Monday, 3 September 2018

AR VR and Blockchain - More Than Sum of Their Parts

When people think about blockchain, the first thing that come to mind is cryptocurrency and Bitcoin. Its true that blockchain in one form or another is the technology that powers most cryptocurrencies, but blockchain can do so much more. 

Blockchain can be used as smart contracts thereby opening a whole slew of use cases other than virtual money. BitDegree for example is using blockchains to issue virtual education degrees. Blockchain is like a virtual ledger that is immutable and records all transactions. Its decentralized and peer to peer so it does not depend on any one single point of failure.

Developers have now begun to understand the power of combining blockchain with AR and VR. Many use cases are now emerging that allows for new innovative ways of combining two very powerful and disruptive technologies. 

The reason why companies like Facebook and Google are investing and innovating in AR and VR is because it can be the next compute platform. And this next generation compute platform will require some security and validation mechanism to ensure integrity of transactions. Imagine a virtual university you attend online where you learn and upskill in a virtual world and all your academic qualifications are accredited by a blockchain. You can be sure that your credentials and your rights of ownership is recording permanently on a virtual ledger which is distributed amongst thousands of independent computers. This simple but powerful idea hold the key to revolutionize advertising, retail and many other use cases where a contract is required to maintain the integrity of a transaction.

Vibehub for example is a virtual marketplace for events such as concerts and seminars. Its a place where you can buy or sell experiences using VIBE tokens that are powered by blockchain. It allows presenters, performers, educators and anyone who would like to connect with their audience globally using immersive technology a platform for sharing unique immersive experiences.

Decentraland is  a Virtual Reality platform where users can create, experience, and monetise in a virtual world, much like Second Life, but with integrity of ownership maintained using Ethereum blockchain.

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