Scaling beyond walled gardens with the M2 network
Improbable's M2 network infrastructure supports up to 7,200 concurrent users through MML language to enable interoperable metaverses. This technical shift follows Yuga Labs generating $320 million from Otherdeed sales while legacy platforms like Decentraland face revenue declines.
Scaling through the M2 network
Yuga Labs, valued at $4 billion, generated $320 million from the sale of 55,000 Otherdeed NFTs. Secondary sales for these assets exceeded $558 million. Improbable provides the M2 network infrastructure to support these large user crowds. Their MML language defines the visualization and behavior of objects to allow them to exist in any metaverse environment or game engine. During the 2nd Trip demo on March 25, the M2 network supported 7,200 concurrent users. The 55,000 land plots were sold through KYC wallets only at a price of 305 ApeCoin. This price was the monetary equivalent of $5,800. The scale of the mint was so large that Etherscan crashed. Yuga Labs apologized for turning off the lights on Ethereum. It remains clear that ApeCoin needs to migrate to its own chain to scale. This infrastructure allows users to travel between different worlds without performance degradation or lag. The Morpheus platform can accommodate 20,000 people across all devices. Improbable also developed the MSquared entity to build a network of interoperable Web3 metaverses.
Technical and regulatory friction
The scale of these digital assets creates technical and regulatory hurdles. High demand for Otherdeeds caused Ethereum congestion that forced gas fees to record highs. The massive transaction volume during the Otherdeed mint caused Ethereum to reach a point of congestion where users paid between $6,500 and $14,000 in gas fees for transactions that ultimately failed. The network issue hit the entire Ethereum ecosystem. It impacted users attempting unrelated transactions as well as those buying Otherdeeds. Yuga Labs promised to refund gas for those affected by failed transactions. The sale also burned 55,838 Ether, which equals roughly $158 million in value. The mint burned nearly 25% of all the Ether spent on gas on OpenSea over a 267 day period in just two hours. The SEC identified both SAND and MANA as securities in legal actions against Binance and Coinbase. This move follows a period where SAND and MANA prices dropped more than 90% from their 2021 highs of $8.44 and $5.90. In 2021, speculators paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for plots in the Sandbox and Decentraland, including a $4.3 million purchase in the Sandbox by Republic Realm and a $2 million buying spree in Decentraland by Tokens.com.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Otherdeed Land Plots | 55,000 |
| Otherdeeds Revenue | $320 million |
| Ether Burned | $158 million |
| Max Gas Fees | $14,000 |
| M2 Concurrent Users | 7,200 |
The shift toward interoperability
The M2 network provides a way to bypass the limitations found in older, centralized platforms. Improbable founders used AI tools like ChatGPT to create objects that function within the M2 network. This allows for a different type of economy than the one seen in Decentraland or The Sandbox. The MML language functions similarly to HTML and JavaScript, defining how objects look and behave across different browsers. In an impromptu demo on April 2, three individuals used the MML language to build an entire space in a single weekend in a tech space made by Improbable. This architecture connects different worlds into a "meta-metaverse" that does not rely on a single platform’s control. NVIDIA, Google, and Dolby act as partners in this effort. The project received $150m in funding to build a network of interlinked worlds. This network includes metaverse owners, creators, service providers, and users. You should watch how the M2 network scales with these new AI-driven assets. Can the M2 network maintain this scale as more users enter?
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