Metaverses, Decentraland, and Metaversal Education :: with Josh Vitulli

Dec 7, 2021

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In this episode of Ventures, my guest Josh Vitulli (https://www.linkedin.com/in/josh-vitulli-71926415/) and I dive deep into metaverses, specifically the Web 3 metaverse Decentraland (https://decentraland.org/). We talk about how Josh’s design and urban planning background led him into the metaverse space, how he does training courses on Decentraland via his project Metaversal Education, practical considerations for how to get involved, other metaverses, NFTs, avoiding high gas fees on Ethereum, and the future of entrepreneurship in Web 3.

Visit https://satchel.works/@wclittle/ventures-episode-74 for more detailed notes and links to resources (videos, articles, etc…) mentioned.

You can watch this episode via video here.

1:32 - General tee-up about the conversation and what we’ll be talking about, why it matters, and why it’s fun.

1:56 - Josh introduction, background, and journey thus far.

5:08 - What is design? How does Josh define it? Why does the question matter or not matter?

8:23 - Web 3 is turning the internet upside down (esp re: identity and data control).

9:31 - How can Web 3 builders design Web 3 applications to encourage good behavior? Is this possible?

14:32 - What is the metaverse? What is Decentraland? What’s up with the Facebook announcement? What is Josh excited about re: metaverses. // OG Metaverse in Snow Crash: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_Crash

17:44 - Who are the main players in Web 3 metaverses? Are they interoperable? // (https://decentraland.org/ // https://www.sandbox.game/ // https://somniumspace.com/ // https://www.cryptovoxels.com/ // related: https://enjin.io/ // (all not interoperable -- yet)

19:49 - The story of Josh’s current project on Decentraland // Currency Metaversal Education on Eventbrite → https://www.eventbrite.com/e/metaversal-education-tickets-208829152617?aff=ebdssbonlinesearch

24:58 - How does someone get into Decentraland and interact? Go to https://play.decentraland.org and jump in.

26:24 - MANA as an ERC-20 (fungible) token. How much does it cost to buy an NFT like shoes in Decentraland? How does it work to convert between Ethereum / Polygon?

30:00 - Decentraland community accepting other currency besides MANA as ERC-20 on Ethereum.

31:23 - What is Polygon? Why is it cheaper than Ethereum? https://polygon.technology/ // Difference between sidechain vs. rollup.

35:56 - Did Polygon fix the gas fees problem? What can you do with Polygon?

38:50 - Decentralized servers in Decentraland, accessibility and technical details.

39:33 - Voice and UX details when introducing people into Decentraland, and their roadmap into mobile.

44:33 - Maybe even urban planners are needed to help organize Decentraland

45:23 - What’s the vision / future of Josh’s project? Where are they heading toward?

48:37 - For the future Web 3 product managers listening in, besides what we’ve already talked about, what do PMs need to know about Web 3 metaverses and Decentraland in particular?