Cryptopia: Metaverse, city-state, community

I'm happy to announce that I'm now the Ambassador for the Philippines of Cryptopia, a metaverse game and independent city-state built entirely on the blockchain.

It's been quite a journey. I first found out about Cryptopia shortly before the Philippine Web3 Festival in November, which I attended to moderate the "Getting from Zero to One in Gaming" panel.

To be perfectly honest, part of me was anxious to attend the event and terrified to go up on stage. It was my first time to attend a conference in real life again in the post-pandemic era, and to speak in public face to face, as opposed to virtual summits.

But I decided to not overthink and just enjoy the moment.

Zen has always resonated with me, which is why I try to cultivate a beginner’s mind. I have strong beliefs, but I’m prepared to change them in light of new knowledge and insights. I think that’s the way to remain idealistic without becoming ideological. Just my own point of view.

A beginner’s mind is one of the things I talked about in an article written by e27 Editor Manisha Maity. This is part of a new articles series focusing on work-life balance.

Here’s an excerpt from the e27 article. It’s my response to the question: How do you envision the next five years of your career?

“That’s a hard question. Zen has always resonated with me, and during the pandemic, I embraced meditation and mindfulness even more. So I try to cultivate a beginner’s mind, always trying to look at the world through a beginner’s eyes. I’m living in the moment, going with the flow, one day at a time.

"That’s also how I see my career now. Don’t get me wrong. I love working for Playfix.io. I believe in the Japanese concept of ikigai, which means 'reason for living'.’ And I’m happy to say that joining Playfix.io has played an important part in finding my ikigai.”

It also helped that I made new friends even before the main conference started, during the pre-registration party.

It started out with a Space.

The very first Philippine Web3 Festival Space, in fact. I joined to listen in, and then asked a question.

After the Space, Cryptopia Community Manager Lauderic Labapis DM’d me asking if our company, blockchain gaming platform startup Playfix, could have a guest speaker on their Space.

Playfix Co-founder and CEO Tobias Abdon and I guested, and that’s how we met Cryptopia CEO Sangho Grolleman and CMO Pichapen Sörum.

Later on, I met Ambassador for Thailand Pinky Prikwan through Cryptopia’s Facebook posts.

I was so happy to meet the Cryptopia team (minus Sangho) IRL at the festival. And I’m grateful that they sort of adopted me and made me feel like an honorary Cryptopian.

So I've been an honorary Cryptopian for almost two months. But I was totally caught off guard when Pichapen asked me if I would like to become Cryptopia's Ambassador for the Philippines. You should have seen my jaw drop! In fact, up to now I still can’t believe it.

I told her that it would be an honor and that I definitely would love to, but of course first I would ask Tobias if I could. And, thankfully, he gave me his blessing.

I'm truly happy to represent Cryptopia, because not only is it a web3 game that focuses on fun, but also promotes values that resonate with me. It's a metaverse game built entirely on the blockchain, and so it walks the web3 talk. In fact, as a virtual city-state that unites citizens from all over the world, Cryptopia is a model for our real-world decentralized future.

The lore of the game encapsulates this, as it's based on a fictional lost white paper by Satoshi Nakamoto, the real-world pseudonymous person (or persons) who invented bitcoin and so implemented the first blockchain.

"A few years after Satoshi Nakamoto’s Bitcoin white paper changed the world, another white paper of mysterious origin created a stir. Satoshi’s work states that the world is due for economic collapse due to its reliance on fiat currency. It would take only one crisis, such as climate change, to unleash an unmitigated global catastrophe. His startling proposal: Cryptopia World, a nation based on the blockchain, a new society would serve as an example for all others to follow."

I love science fiction, and that's one of the reasons Cryptopia appeals to me, because it's a richly imagined world set in an alternate future. Of course, no story would develop further without some form of conflict. In the case of Cryptopia, it's the rise of four Factions, each with a different interpretation of the white paper and how their society should be run.

These four Factions are Eco, Tech, Industrial, and Traditional, which are led by John Smith, Sam Clark, Peter Nolan, and Jane Brown, respectively.

These Factions add more nuance to the game, as players can choose based on whether it aligns with their real-world values, or whether it gives them a gameplay advantage. It also makes Cryptopia a great place of learning, as it offers content not just about the game, but also real-world issues that are important to each Faction.

Since it's completely built on the blockchain, Cryptopia embraces the web3 ethos of decentralization, and has no servers that can be shut down. This, in fact, was one of the reasons Cryptopia Founder Frank Bonnet and Co-founder Hansco Leek built Cryptopia, because they wanted a game completely run by the players.

In fact, Cryptopia is theoretically an eternal game, as the smart contracts were designed to be upgradeable.

While the technology is truly impressive, the success of Cryptopia is mainly due to its passionate team and highly engaged community. Just visit the Cryptopia Discord at any time of the day, and you will see this for yourself.

The game is now gearing for its open beta, and I can't wait for people to experience Cryptopia. Players have a choice whether to play for free through the Adventure Gameplay, or to buy NFTs (non-fungible tokens) from the start for the Tycoon Gameplay.

So, what are you waiting for? See you in Cryptopia!