NEVERDIE, a leading brand in real currency Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs) and virtual worlds, announced a $1.1 billion market cap ICO on the Ethereum Blockchain in partnership with South Korean cryptocurrency operator ICO KOREA.

“This is a very significant partnership as South Korea is right at the forefront of digital culture when it comes to both cryptocurrency and online games,” said Jon “Neverdie” Jacobs, CEO of NEVERDIE. “It is tremendous validation for ICO KOREA to champion the NEVERDIE ICO among a very savvy gaming community.”

Jabobs is an actor, musician, filmmaker, and a living legend among the fans of MMORPGs and virtual worlds. With his avatar “Neverdie” in the Entropia Universe virtual world, Jacobs became the first gamer to earn a million dollars within a virtual world and established the popular “Club NEVERDIE” on a virtual asteroid, which entered the 2008 Guinness Book of Records as the most valuable virtual item in the world. Jacobs’ company, NEVERDIE Studios, developed and operates the ROCKtropia music-oriented virtual planet in Entropia Universe, which supports “gamified jobs” – that is, real paying jobs in a videogame.

Jacobs, who claims the title of first “President of Virtual Reality,” wants to kickstart a trillion dollar virtual goods economy and create a billion of real jobs in virtual worlds.

“In 2016, I first announced my goal to create a Billion gamified jobs with the launch of a Virtual Reality teleportation system as the means to combat global job losses as a result of exponential advances in AI [(Artificial Intelligence] and Robotics,” said Jacobs. “Since that time, leaders of the tech industry have issued similar warnings that AI will have a massive impact on jobs and that governments should be considering more income strategies. I truly believe that gamified Jobs will bridge the gap before basic income is widely adopted; and that the global decentralized virtual goods economy will eventually lead to a shift in global governance.”

The NEVERDIE ICO will start on June 30 and offer two different tokens: the NEVERDIE Coin, which will enable gamers to buy new lives for their avatars, and the Teleport token, which will enable gamers to quickly teleport across worlds and from one game to another. After the ICO, according to the press release, funds will amount to a market cap of $1 Billion before trading begins on the cryptocurrency exchanges.

I have fond memories of wildly entertaining virtual escapades to NEVERDIE Club in Entropia Universe, and I am persuaded that after many false starts virtual worlds could become a big thing. So I reached out to Jacobs to find out more.

Could you elaborate on “After the ICO, funds will amount to a market cap of $1 Billion before trading begins on the cryptocurrency exchanges”? The numbers in the press release don’t seem to match.

There was a mistake in the press release. The number of teleport tokens is 10 billion. So at 10 cents each we have a market cap of $1B.

And the NEVERDIE Coin is 400m circulation at 25 cents.

So 1.1 billion before we hit the exchanges.

I think that as we make deals to unite worlds the market price of the tokens will increase, which will give a more meaningful market cap.

We set our initial goal to raise $10m from a NEVERDIE Coin and $50m from teleport, but in the event of additional demand we’ll will sell more teleport tokens to acomodate the demand.

I am more interested in the market cap than the amount we raise because we plan to use the coins we don’t sell – they will be used for smart contract funds for cross platform loot pools. Cross platform game dev with project voted on by token holders and a jobs fund.

A $1 billion ICO would be the largest so far, do you really think you will raise that much money? What gives you optimism?

We are not trying to raise $1B, we want to raise enough to create the $1B market cap and then utilize that to accelerate adoption through the funds.

We have raised close to $2 million so far in pre-ICO, so that is very encouraging. I feel really good about the reaction to the concept from the game community so I think right now the sky is the limit… but the pre-ICO has already validated the project.

How long will the ICO last?

30 days unless we sell out. I think that will give us enough time to really raise awareness. We did very light pre-marketing. Mostly grass roots to test the ideas. We are publishing the white paper today. Right before the ICO.

Could you give a couple of examples of “real” virtual jobs that the post-ICO teleport economy will create? Do you think virtual workers will be able to make a real living? Only in cheap remote regions, or also in the expensive Western world?

The first jobs are simple hunting jobs. Hunting AI Bots to prevent them from farming (gamified) or guarding Teleportation installations. Or perhaps harvest rare resources we need for building teleporters.

We are also creating government jobs that pay. So we are turning over the management of ROCKtropia to our player govenrnemt.

The jobs start at minimum wage $10 – $15 per month and go up to appriximately $50 per month in the government. Of course if NEVERDIE Coin goes up in value then the wages may be worth more in the future. I find that this is a good start before all virtual worlds are interconnected.

The amounts are more meaningful to people from countries with weaker economies but anyone on a fixed income can utilize this level of guaranteed income as a springboard. As we connect more virtual economies the minimum wages and skilled wages will go up.

Does the current version of the Entropia platform support full VR with Oculus Rift and all that?

Not yet.

Could you explain how a global decentralized virtual goods economy could lead to a shift in global governance?

We know already that game economies rival the economies of small countries, but if you were to unite all the game economies, then the GNP will rival that of the largest countries. Given that the players will have the ability to use transparent democratic voting systems to manage this economy, it will in effect be a democracy with an enormous economy that can be harnessed. This I believe will become a global community that will have a voice in global politics that is impossible to ignore. Our geocentric politics and government may become less influential as we move further into our digital mindsets.

Isn’t this pure escapism? Shouldn’t people try and make the real world a better place instead?

This makes the world a better place. People chop down trees just to make money, they hunt endangered species just for economic opportunity. It’s unnecessary to harm our environment if we can provide that economic opportunity online.

Picture from Evelyne Andersson/YouTube.