Virtual Universe Is a Victim of the Cryptocurrency Market Downturn: The Company Finally Releases a Statement

After months without any official word about the Virtual Universe project, the company behind the product, Ukledo, posted the following message to their Telegram discussion group:

The Ukledo team wants to bring our followers up to date on the Virtual Universe (VU) project. As we have all undoubtedly seen, the crypto market is currently experiencing a major downturn and many projects are now underwater or completely failed. No one quite knows how long this condition may occur. VU has been affected by this general crypto bear market. Also, the consumer adoption of Virtual Reality is not quite where the market hoped it would be. It’s coming, but not as fast as most of us thought.

Virtual Reality development is an expensive and complex undertaking, even for the simplest of applications. As a result, until the market picks up (both from a consumer adoption and investment perspective) the team is focusing on a shorter term strategy that can create revenues to keep the Company moving forward, and keep your interest and involvement as well. The team is a big believer in the ultimate vision of VU. However, as is often the case with a young startup, timing plays a pivotal role in success.

We sincerely appreciate all the support from the community (and the nearly 20,000 users who signed up for a free account). We will do everything in our power in the months ahead to create a strategy that allows us to eventually bring this vision to market. Also, please do not fall prey to scammers who appear to be popping up in this Telegram from time to time.

We have had to reduce marketing/communications (related to budget) but will remain active in the channel for questions/comments.

Thank you,

The Ukledo Team

Well, this is serious, but at least we have a better idea what’s going on. Previous to this company announcement, one member of the Virtual Universe Telegram community (who is not associated with the company) posted this update with only second-hand information about the current state of the company:

I feel everyone’s pain. I’m disappointed that the VU team is not more active on Telegram or any other means of communication. I have talked to someone close to the project. Unfortunately, it’s sounds like the project is struggling to lock in investors in the private sale. They are also seeking the possibility of linking up with some well-established platforms in the space. I am by no means associated with the project. I only know people who are.

…

I also have many questions that have not been answered yet. I don’t believe the team is ready to call it quits yet. That is why there has not been any word on refunds. I can, however, assure you that they have not up and vanished. I will keep everyone posted with news that I receive since it does not seem the team is doing it themselves.

The Virtual Universe project is a reminder that even a beautiful-looking, well-featured demo does not guarantee success in this dire cryptocurrency market. Will the market recover? Who knows. Perhaps it would have been better if Ukledo, the company behind VU, had pursued a more traditional fund-raising route for their virtual world project from the start, rather than making a risky bet on crypto. We’ll have to wait and see what happens. It looks extremely unlikely that Ukledo will be able to stick to their original plan to have a public beta launch of Virtual Universe in January 2019. Those who have purchased VU tokens before their sale was suspended will simply have to wait to see if they will ever get a chance to use their tokens, or if they will become just another worthless cryptocurrency.

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