Problem statement: there is no metaverse in development whose incentives are fully aligned with its users

Bitcoin was designed to solve money centralization. Nostr was designed to solve communication centralization. Together, these inventions will change the course of human history and permeate every aspect of our lives. The way we communicate, consume media, and leverage technology is set to radically change because of how these two protocols grant sovereignty to each individual who uses them.

In this context, I'd like to talk about the "metaverse", which is a bad word in some circles but taken very seriously by Silicon Valley-types.

As the current market cycle has failed to yield any convincing metaverses from **tcoin projects (altcoin or shitcoin, take your pick), larger entities are still working to build the one metaverse that will rule them all.

Microsoft actually has a helpful and succinct explanation of their vision of the metaverse here:

https://youtu.be/Qw6UCwCt4bE

The definition of "metaverse" is completely different depending on who you ask: a blend of science fiction and personal values. I think the metaverse will be a tool that normal people use when they need it, or a source of entertainment when they want it.

Some people think we all will live in the metaverse and spend all our money there, so they want to build it first (naturally).

The problem with this: it's a top-down mentality. Incentives are not aligned. Silicon Valley-types are trying to build the ultimate money-syphoning machine that monetizes all of our data, time, and experiences.

A sneak preview of the new "Oculus Stay" hardware.

In the context of bitcoin and nostr, I think we need to consider what a bottom-up approach to the metaverse looks like (read: an incentive-aligned approach).

Though a centralized metaverse has not yet been convincingly built, it seems obvious that it would be just as susceptible to destruction at the hands of decentralized protocols as money and communication. But what protocol could be the David to this Goliath?

As I explored the nostr protocol, it occurred to me that nostr already contains everything needed for it to be the one true metaverse. The properties that make nostr great would make for a great metaverse too: decentralized, permissionless, easy to join, cryptographic identity, instant value transfer via lightning, etc. Rather than just a centralized 3D game, the metaverse could be something that people actually own a piece of.

The only missing ingredient was a client to visualize it...

Enter ONOSENDAI オノセンダイ — named for the device of Japanese manufacture used to connect one's mind to cyberspace in the foundational sci-fi work, "Neuromancer". And instead of calling it the "metaverse" I decided to call it cyberspace because we are going back to the grassroots of the cyberpunk movement and building something from the bottom-up.

I began to think about how content on the nostr protocol could be visualized in 3D. I realized that thinking about clients in dimensions yields some interesting insights about how we think about information and how we experience the world:

We are very used to consuming internet content in document format, and for good reason. This is an efficient way to get information quickly. But what benefits do 3D spaces have over 2D documents? Here are some thoughts.

Onboarding & Exploration

One common problem with nostr clients right now is onboarding. How do you get new users to follow people without artificially boosting @jack and @fiatjaf's follower count? A 3D space allows us to go on a journey across webs of trust to discover new people outside of our networks to follow and new ideas we may have never otherwise been exposed to. Unlike any other client, ONOSENDAI オノセンダイ is a true public commons of the human race.

Less Time, More Knowledge

3D visualization of content can ignore the time dimension completely, putting less emphasis on what is happening right now (or since you last picked up your phone) and more emphasis on the repository of human knowledge and the vector of human discourse across clusters of ideas. After all: if a thought really matters then the time it was posted does not matter at all.

Limitations (in a healthy way)

What's the difference between endlessly scrolling a feed and walking through the woods? What's the difference between finding a product you want on Amazon and finding a product you want in a store? Which one sounds more rewarding to you?

The cost of traversing space puts a practical boundary on what we can consume. Although it may seem annoying in theory, it actually makes the experience more rewarding and enjoyable. Slowing down the pace that we consume information makes the information we consume more salient, and the journey taken to get to that information more meaningful. Since the journey in cyberspace is spatial like the world we live in, it can give us more relatable memories than immemorable shuffling of documents through a screen.

Building It

I built ONOSENDAI オノセンダイ as an open source web-based JavaScript application. It uses fiatjaf's nostr-tools module to retrieve events from relays, and the Three.js library to manage WebGL 3D graphics.

Here is the repo: https://github.com/arkin0x/ONOSENDAI

Here is the app: https://onosendai.tech

Currently it works best on Android and Chromium-based desktop browsers.

What's out there in cyberspace?

Here is what you can currently do with ONOSENDAI オノセンダイ and some upcoming features to look forward to.

Every Note

As a proof of concept, I visualized nostr kind 1 notes in a 3D space. The coordinate of each note is based on the content of the note, so clusters of notes have similar content and unique notes are alone in the void. You can fly around and tap on notes to read them. Laying the whole universe of human dialogue at one's feet is surprisingly enthralling and liberating. Every session is an adventure. And you can bookmark notes to return to later.

Lines are drawn to connect the note to replies or root posts. (roosts?)

The amount of data in the nostr protocol is staggering, and with new kinds of notes being created for different purposes all the time, the possibilities are endless. This is only how I've proposed to visualize Kind 1 notes, but there wil be 29,999 more kinds of notes (at least!) to visualize!

Inspired by Max's thoughts on using finite money as a quality filter and discovery mechanism for infinite content, I plan to visualize zaps so that boosted content can stand out from the starry sky of notes. And of course: searching by keyword, filtering by user, temporal constellations, exploring relays as separate spaces, and other utilities are planned features to help operators distill the universe in any way they choose.

Aside from visualizing the vector of human dialogue, which in itself is quite compelling, there are many other compelling things on the nostr network that I plan to visualize with ONOSENDAI オノセンダイ.

Constructs (roadmap)

I've read sci-fi. I know that people are going to want to put 3D things into cyberspace. It just makes sense. But how do you do this in a truly decentralized way? No scam tokens, no blockchains, no profiteering.

It all comes down to protocol consensus (just like bitcoin). If every cyberspace client like ONOSENDAI オノセンダイ agrees on how 3D objects get placed, then that's how it works.

I propose the following:

One may publish a Construct (kind 10333 replaceable) note whose content contains 3D object data. The coordinate of the object in cyberspace would be derived from the 256-bit event ID.

Proof of work may be used to manipulate the coordinates of the construct by getting the desired event ID. In this way, specific real-estate in cyberspace is only acquired by proof of work.

This proof of work would be similar but not the same as the proof of work described in NIP-13. Primarily, this is because you would be hashing to get an event ID with significant digits as close to the coordinate you desire. Those desired coordinates would be the proof of work target committed in the hash, so the hamming distance between the target and the result is the total work achieved.

The size boundaries of the object would also be determined by the total proof-of-work achieved in the note — more work yields a larger boundary.

Operators (roadmap)

Operators (users) will soon be able to see other operators flying through cyberspace thanks to kind 20333 (ephemeral) which broadcasts their position and vector (optionally). Operators will be able to communicate with each other with kind 20334 notes which are text notes meant to be interpreted by a text-to-speech voice synthesizer (and optionally displayed as text). Web browsers have built in speech-to-text and text-to-speech engines, so I plan to leverage these rarely used technologies to enable operators to literally speak to each other when in proximity, all via the nostr protocol. Kind 20334 will allow you to specify a voice engine if you have a favorite or want people to hear your regional accent.

Zap Everything! (roadmap)

Zap notes, zap constructs, zap operators, zap.... zaps? Every object in cyberspace is owned by a pubkey, so you can zap away if they have an LN address set up!

We all know the future will be built on lightning, and conducting business in cyberspace will a natural fit for the next evolution of the global marketplace.

Value Proposition

ONOSENDAI オノセンダイ offers a fun and video-game-like way of interacting with the nostr and lightning protocols that no other client can offer.

But beyond the pure enjoyment of the experience, it offers a medium of communication and value transfer that is greater than the sum of its parts.

Extruding the world's decentralized communication protocol into a permissionless virtual 3D space with universal rules and instant value transfer is a new thing for the human race. I have no idea where this will take us.

What I do know is that ONOSENDAI オノセンダイ is being built on a solid foundation:

• nostr

• bitcoin/lightning

• web standards (no app store overlords)

• open source

• built for hardware people actually own: computers and phones

In a nod to my earlier point about the misguided top-down approach: even if I had all the answers I don't think it would be right for me to design cyberspace to only my specifications. I am very eager to get more contributors to ONOSENDAI オノセンダイ and to receive wisdom and input from many perspectives in order to make something that is truly for all people and truly for the future.

Challenges

Consensus. If other cyberspace clients emerge, it could be challenging to get all of us to agree on how to interpret the nostr protocol.

Web-based apps are outside of regulation by app stores, but building rich and visually stunning applications on the web can be extra challenging as web browsers do not enjoy the same access to underlying operating systems and hardware as native apps do.

It will be a challenge to maintain the balance between convenience and experience. I have already found while developing that adding any sort of teleportation features really ruin the fun of traveling and exploring. If one wants to teleport between documents, ONOSENDAI オノセンダイ may not be the right client to use. But, asking users to accept this inconvenience may be untenable, so creative solutions are needed.

Conclusion

My goal is to make ONOSENDAI オノセンダイ the reference implementation for all cyberspace clients and to establish best practices for interpreting the nostr protocol into a 3D visualization. I fully expect and embrace competition among cyberspace clients.

As normal nostr clients' haven't yet figured out the ideal monetization strategy I feel comfortable acknowledging that I don't know the best monetization strategy for ONOSENDAI オノセンダイ yet, but I do have some ideas in the way of optional cosmetics, synthesized voices, prefab or custom-built constructs, or even proxy proof-of-work mining services.

In the age of bitcoin and nostr humanity has to unlearn 100+ years of fiat profiteering and find new ways to provide value4value. It is my sincere hope that cyberspace will be a place of flourishing and a means of discovery for the human race, established near the dawn of Satoshi's new era.

May humanity peer into the neon void of cyberspace and find itself as it is meant to be: flying and free.

https://onosendai.tech

Team

• arkinox

• Contributions by nonni.io

Acclaim

• announcement post with lots of love and zaps

Roadmap

• Cross-browser improvements & fixes

• Smart Caching

• Searches & Filters, History, Routes

• Presence support

• Construct support

• Speech/Text/Speech transmission

• Zap support

• Visualizations of additional event kinds

• VR support

Join the telegram at https://t.me/ONOSENDAITECH