, VU wants you to buy in-game tokens since this is one of the primary ways they will earn money).
