Open Virtual Identity

An open standard for personal virtual identities and all they entail

The problem

Every video game, social platform or other internet community that allow the end user to create a virtual avatar all have widely differing functionality, and, worst of all, they don't talk to each other. This means the user needs to create a new avatar on every new service they come across. Changes or achievements made on one service don't carry over to others.

The solution

Build a system where the user can set up their avatar once, and use it on any one platform that chooses to support it. Avatar visuals, virtual item ownership and other properties are always up-to-date on all platforms.

Goal of the project

The hope is to have a future where the following scenario could play out:

Kim is playing the new hit MMO, Wicked Wizard Party. Kim defeats a powerful wizard, receiving a Wizard Hat as a reward. Kim equips the Wizard Hat, which grants +5 intellect, making Kims' spells more powerful.

Kim later logs in on the social meetup platform, VRChitChat. Kims' avatar dons the Wizard Hat in this world as well. As there are no RPG elements to VRChitChat, the +5 intellect bonus has no effect.

Before bed, Kim wants to play some Angry Battle Soldiers on the living room games console. Before going into battle, Kim switches out the Wizard Hat for a Protective Helmet. While intellect does slightly improve Control Point capping speed in this game, Kim decides the bonus armor of the Protective Helmet is more beneficial.

The "metaverse" future is inevitable, and it will hopefully be:

• Open source
• (Mainly) decentralized
• Owned by noone
• Easy to implement for developers

Technology

Everything below is a work in progress

Interacting entities

• Item creator/admin
• Ownership provider
• End user
  • Content consumer and owner of virtual identity

Required functionality

• Item ownership

  • Item creator/admin decides which Ownership provider can prove item ownership
  • Item quantity is retrieved from all Ownership providers on request

• Currency

  • Currencies are just items with a 'currency' type

• User properties

• Item visuals (3d models? 2d sprites?)

  • items can have 3d models tied to them
  • item descriptions (main color: blue)
  • standards for visuals
  • ? tools for generating models
  • ? tools for enforcing/applying the standards to existing 3d models (poly count reduction, retopo)

tags: metaverse, snow crash