Pokémon GO creator Niantic launches Bitcoin hunting AR game (Image: Fold)
Do you remember when the Pokémon GO craze took over the world and people were walking around their neighborhoods looking for Pokémon in Augmented Reality (AR)?
It looks like you’ll be able to do the same soon, but this time the hunt for Bitcoin will be.
Fold, a bitcoin app, has partnered with Niantic to allow people to hunt for bitcoin in the real world. The company described it as an effort to forge an alternate vision for the metaverse that promoted freedom through “bitcoin and fun”.
Niantic, the studio behind the hit smartphone Pokémon GO, has loaned its AR platform to the bitcoin payments company to create an in-app experience that allows users to earn bitcoin by exploring a virtual environment based on based on their immediate surroundings.
“It all started with someone saying,” Let’s do Pokémon GO, but for Bitcoin “and ended with” Let’s create a new way to exchange and share Bitcoin with others, “said Fold on his blog.
The company describes this new world as the “Bitcoin Metaverse,” where users can discover and collect Bitcoin and other prizes around them using the app.
Users will soon be able to hunt Bitcoin like Pokémon. Image credit: Niantic
Every 10 minutes a new block with a new price is placed near a player. By claiming the block, the user earns “satoshis,” the smallest unit of Bitcoin (like a pence to a pound), among other rewards.
However, this virtual world will be littered with “shitcoins” or “poison pills” which, when collected, will cost you the bitcoins you just earned.
The Fold app already gives people a chance to earn Bitcoin by buying coffee, shopping, paying bills, and even paying taxes.
The AR experience is referred to as a “natural extension” of the Fold app and also gives merchants the opportunity to engage the community with incentives and offers.
Fold said it started rolling out a limited beta version of the experience on its app on November 23.
The full experience is slated to come out in the next year and will supposedly allow individuals to find, trade, and hide Bitcoin and other rewards in the real world.
“This is the easiest, most fun way to get your first piece of Bitcoin. Everyone can use ours [Fold] App to earn Bitcoin and other rewards by exploring the world around you. It has always been important to us to make it easy for everyone to participate in the Bitcoin economy, regardless of education or technical expertise, ”said Will Reeves, CEO of Fold.
In the “Bitcoin Metaverse”
Users can start playing by opening the Play tab in the Fold app to discover Bitcoin and other rewards hidden around them.
The entire experience has been gambled with rewards such as “extra time to stay in the game longer and orange pills to protect you from harmful surprises”.
“We believe that Bitcoin is really just a game. And there are millions of people around the world who are already playing this game every day, working to acquire Bitcoin through mining, trading, shilling and earning in the pursuit of financial freedom. At the same time, you avoid the villains of inflation, money controls, censorship and other forms of financial devaluation, ”Fold said on his blog.
It indicated that the only catch is that there will only be 21,000,000 bitcoins, 90% of which have already been found. Fold claims that its users alone have caught billions of satoshis this year and are “just getting started.”
The founder and CEO of Niantic, John Hanke, wants to create virtual worlds called “Reality Channels”. Credits: Gage Skidmore
“The Metaverse is a dystopian nightmare. Let’s build a better reality, ”said John Hanke, Founder and CEO of Niantic in August.
Hanke shared his vision for a future in which virtual worlds can be superimposed on the real world and called them “Reality Channels”. He said the plan is to expand it to multiple worlds like Mario, Transformers, Marvel’s superhero universe, the world of Wakanda, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Bladerunner, Sherlock Holmes, etc.
These realities should transform people’s everyday lives into “something more magical, fascinating, exciting – and above all something funnier”.
“It is important that all these experiences are shared by countless other people, so that the adventure is a catalyst to spend time together and to deepen social relationships,” said Hanke.
He had indicated that these reality channels would not be limited to games and entertainment, but would drive more activity from assembly lines and construction sites to the most complex knowledge work without distracting us from reality.
“We have a responsibility to do all of this in a way that respects both the people who use our services and those who don’t,” he said, emphasizing the need for user privacy, responsible use, inclusive development processes and the like Recognize and mitigate the potential impact of AR technology on societies.
I While mixing crypto and virtual reality is a fascinating idea, it remains to be seen whether hunting down Bitcoin would be as fun as hunting down Pokémon.
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