This groundbreaking sci-fi blockchain game could help create a metaverse that no one owns

For Bhardwaj and other true believers, Dark Forest is proof of several new concepts at once. First, it demonstrates how advanced cryptography can be used to add new features to online worlds. Developers and computer scientists inspired by Dark Forest are already exploring new games and applications that take advantage of zero-knowledge proofs.

Gubsheep and others have even launched an R&D organization, called 0xPARC (a reference to PARC, the renowned R&D company that Xerox launched 40 years ago), to support this effort. Bhardwaj recently did a stint as a 0xPARC intern.

The scope of 0xPARC is not limited to games. For example, one application the group is interested in is digital identification. Remember the passport example. Zero-knowledge proofs can make it possible to prove all sorts of things about yourself without revealing anything else. You can prove that you were over a certain age without revealing your actual age, or that you have more than a certain amount of money in your bank account without revealing the actual amount. It may also be possible to use zero-knowledge cryptography to prove you’ve run a machine learning algorithm on a sensitive data set while keeping the data private, says Gubsheep.

A new vision for the metaverse?

Nor is zero knowledge the only focus of 0xPARC. Dark Forest’s deepest thinkers seem to agree that while its use of cryptography is genuinely innovative, an even more compelling proof of concept in the game is its “autonomous” game world—an online environment that no one controls and cannot taken. down.

So far, the Dark Forest has existed in temporary instances, called rounds, lasting between one and two weeks. But since it exists solely in blockchain smart contracts — computer programs that the blockchain stores and runs — a Dark Forest world could be deployed in such a way that no one would have the ability to stop it, says computer scientist and 0xPARC co-founder Justin Glibert. “You can think of it as a Minecraft server, but it can’t be taken down,” he says.

Once deployed, a smart contract is a bit like a robot living in digital space – one that can run forever. Unless the creator installs a mechanism that can be triggered to kill the program, it will continue to run as long as the network exists. In this case, Glibert argues, the virtual world would be “more like a digital planet” than a game.

What is happening on a digital planet? Whatever the rules of the world – its “digital physics” – allow, he says. Dark Forest players have used their digital physics to build in-game marketplaces, tools that automate game functions, and even robots that can play the game themselves. It is also free for anyone to copy, modify and build upon.

Glibert’s team at 0xPARC is focused on creating systems that make it easier not only for game developers to create autonomous worlds, but also for the inhabitants of those worlds to interact and create.

Gubsheep says this is the natural evolution of the internet. “The digital world is hosting more and more of our most meaningful interactions,” he says. But he’s betting that people are less likely to accept a version of “the metaverse” that’s governed by a corporation or any other centralized entity.

What they want instead is “a credible neutral basis for people to express themselves in relatively unrestricted ways and self-organize and self-govern,” he claims. “That’s a much more powerful vision of the metaverse for me, and one that I hope 0xPARC’s experiments can contribute to.”