MultiversX (EGLD) is the project that restarted the field of metaverses

What is MultiversX?

MultiversX is a productive and scalable blockchain platform with a focus on metaverses. The project team is capitalizing on the growing popularity of the metaverse trend to provide developers, artists and other users with a scalable, efficient and secure infrastructure for metaverse, NFT and digital asset-based applications. MultiversX covers all the most popular areas of the decentralized world at once: DeFi, NFT, Web3 and metaverses.

The project was founded back in 2018 under the name Elrond. The main network was launched in July 2020 — at the peak of DeFi's popularity. Initially, it was a public blockchain with high bandwidth and a level of security, scalability and interoperability. The project was backed by major players in the crypto industry, including the popular Binance exchange.

Elrond was one of the first blockchains to use Adaptive State Sharding technology to scale the blockchain. The essence of the technology is that the network is segmented into many chainsX — shards — that operate and process transactions in parallel to each other. This allows for a significant increase in network throughput. This is the same technology currently used by the Ethereum blockchain.

In October 2022, the Elrond team rebranded and renamed the project to MultiversX to emphasize the focus on metaverses. Opera has also integrated the MultiversX project into its namesake browser, expanding its audience reach to millions of new users.

How MultiversX works

The blockchain has two key elements: the Adaptive State Sharding technology and the Secure Proof-of-Stake (SPoS) consensus mechanism. Technologically, MultiversX is much like the current Ethereum network, only with cheaper and faster transactions. Thanks to sharding, the network can distribute the load between different segments (shards), which leads to increased throughput. Shards can be combined or separated from each other, providing flexibility in controlling the load on the blockchain network.

The Secure Proof-of-Stake mechanism ensures the network's security: validators block their tokens through the protocol's smart contract (i.e. stake the native EGLD tokens), gaining the right to mine blocks and generate revenue.

Locked tokens limit supply and thereby stimulate their price to rise at least as long as demand is maintained. The Secure Proof-of-Stake consensus aims to balance decentralization, performance and security. The network security is currently supported by 3200 validators, indicating a high degree of decentralization of the MultiversX blockchain.

Project ecosystem

After rebranding to MultiversX, the company released three new products: xFabric, xPortal and XWorlds. Let's list the main elements of the MultiversX ecosystem and review their features.

xFabric

An independent blockchain module used to create decentralized products for the MultiversX ecosystem. xFabric is designed to develop and deploy decentralized Web3 applications and even websites efficiently. The module provides tools for fast and flexible customisation: according to the project team, developers can release their first application in just a few minutes.

xPortal

As the name suggests, xPortal is a portal to the MultiversX metaverse. xPortal will replace the existing decentralized exchange (DEX) on the MultiversX blockchain, formerly Maiar, but will significantly expand its functionality. The transition to the xExchange has been approved by the community and will be finalized in December 2022.

In addition to trading digital assets, xPortal users will have access to attributes for their digital avatars, a social network for communicating with friends and acquaintances, and fiat currency transfers using debit and credit cards. In fact, xPortal is a multifunctional wallet and platform for the MultiversX ecosystem.

xWorlds

Finally, the third main element of the MultiversX ecosystem is xWorlds, a network of interconnected metaverses. For now, xWorlds is available by invitation only: users must leave their email address to get a pass to the MultiversX metaverse.

EGLD token

EGLD is the native management token of the MultiversX ecosystem. Despite the rebranding, the name of the token was decided to remain the same to avoid confusion and a lot of related problems. While renaming the project itself would be easy, the token is different: a new smart contract would have to be created, and the migration of old tokens would have to be painless for everyone.

The EGLD token is used for staking and participating in the Secure Proof-of-Stake consensus. However, not everyone can become a validator for direct token staking: they must meet minimum requirements, including the amount of staked EGLD. However, holders can delegate tokens to validators and receive income from token staking on an equal footing.

EGLD is also used to pay transaction fees, as well as voting and ecosystem management by the community based on the decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) principle.

Validators' revenue is generated from two sources: commissions paid by users and issuance, i.e. through the issuance of new EGLD tokens.

During a private sale 2019 and a luncheon on Binance in 2020, the project, still with the name Elrond, raised more than $5 million. This is a small amount, even by the standards of blockchain projects, but this did not prevent it from achieving significant success. EGLD is among the 50 largest cryptocurrencies in capitalization according to the CoinMarketCap rating — the figure exceeds $1.18 billion at the time of the article's creation.

The maximum number of tokens is 31.4 million, of which 26.17 million are already traded on the market.

Already, after listing on exchanges, the price of EGLD has been fixed at a reasonably high level — at least $8.25. This indicates high investor interest in the project. The exchange rate of EGLD tokens as of November 2023 was $45.15. The price peaked in November 2021 at $469.47, after which it began to decline, as almost all cryptocurrencies on the market started a bearish period that lasted until the beginning of 2023. The EGLD token reached a minimum price of $33.14 at the end of December 2022, but since then has not grown as much as many other altcoins, as the focus has been heavily shifted to L2-based Ethereum scaling solutions such as Polygon, Arbitrum, Optimism and others.

EGLD is traded on major centralized cryptocurrency exchanges such as Binance, Coinbase, Kraken, Bitfinex, OKX and many others.

Current position and outlook

MultiversX is one of the leading blockchain solutions in the Metacommunity. MultiversX has also partnered with Deutsche Telekom to provide security and verification for the blockchain project's communication channels. Back in October 2023, Google Cloud teamed up with MultiversX, thereby expanding its presence in the realms of Web3 and Metaviews.

The integration with giants such as Google and Opera says a lot about the project's high reputation and ambition to lead in its segment.

In the fourth quarter of 2023, the MultiversX team plans to launch the xWorld platform publicly. After that, the project will probably present an updated roadmap for the following year. The very fact that the project has been actively developing and has gained major partners despite the bear market indicates that the team is serious about its intentions, and the prospects for MiltiversX are quite high.