There have been a slew of virtual world projects that have entered the Ethereum NFT ecosystem in the last few years. Many promised thriving digital environments, economies, social mechanics, and gameplay. Webaverse was one of them, but it distinctly stood out from its competition for a few reasons, notably its inclusion of XR technologies, web accessibility, and AI agents.

Webaverse centered around Upstreet, an endless street modeled on Neal Stephenson’s Snowcrash metaverse. If you aren’t familiar with Stephenson - the man coined the term metaverse.

Webaverse was The Metaverse. Upstreet was The Street.

When promotional material and in-experience footage surfaced for the platform, it immediately captured the attention of many builders in the space. Many of us were drawn to Webaverse not for a quick NFT flip. This wasn’t just another walking simulator with land rights. It was a rich game world powered by AI, with all of the latest tech packed into a browser.

On mint day, Webaverse stole the spotlight, minting out immediately and reaching a floor price of 2E. The community's euphoria mirrored that of those directly involved in the project. We were all truly poised to bring this shared vision to reality.

Shortly after, however, things seemed to cool off a little. Maybe it was the inflated community expectations of the speed in which this vision could be executed. The vision was still there, the builders were still there, and we were happy to hone our skills patiently in the background.

Until…

A co-founder of Webaverse seeking additional funding met an investor in Rome who requested “proof of funds”. Though wallet details were never disclosed, the funds vanished minutes after the investor excused himself from the meeting to take a call.

This event truly shook the community and the team. The treasury was drained, as were many of our aspirations for the virtual reality we had all dreamed of. There followed a period of grief, tension, resignation, and eventually, dissolution. In an act of gratitude for the community's support and to salvage what remained, they acquired assets from another unsuccessful venture. This acquisition laid the groundwork for the creation of Infintia, leading to the inception of Webaverse Studios.

As the AI hype wave washed over web3, and NFT enthusiasts on Twitter transitioned into LinkedIn AI Consultants, Webaverse pivoted accordingly. Utilizing many elements of the virtual world AI infrastructure they had been building for Upstreet, they crafted an AI companion app. It became evident that the original vision was no longer the main objective. Good intentions might still exist, but builders don't thrive on intentions alone.

Webaverse was more than an NFT project. It utilized NFTs in its inventory and game systems, with the passes playing a crucial role in the storyline. The vision was an open metaverse anchored in digital ownership and authorship, asset interoperability, and a community's power to bring the cinematic universe of NFT IPs to life. Its core mechanics were established with generative agents long before ChatGPT became available and VCs shifted their investment strategy towards AI. For those intimately acquainted with the story, the lore, and the builders, it was a deeply personal venture, a narrative that demanded to be.

And so, late one night in a voice channel in the M3 Discord, Upstreet was reborn.

A small group of creators, researchers, and devs crowded around the creator of Upstreet as he streamed his development on Discord. They cobbled together an event centered around redemption, everyone pitching in to edit the research paper, produce a trailer, assemble the mint page and mechanics, and coordinate everything else to relaunch the project.

In the bottom of a bear market, with all the hype gone, the only people left were those who really believed in the project, who held out all hope that it would continue. Nobody asked for money, nor did they get paid. They built it because they needed it to exist. They built it because they still believed in the vision. It’s why I’m writing this post right now.

Things came together fast… like, really fast. The crew composed of the true believers deployed a working open multiplayer metaverse with claimable land, put together a multisig wallet and set up Upstreet DAO, offering all Genesis Pass Holders a chance to redeem their passes for Title Deeds in Upstreet. If you ever want a case study for cross collection loyalty, this is it.

The redemption process served as a stringent filter, removing fleeting enthusiasts and opportunists. Only those genuine backers of the project - the builders, creators, designers, developers, writers, researchers, and, of course, idea guys - who stood by it through its lowest points and were granted a front row seat for this showing of redemption.

Within 72 hours, Upstreet DAO rose to become the #1 holder of Genesis Passes, collecting over 2,800. 5,600 Upstreet Title Deeds were minted, and 2,000 land plots were claimed.

Reinvigorated, empowered, and optimistic about the future, the community has come alive once more, poised to rebuild their vision of what the open metaverse should be.

Upstreet is live today, and the team is actively building live with the community on Discord. You can see it for yourself at https://upstreet.ai

Webaverse, as Upstreet, is officially unrugged.