John Russo
Hello everyone, my name is John and this is the Washington elite. It is the premier platform for news and entertainment in the international blockchain community. And today I’m with Mattia from VR City DAO. So first of all, tell me a bit about your project and what brought you here to the Blockchain Economy Global.
Mattia
Hi, thank you for having me here with you today. It’s a pleasure to meet you and talk to you. So VR City DAO is a project based on sustainability and social inclusion that aims to offer to its community some valuable tools to use in Web3 and also in VR and AR. So we are creating virtual spaces for brands and people to customize and have a 3D space very easily that they can deploy on our platform. And we’re trying to offer them tools that they can use every day in their work life, offering them in 3D. So we’re starting with virtual stores, but we’re also going to offer virtual meeting spaces, virtual training spaces, and in general, we are trying to create this virtual city ecosystem where we want to host obviously different activities, where we have a central areas that we have an artist, we have an art district, a business district, a virtual university, and a science hub. So this is done to, we want to attract smart people with new ideas onto our platform to actually help us develop it better. Of course, it’s a Web3 world in the metaverse. So we’re based on a virtual land system with Land NFTs, and we have a utility token, which is the VRC token, which is used to trade in the platform.
John Russo
So you’re right now describing the project and it really reminds me one very popular speech that happened, I think around maybe a year ago. So this is one guy, a very famous guy, Mark Zuckerberg. He was presenting his Metaverse and he was describing very similar things.
Mattia
We copied it of course
John Russo
But do you think that the idea that Mark Zuckerberg was proposing is valid and that people really have demands for virtual meeting spaces? Isn’t zoom enough. Is there an actual need for something beyond that?
Mattia
So I think the market need right now in terms of 3D Immersive spaces is more focused around retail and ecommerce. So there are many brands out there that are looking for more advanced, more engaging digital experiences. So like a 3D e-commerce store, a virtual store would be something that brands are looking for today. We’re discussing Amazon before. It’s not something that will substitute traditional ecommerce in today, as of now at least, but it’s a different, more advanced experience with the brand. You would do it, you would use it for a product launch or just to organize a digital event around the product or a brand. So I think the market now wants that, mainly retail spaces, when it comes to virtual events, they talk a lot about it. I think zoom is still the market standard so my friend Bill will love me now for saying that much. So what the problem is there is obviously the experience and the performance and you can’t say that 3D for an event of hundreds of people, thousand people can work, doesn’t. It’s something that we are doing, we will be implementing and it’s something that can work well today with a limited amount of people and more than for events, for learning sessions, for example, to train salesforce around the product launch, for example. So you would bring in your sales people maybe not more than 20, 30 at a time in a space where you can demo a product or you can use the same space then to demo the product in 3D to clients as well. So to answer your questions on Mark Zugerberg’s vision, he came in late as well. We’ve been in this space for 18 years. So for us on web3, I started with Psycho Life and Philip Roosevelt and back then it was 20 or three. So when Mark Zuckerburg now saying, okay, we’ve seen this and he’s probably going to do the same mistakes we have done and it all depends on well, it’s a complicated story, but the vision is certainly there. The point is that I think it’s very difficult for a large company just to do all at once and become a metaverse simply because the technology and experience is out there yet. So do little things. We’re coming out with some very specific tools that you can use, maybe limited for now, but because the technology is new.
John Russo
for sure. I really can see how virtual stores can be a very good thing for product launches and for kind of giving a more advanced experience specifically because right now many brands, particularly like luxury fashion brands, are designing specific 3D websites. But a design of a website like this specifically for a brand of this size for many agency would cost a fortune and actually could simplify this and make it a standardized solution, something like Wix for creating such experiences. This could really disrupt the market and give this experience and opportunity to use this experience to much more brands.
Mattia
Yes, absolutely. So that’s precisely one of the problems we’re trying to solve. We have had various, excuse me, we have had various clients in the past for whom we built 3D spaces, virtual stores as well, but we had to build everything from scratch. So now with VR City DAO you have a platform that allows you to configure a space by yourself and go online with it even without us. Obviously if you want more advanced customization then we would come in and help you, but still you can go online with the store in 3D like you would do with shopify in 2D.
John Russo
So for how long have you been in business with VR City DAO?
Mattia
So we started the project a couple of years ago. Development has been going on for about a year now and we’re launching, we just launched it yesterday. Officially.
John Russo
Launched yesterday officially,
Mattia
yes.
John Russo
And so your launches, you have a mobile application that people can use to access?
Mattia
Absolutely. We are currently on the Google Play app, stores and Windows Store and we’re going to go soon on Mac iOS and Mac desktop. Mobile, iOS and Mac desktop. So for Apple and we are online with the Web3 website with Land geography and Land NFT Minting and also the Token, which we launched on Polygon yesterday.
John Russo
So as you said, you have been launched on Windows Store. So you have like a desktop application as well?
Mattia
Absolutely, yes. So our app will be on Mobile, Windows, Mac desktop and VR headsets. And VR headsets as well.
John Russo
Regarding the VR headsets, do you believe that there is a big future for VR headsets in general?
Mattia
It’s going to take time. So there are obviously some major problems to solve and believe it or not, one of them is that women don’t like them. Absolutely. If you check out the marketing test and everything, it’s something that women don’t like, therefore men do not buy it. But there is more to that. There is like obviously usability, there is the fact that you’re isolated from the real world and the fact that still today those devices are a bit clumsy. And it’s early days, obviously. It’s like when you had the phone that was like a phone cabin. See, that’s the other thing about grey hair. I saw phones where they were dispatching. So you have to carry a bag with the battery to use your phone. Okay. Not to mention the phone bin. So you need to get to something that is limb like this. You can just wear it. And also, I think to be isolated is not necessarily bad because you can concentrate more on the activity you’re doing. But it’s also true that we need to limit that experience in time. Like you don’t feel well if you stay too much inside your head. Right. It’s getting better, but it’s just that we’re not built to live there yet.
John Russo
Yeah, for sure. So who are your competitors and what makes you different from them?
Mattia
So obviously you could include in the competitors list any metaverse platform. I would say that we started after many well known platforms like the Decentrland or others, but we’re we’re not focusing on developing the Token economy or the Land system so much. We’re more focused on creating spaces that people can use that have immediate value for them. So one of the main differences we have with our competition is that you can today very easily with our space configurator, create your own virtual store and go online on our ecosystem. Like you would create a shopify store in 2D. Precisely the same way you have a store configurator. You upload your content and you go online and you can do it already now and you’ll be seeing your store on a mobile phone or on Windows. So this is not something you can do like this on other metaverses. And then of course, we have a strong focus on sustainability and social inclusion because I think there are fundamental important values for the future of our communities globally and we believe in that. We want to try and solve some of the issues related to not just the blockchain infrastructure itself, but also how the single services, applications and user experience of the end user works and what carbon footprint this has as a whole. Which is not easy to do and we don’t know yet precisely how we’re going to do this, s I said, we’re starting now, we have objectives and we are forming an advisory board of experts that we are inviting from different fields, including sustainability, but of course finance and others, to truly also urban experts to develop the city and so on, who will help us to develop the concepts and the systems behind our platform.
John Russo
I think our interesting idea here is that basically if people stop going outside. If people spend all of their time inside the house with a VR headset or with an application and just explore virtual stories. Go to virtual cities. Etc. The carbon footprints will eventually decrease a lot because the only carbon that will be used will be used for businesses. Like offline businesses and people will stop using cars. People will stop using buses. Trains. Etc. So this will probably decrease the carbon footprint a lot.
Mattia
Absolutely, yes, there is that but there is also need like for example, as you know, blockchain and everything that’s distributed is based on single nodes and the way that distributed systems are built, there can be millions of nodes everywhere.
John Russo
Okay,
Mattia
So imagine if one node is a computer in a country, like for example, we have people working for us in different countries. We have an amazing 3D modeler in Pakistan who works from Pakistan and half of the time he works on a diesel generator because there is no power. So obviously he’s not going to have a clean energy node from where he is just because he cannot afford to have it or it’s not possible to have. So when we talk about making web3 sustain… we have to think about these things. But this happened also outside of web three in other businesses where to be sustainable you have to redesign the entire value chain, the partnership, the clients, the suppliers. That’s what we are like. That’s why it’s complicated.
John Russo
Yes man, that sounds very reasonable. So what is your main objective here at the conference, specifically?
Mattia
So what is your main objective here at this conference? So we wanted to introduce the project to the blockchain community doing a soft launch and we wanted to start meeting other companies to begin having relationships and partnerships. As you know, we’re new, so we have a long way to go. We are in Dubai during the blockchain month and as you know, Dubai is attracting lots of blockchain businesses and obviously attracted us as well. So that’s also part of the reason we are here.
John Russo
That’s amazing, man. I think conferences are specifically meant for this.
Mattia
Thank you very much.
John Russo
So where do you go from here? Where do you next three, six, maybe twelve months look like months later?
Mattia
So we secured funding to develop the product for the next year already. So we’re going to work a lot on the product and the platform, developing single features. So for example, we talked before about augmented reality views for products inside the stores that we have already today. We’re going to add staking features for the Token. We’re going to add governance on the platform. So most of our next month a year is going to be around product development. Then of course, as we keep growing, hopefully and also raising more money, we are going to invest more locally going worldwide with the platform, doing road shows and doing some marketing as well to get known worldwide for what we do.
John Russo
Yeah, I think that that’s a reasonable approach and a very smart approach because you start with developing something that people need and only after that you’re trying to offer them. Unlike most of the crypto projects who first sell the Token and try to do the most marketing possible, and only after that they think about actually developing the product.
Mattia
Yeah. So besides the very dramatic cases that we know of people running away with their wallet, there is a fact that listing a Token is a new way of raising money before you have to go to investors. Today you list the Token, you raise money from the community, it’s totally fine. The problem there is you need to take the accountability on delivering. So if you don’t deliver what you promised, there has to be a why. Like it happens, it’s okay. Like in the startup world, in the tech world, I’ve seen thousands of products that failed that never went live. I even failed and never went live with some products. So it’s normal, let’s just stop selling this idea of getting rich fast and everything. We go and focus on selling value like we’re trying to do. And the money you raise, try to quickly convert it into something that’s usable and generates value. It doesn’t have to be thousands features. It can be one feature that you use. Like how many apps do you use every day on your phone? 3, 4, 5, 6. How many apps are there on the market? Thousands. You don’t use them? Yeah, I mean, they can be fun. What do you do with them
John Russo
Many apps, you just use one time and then you forget about them and only the best become part of your habits, something that you use all the time and that you get used to. So what is your website and social media? So how can people find VR City DAO check out the project may become your partners or maybe if they want to become investors in the next round that you have, how can people find you?
Mattia
Sure our website is VRCity.space
John Russo
So it’s VRCity.space
Mattia
And of course we are on Instagram, we are on Telegram. If you just search VR City DAO you should be able to find us
John Russo
I really hope you guys will have some good searches and you’ll be able to find VR City DAO. If not please contact me. I’ll help you to find VR City DAO, thank you so much
Mattia
Thank you
John Russo
My name is John, this is Washington Elite and we are covering the Blockchain Economy Global here in Dubai. Thank you so much.
Mattia
Thank you John
John Russo
My pleasure as well.