Minecraft’s ban on non-fungible tokens decimated NFT Worlds, a project that relied on implicit endorsement of the Microsoft-owned game. Now, the team behind the project is hoping for a fresh start.
NFT Worlds, since renamed Hychain Games, the developer of the crypto video game Hytopia, is launching a node sale for Hychain, the game’s layer 2 blockchain. The company said Hychain is based on Arbitrum’s Orbit technology.
The free game Hytopia, which appears to be heavily inspired by Minecraft, is expected to release an “invitation-only” beta version of the game by the end of the first quarter, according to a release. The Hytopia beta has more than 1 million pre-registered players, the release also said. “Hytopia was born from the vision of transforming the Minecraft experience with blockchain technology,” Hychain Games said in its release. “Compared to Minecraft, Hytopia leverages Web3 functionality to introduce player-driven economies and true ownership of game assets.”
NFT Worlds had its world turned upside down in the summer of 2022 by Mojang Studios, the Swedish developer of Minecraft, when it banned NFT integrations. NFT Worlds had used Minecraft source code as the basis for its NFT-powered metaverse. At one point, NFT Worlds’ non-fungible tokens had generated tens of millions of dollars in transaction revenue, according to a report.
Earn rewards
Hytopia developers hope that the sale of the Hychain node will serve as “an invitation to the global gaming community to earn rewards for helping to keep Hytopia’s underlying network running and secure.”
“We give back to the community and encourage participation in network security,” ArkDev, pseudonymous co-founder of Hytopia and Hychain, said in the release. “By decentralizing the operation of our network, we are handing over the keys to the community, allowing them to shape the future of gaming.”
Hychain Games also said that the node sale would take place in five phases, with the first four phases being “exclusively available to whitelist members.”
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