What Is the Otherside Metaverse?

By Mohammad Musharraf

Major companies like Meta and Ubisoft are all working on some form of metaverse experience for their users. 

Yet, the most exciting and awaited metaverse still hails under the flag of the Web3-native company, Yuga Labs. 

After creating the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) collection and buying the CryptoPunks collection, Yuga Labs is now building the Otherside metaverse. It uses ApeCoin as its native currency and aims to open up new dimensions of entertainment for gamers and non-gamers alike. 

In this article, Ledger Academy dives into the Otherside metaverse, how it works, what makes it different from other metaverses, and what the future looks like for it.

What is the Otherside Metaverse?

The Otherside metaverse is a world-building metaverse platform based on the Ethereum network. Players within Otherside can explore the metaverse as an NFT avatar, and engage and compete with other players. They can also purchase virtual lands and acquire resources to build and monetize various tools and objects. 

Otherside blends the mechanics of massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG) like World of Warcraft and virtual worlds like Fortnite or Sandbox and Decentraland. 

Although still in development, Otherside released two scripted demos — First and Second Trips — to tease the Otherside metaverse to NFT owners.

Who Created the Otherside Metaverse?

Yuga Labs, the company behind arguably the biggest Non-Fungible Token (NFT) project to date, Bored Ape Yacht Club, collaborated with Improbable Worlds and Animoca Brands to develop the Otherside metaverse.
Yuga Labs and Improbable developed Otherside using Animoca Brands’ MSquared technology.

What is the Bored Ape Yacht Club?

Yuga Labs’ BAYC is an NFT collection that comprises 10,000 ape-themed profile pictures, each with a unique set of traits and attributes. 

BAYC rose to fame soon after its launch in April 2021 and it is currently one of the top NFT collections. As of March 2022, BAYC has a floor price of 62 ETH (nearly $105,000), making the 10k collection worth well over a billion dollars. 

After BAYC’s monumental success, Yuga Labs introduced the Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC), a spin-off of BAYC. The company also acquired the rights to numerous other popular NFT projects such as CryptoPunks and The Meebits.

Otherside is Yuga Labs’ full-blown approach to building a metaverse that would bring its NFT collections to life.

How Will the Otherside Work? 

Otherside features virtual lands with unique features and rare artifacts. Players can use their land to build anything from a simple virtual tool to a full-fledged NFT game and monetize their creations.

Yuga Labs brings these endless creative possibilities to Otherside with Open Data Kits (ODKs). They are a set of tools to help players gather resources, create objects, and customize their work. 

Like Sandbox and Decentraland, the Otherside metaverse supports using NFTs as playable avatars. The NFT owners can use their characters to tour Otherisde world and play metaverse games.

Additionally, some NFTs within Otherside are even dynamic, meaning they can interact with virtual items and resources and get an upgrade. 

Features Unique to The Otherside

The Otherside stands apart from other virtual worlds as it uses Improbable’s exclusive MSquared technology built for large-scale metaverses. MSquared lets more than 10,000 players communicate with one another via voice chat simultaneously. 

It is also expected to allow Otherside users in several regions to access Otherside from web browsers and mobile devices. This could cut off the need for high-end computers or specialized software to experience the Otherside metaverse.

While doing that, Otherside also aims to render 30 frames-per-second video quality consistently to create a smooth player experience.

Tokens in the Otherside Ecosystem

The Otherside Metaverse ecosystem includes two types of Ethereum tokens: ERC-20 tokens and ERC-721 tokens (NFTs). 

Let’s take a look at how they impact the Otherside Metaverse.

NFT Avatars

NFTs from the Yuga Labs ecosystem such as BAYC, MAYC, Kennel Club, and CryptoPunks will be available as game characters within the Otherside metaverse. 

There are also plans to include Meebits — a 20k NFT collection by Yuga Labs — in the metaverse. However, apparently, this collection will not be available at launch. 

Other NFT collections featured in the trailer, such as World of Women, NOUNS, Cool Cats, and CrypToadz, will likely offer similar functionalities. 

Otherdeeds: The Otherside Metaverse Land Explained

Otherdeeds are dynamic NFT lands that evolve as you progress in the game and they are a key part of the Otherside Metaverse. 

Each Otherdeed includes multiple elements such as environments, treasures, and replenishing resources like root, wood, ore, metal, anima, and shard. 

They also have varying sediment types, including Biogenic Swamp, Chemical Goo, Rainbow Atmos, Cosmic Dream, and Infinite Expanse. Infinite Expanse is the most common sediment type while Biogenic Swamps are the rarest and closest to the metaverse’s central location.

We can also categorize Otherdeeds based on artifacts with special abilities and enigmatic creatures called Kodas. 

There are a total of 200,000 Otherdeeds in Otherside, and the first 100,000 sold out during the first action on April 30, 2022. The creators have pledged the remaining 100,000 Otherdeeds toward existing Otherdeed holders who contribute to the development of the metaverse.

Only users who completed KYC could participate in the Otherdeed NFT launch. Interested buyers could mint two NFTs during the first wave and pay for them in ApeCoin (APE).

While the sale was initially set to be a Dutch Auction, Yuga Labs decided to price the NFTs at 305 $APE. Of the 100,000 NFTs during the first wave, only 55,000 Otherdeed NFTs were available for public sale. Then, BAYC holders (10,000), MAYC (20,000), and developers working on Rainbow Atmos, Cosmic Dream, and Infinite Expanse sediments (15,000) claimed the remaining 45,000 NFTs. 

Kodas

The Otherdeeds mint brought another surprise with it: Kodas. While we aren’t sure exactly what they are or what they do, these creatures were included on some rare pieces of Land. To explain, only 10,000 of the 200,000 Otherdeeds NFTs featured a Koda. Then out of that total, only 99 are Mega Kodas — an even rarer form of these entities. 

So what do we know about them so far? Well, Kodas are extraterrestrial beings within Otherside that possess cosmic energy. They were born during the Big Bang and currently face the threat of extinction. 

A leaked deck from Yuga Labs suggests that the universe cannot persist without these alien-like creatures. And to prevent their extinction and thus the extinction of the universe, Kodas created the microcosmos called Otherside. 

Beyond that, we are yet to discover the role of Kodas except that they’ll be an integral part of Otherside.

ApeCoin

ApeCoin (APE) is an ERC-20 token that is the only ERC-20 token affiliated with the Otherside metaverse. It is a part of the ApeCoin DAO, a decentralized governance framework that proposes and votes on changes to the APE ecosystem. APE holders have the right to vote on these proposed changes.

Once ApeCoin DAO votes on a certain upgrade, a distributed virtual entity called APE Foundation works on the changes. And while Yuga Labs has a stake in APE Foundation, the foundation operates independently.

While ApeCoin launched as a governance token of the APE ecosystem, Yuga Labs now plans to use ApeCoin as the primary currency within its projects.

How do I Buy Land in the Otherside Metaverse? 

All publicly launched Otherdeeds sold out at launch. So, minting a new Otherdeed is no longer possible. But you can still purchase an Otherdeed on a secondary NFT marketplace like OpenSea and Rarible. The Otherdeed NFTs have a floor price of 1.428 ETH as of March 25, 2022.

You must have an Ethereum-compatible crypto wallet to buy metaverse land in Otherside through these marketplaces. Using a hardware wallet, such as a Ledger Nano is the most secure and easy-to-use option for such interactions.

To buy land in the Otherside metaverse, you will have to create an Ethereum Account on your Ledger device. The address the device generates is where your metaverse land will be stored. Then, you’ll need to buy some ETH. Luckily, you can do so using the Buy Feature in Ledger Live. Through one of Ledgers partners, you can easily buy ETH and protect it with your Ledger device directly. Incidentally, this wallet can also support ETH NFTs, such as Otherdeeds.

Once you set up your wallet and fund it with ETH, you can buy metaverse land with thee steps:

Step 1. Choose an Ethereum NFT marketplace to browse, some of the most popular being Opensea and Rarible.

Step 2. Connect your crypto wallet to the platform.

Step 3. Search for the Otherdeed for Otherside collection, double-check it’s not a phishing site, and pick the land you want to buy.

Step 4. Check the price, confirm the details, and click Add to Cart.

Step 5. Go to your cart and complete the purchase by signing the transaction request in your crypto wallet.

Otherside Trips: Exploring the Metaverse

On July 17, 2022, Otherside launched First Trip, a scripted demo for all Otherdeed holders to experience the Otherside metaverse.  

First Trip started by introducing the players (Voyagers) to a 40-ft tall Bored Ape named Curtis and a Koda named Blue.

Voyagers then teleported to an amphitheatre called Sphere in the Biogenic Swamps, a central location in the Otherside metaverse. As part of the trip, they had to individually save their Kodas. 

The players could return to the Sphere after saving their Kodas and head to a new area called Obelisk to complete more missions. The demo ended after all 4,500 participants worked together to defeat an evil Koda.

Fast forward to 2023, Yuga Labs launched its “Second Trip” on March 25. The trip included a two-hour narrative experience led by four Otherside team captains.

While there are currently over 32,000 Otherdeeds holders, only 10,000 could participate in this trip on a first-come-first-serve basis. Others could watch a live stream of the event on the company’s YouTube channel. 

Future of Otherside

Yuga Labs is keeping developments surrounding Otherside under wraps. So, every prediction out there about the metaverse is still just speculation. 

However, Yuga Labs has partnered with Animoca Brands, the creator of the Sandbox metaverse. This may result in the two worlds becoming interoperable after Otherside’s launch. 

Yuga Labs has also collaborated with multiple other NFT projects. So, it’s possible for those projects too join the Otherside metaverse.

Exploring Metaverse Securely 

To make sure your assets from the Otherside metaverse remain safe, you should only use the most secure way to store them. This is where Ledger hardware wallets come in. 

You can use Ledger Stax and Ledger Nano X to store your Otherside assets — avatars and lands (ERC-721) and ApeCoin (ERC-20). Ledger wallets store your private keys offline and secure your assets from any type of online threats.

The Otherside Metaverse: The Best For MMORPG Lovers

The Otherside metaverse is yet-to-launch metaverse platform, developed by Yuga Labs. If that name seems familiar, there’s a reason why. This metaverse is thanks to the very same team behind the popular NFT collection, the Bored Ape Yacht Club. Not only that, but it’s also the first blockchain metaverse (potentially) using the mechanics of massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG) like World of Warcraft or Runescape.

So far, we know it will use Apecoin, an ERC-20 token as its in-game currency. Then, like existing blockchain metaverses, it is possible to buy land plots in the metaverse represented by NFTs. NFT Lands in the Otherside metaverse are named “Otherdeeds”, the initial sale of which took place in April 2022. Although you may have missed the moment for that auction, you can still get hold of these lands via Ethereum NFT Marketplaces today. Don’t expect them to come cheap though, the Land plots will probably set you back more than $1500 in Apecoin or ETH.

Although it is yet to fully launch, the Otherside’s scripted demos — The First and Second “Trips”, were generally well-received. Only time will tell what’s in store for the Otherside!