Visionary Futurist Neal Stephenson And Crypto Pioneer Peter Vessenes Announce Lamina1, The Layer-1 Blockchain For The Open Metaverse
Stephenson’s book Snow Crash originally described the Metaverse and gave it its name. Thirty years later, the biggest names in Web 3 are supporting Lamina1’s vision for a blockchain protocol equal to the Metaverse’s original promise.
For the Metaverse to achieve its promise, it requires a base-level blockchain protocol equal to the technical, economic, and philosophical origins of the Metaverse idea itself — an open and expansive virtual universe. To fulfill that promise, cryptocurrency pioneer Peter Vessenes and renowned futurist Neal Stephenson are announcing Lamina1, a new Layer-1 blockchain technology designed for the Metaverse with Web3 principles in mind.
“I don’t know how to describe this other than a true meeting of the minds”
Co-founders Vessenes and Stephenson serve as Lamina1’s chief executive officer and chairman, respectively. Later this year, the company will launch a testnet and a subsequent betanet. Beyond 2022, the co-founders plan to seed a new immersive environment inspired by Stephenson’s million-selling novel Snow Crash, building infrastructure and releasing tools to support the work of third-party creators who want to build Open Metaverse experiences at scale.
Lessons Learned from Web 2.0
As titans of the technology industry implement their vision of the Metaverse – a sector projected to grow to $1T in the coming decade – Lamina1 is working to ensure it does not repeat the missteps of the past by continuing to perpetuate existing structures of centralized ownership and inequality.
Lamina1 proposes an alternative – a more modern and integrated Web3 community and ecosystem as the first building block for a truly Open Metaverse. The provably carbon negative Lamina1 chain will offer high transaction volume and an economic design with new incentive mechanisms to help create thriving, vibrant economies for creators and entrepreneurs.
The concept of the Metaverse, an immersive version of the internet — was first brought to life in 1992 with the publication of Snow Crash. Now, 30 years later, Stephenson is for the first time founding a company to create the digital world he envisioned.
“The 30th anniversary of Snow Crash, and recent interest in actually building the Metaverse, has got me thinking about how to do it in a way that’s true to the original concept,” said Stephenson. “That means creative ferment rooted in a strong base layer of open source tech that provides key services to creators while making sure that they get paid. The purpose of Lamina1 is to provide that, using the best and most up-to-date ideas from the industry. We’ll build first-and second-party experiences just to make sure it all works. But we’ll know we’ve succeeded when Lamina1 is adopted by third-party creators.”
This vision will be brought to life by the considerable engineering and business acumen of Lamina1’s co-founder, Peter Vessenes. Vessenes is known in the cryptocurrency industry for a series of firsts, namely launching the first VC-backed Bitcoin company (2011) and forming the Bitcoin Foundation (2012) – today a blueprint for the way the now $1T+ blockchain industry engages communities and manages and creates cryptocurrencies.
