Somnium Space Puts Avatars on Blockchain

Inhabitants of the virtual world Somnium Space have a new way to secure their digital self-representation by putting their avatars on the blockchain as a non-fungible token. They can create an avatar, tokenize it, and then sell the unique full-body character. This feature works directly from within the Somnium PC client, which gamers can download through the official website.

Somnium Space already minted the first avatar on the Ethereum blockchain. It's owned by company boss Artus Sychov, and it also looks quite like him. There's only one copy of his avatar. This is one of the features of minting on the blockchain, as users can choose how many copies of their creation there should be. As soon as someone buys an avatar, it will be available inside Somnium Space thanks to the direct connection with the user's blockchain wallet.

The developers want to make sure that people aren't able to steal each others creations. They applied double encryption, 'which makes it virtually impossible to copy someone else’s avatar even from run-time'.

Uploading your avatar to the blockchain requires several steps. First creator need to design an avatar, and then upload it using the Unity SDK provided by Somnium Space. Then open the Avatars Menu inside the PC client, and find the uploaded avatar in the custom category. From there you can provide a description and then mint the creation.

Avatars and personalisation on the rise

There's an increasing demand for personalized digital avatars inside virtual worlds. In recent months there has been lots of talks about digital fashion, as there are fashion shows in virtual worlds and mainstream brands are watching. At the same time, there's on-going research into the standardization of online avatars.

Land month Polygonal Mind auctioned one hundred avatars. Owners can use these avatars in a variety of different game worlds, creating one digital representation across different virtual locations.

Your digital identity is more than just your avatar, because it’s something that connects all your online activity together into one passport. It’s all about bringing the concept of identity into the digital world through data and visuals. A digital identity is definitely more than just an avatar and surely tells a lot more as well.

What is Somnium Space?

Somnium Space is a virtual world in which landowners can build whatever they want to. The program registers landownership on the Ethereum blockchain. In addition all players can visit these creations and interact with each other. The developers have created Somnium Space with VR headsets in mind, even though players can also access to world through their desktop or laptop.

Value of land in Somnium Space has been increasing incredibly over the year. We can also see this increased demand for virtual land in other virtual worlds and even in blockchain-powered video games. League of Kingdoms, Brave Frontier Heroes and Axie Infinity are just a few of the examples that offer digital land to their players. This week The Sandbox will also do a land pre-sale where gamers and creatives can buy virtual land for 40 dollars. At the moment the minimum price for land inside The Sandbox is 0.45 ETH, which is roughly 200 dollars.