Hey there, it's Bitpaint!
During the last few months, like many others, I was asked to stay at home. So I did. And by spending more time on Twitter I finally discovered that some Bitcoiners were actually doing meetups inside digital worlds. Places like "AltspaceVR" and "VRChat" offer a weird kind of first-person roleplay, populated with Bitcoiners. Bitcoiners everywhere. "FFS what the hell is this?", I asked myself. So I tried to join...
I installed "AltspaceVR" on my PC. I'm not really a meetup guy, I've never gone to any real life ones even if I'm deep into Bitcoin. Bitcoin changed my life once and it turned out it was about to happen again.
Bitcoin VR events and hangouts are hosted every week by diferents communities around the world, in different timezones. You can find links to them at the end of this article. As a french guy, I first joined the La Citadelle VR meetups. And then I discovered Reckless VR. We were about to cut the block reward by half and the whole Reckless VR team did an absolutely amazing job together with Kraken exchange to make this a Virtual Reality event with the ‘Block Drop’ VR Halving Party’.
It was a lot of fun being able to discuss with Bitcoiners from all around the world, sharing ideas and other stuff, so I kept joining different events and communities every week.
After a few meetups, I discovered that you can bring your own content to these platforms. It will cost you nothing except time, wich I had a lot of. And just like with Bitcoin, the more I learned about the possibilities you have as a creator in VR, the more it blew my mind! Helped by other Bitcoiners, I installed Unity for the first time and successfully uploaded my first content on VRChat about a week later, on May 17th 2020. I'm a bicycle mechanic with some computer skillz, but I had never interacted much with 3D environment or digital art before. I'm also an artist, and I did a few Bitcoin graffitis in Switzerland before Covid. After discovering VR I had to learn a lot, wich I did.
From "It’s Working!" to BitpaintVR V1.0
It’s Working! May 17th 2020
Welcome to BitpaintVR 1.0! July 25th 2020
It was a long path with a lot of challenges, I'm still learning a lot of stuff, but I made it! With the help of A LOT of people I had managed to buidl a VR Bitcoin world with a big art gallery inside. Making a project, collaborating with different artists, figuring out "what the fuck is this bug?" was something new to me. It was really hard but I learned a lot from this. I also made a lot of friends here in the last few months and my Bitcoiner skillz increased. That's what you also get from this community, premium service from dedicated Bitcoiners who are willing to help you fix your stuff, or even making it work for the first time! Thanks to them again.
I kept working on this world, as well as others ones, to make them ever better. But at some point, I had to release it. So on July 25th, as a Reckless VR afterparty, I did!
Because i'm not speaking english very well, my internet friend raw avocado stepped up as a guide and it was a lot of fun! We finished up with a party inside the Rat Poison club. Burstup was supposed to do a mix set live, but we ran into some technichal issues. It was still a lot of fun!
Bring Your Own Shit!
You can import pretty much everything into these worlds! Here are some examples of stuff I've been able to bring to VR with the help of the original authors.
The Lightning Torch
Made by Rob Mitchell
How did the lightning torch end up in VR? The original file was a made for 3D printing, you can download it here. The story behind why Rob Mitchell created this is kinda cool and a little sad:
"This is my first upload to Thingsverse. A small amount of Bitcoin was passed between people using the Lightning Network (LN), and it was called passing the LN Trust Torch. No one would pass it to me, so I made my own. You can stick a candle in it, though be careful!"
Bitcoin Grenade
Made by CryptoCloaks
Originally seen as a 3D-print at the CryptoEcon 2020 Conference in Hanoi Vietnam, it was clear that others who were not able to attend the conference wanted their own.
Bitcoin Spinner
Made by Rob Mitchell
This Bitcoin Spinner was also designed by Rob Mitchell, who first got into designing Bitcoin-themed items in mid-2013. His earliest physical product was a Bitcoin Keychain that borrowed heavily from the existing Bitcoin logo art. I've been able to bring this to VR with his help, thank you Rob!
Avatars
You can also bring and wear your own avatar, and again... Bitcoiners are at it! They have created and imported a bunch of cool Bitcoin related avatars that everyone can use!
"B" from Bitcoin and Friends
Imported by AlienTreeHouse
BTC Marshmello
From VRCMods.com, edited by me
Jump Into The Rabbit Hole
The first Bitcoin world I visited was the Bitcoin Citadel. I advice you to start there too, it's a great piece of art! At that point in time, thre were only a few Bitcoin worlds, but Bitcoiners are buidling. This all started in 2020... whaaaaaaaaaat?! YEP, what we see now is just the beginning and it’s growing fast!
I was so inspired by many of these worlds, each one is different and Bitcoiners are very creative. All of them helped and inspired me in some way to make my own, and I'm very grateful to them for this. I'm not gonna spoil what's inside each of these worlds, DYOR and visit each of them, that's the only way to discover how lit they are! But I can guarantee you one thing. I was not the first Bitcoiner to buidl something, and I won't be the last.
Bitcoin Campfire
By Bitpaint
Zender Spaceship
By Zender
Crystal Lattice
By Crypto Neo
BitpaintVR
By Bitpaint
Meetups
I’ll leave you with a list of VR meetups.
VR meetups are really important to me. They’re always a lot of fun and you should come one time, just to give it a try! If you think it's crap, you can Alt+F4, so don't be shy!
Thanks a lot for reading, I hope to see you soon in one of these worlds!
— Bitpaint
Reckless VR
Reckless VR is the largest community for virtual reality Bitcoin events. VR meetups are held every week, with talks by leading developers from teams like Lightning Labs, BTCPay and JoinMarket, as well as interviews and panels with guests like Peter McCormack and the Magical Crypto Friends.
Hosted by: Udi Wertheimer
Location: AltspaceVR & afterparty in VRChat
Website Twitter YouTube Telegram
Bitcoin Only VR Downunder
AlienTreeHouse
La Citadelle VR
French & English meetup every Saturday! Hang out with Bitcoiners in the Cyber Citadel.
Hosted by: Swiss Crypto Cat
Location: Altspace VR
MintGox
Online gathering showcasing the future of video games powered by Bitcoin and the Lightning Network.
Hosted by: MandelDuck & ZEBEDEE
Location: AltspaceVR
Bitpaint is a french Bitcoiner from the 2017 bubble. He repairs bicycles for a living, does graffiti as a hobby and recently discovered game development, which led him to what he does now: creating VR digital content & painting Bitcoin graffiti. He also grows strawberries.