Yakushima Is the Solana Metaverse We've Been Waiting For

Yakushima Could Be Solana's Blue Chip NFT Metaverse

After a few weeks of downright depressing NFT launches on both Ethereum and Solana, the last week has been an upbeat one. I wrote about the launch of a potentially disruptive NFT called Shyro earlier this week and the Invisible Friends mint -- which I didn't cover here -- went better than most people expected. 

In the meantime, I came across the Yakushima project that has captured my imagination over the past week. The art brought me in, the team's professionalism kept me interested, but the vision of a massive world is what gives me hope that this could be an absolute home run for NFT buyers. Here's an overview of the project and where it's going, including an upcoming mint of "capsules". 

Project details

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/YakuCorp

• Website: https://www.yakushima.io

• Discord: discord.gg/yakucorp

• Linktree: https://linktr.ee/yakucorp

The Yakushima ecosystem

The story behind Yakushima starts with a "majestic & enchanted forest off the Japanese coast where nature has taken back its rights over humans." Some people went into this forest and a came in contact with a mineral that turned them into Japanese spirits called Yakus. 

Yakus have developed technologies, through Yaku Engineering, to "revegetate the planet and transform the metaverse into a free and decentralized blockchain-based universe." The Yakuvers is the open map that Yakus live in and the DAO is a way of organizing people. 

So far, there are three NFTs that will build the foundation of the Yakuverse. 

• Yaku Engineering: ONI-S01 motorcycle - This NFT has already launched and is available on Fractal or Magic Eden right now (6.2 SOL as I'm writing). Importantly, owning an ONI-S01 will give you a white list spot for a CapsuleX.

• CapsuleX (shown below) - Your home in the Yakuverse. This NFT will mint on March 5 for 2.5 SOL for those with a white list spot. There are three size capsules.

  • Cyber Pods

  • Space Suites

  • Galactic Penthouses

• YakuX Avatars - The characters, or avatars, in the space are also being developed and are expected to be minted in the form of an NFT in the next month or two. There are currently the three types of avatars, but the team is seeking comment from the community on how to add/update this list.

  • Cyborg - human with cybernetic parts

  • Yurei - Japanese devil

  • Robot - Robot created by Yaku Engineering

• Land Sales - The roadmap includes land sales in the future. This will be the metaverse extension of the ecosystem.

• YakuStore - A store will be available to modify/upgrade your bike, avatar, or home.

• Casino? - Lots of talk of a casino, so this seems to be core to the project in some way.

Long-term, the team is already beginning to build an open map for players. This is where bike races will be and will also house own able land and capsules. 

Play to earn mechanics, which have been a part of a lot of games lately, will be included and the $YAKU token will be a part of this digital economy. 

You can see below that the capsules are already working. This video starts in the garage that will house bikes and uses a standard Unreal Engine robot as the avatar. 

There's a lot going on, but that's what makes this project so exciting. The upside potential is huge when the vision is as big as this. 

Team

On the team front, there's some information, but not a lot. I'll talk a bit about the Fractal tie below, but here are the key players, or at least their anon names. 

• Daishizen Sensei - Founder and Lead Dev - Background in corporate finance and entrepreneurship.

  • Twitter: https://twitter.com/DaishizenSensei

• Kodama Sama - Operating Lead - Background in engineering and experience at aerospace companies.

  • https://twitter.com/KodamaSama_

• PapyChuloGrim - Marketing Lead - Digital strategy background in marketing and currently works at a Fortune 100 company.

  • https://twitter.com/PapiChuloGrim

• GangnamThug - IT Consultant - Experienced developer and angel investor.

  • https://twitter.com/gangnamthug

In addition to the internal team, Yaku is working with Random Synapse to build out early assets and functionality. As the project grows, I would expect the team as well as partnerships with gaming studios will expand as well. 

Roadmap

I've outlined a lot of the roadmap above, but here's the team's roadmap from its website. 

I think it's notable that the team is trying to build as much as possible with NFT funding, but ultimately acknowledges that VC funding will likely be needed. I like this because NFT investors are like angel investors in this model. We take a lot of risk, but also get a lot of reward because the team can sell a more fleshed out product to VCs. 

The build process

As the NFT space matures, there are beginning to be best practices for disclosures by teams. In this case, the team is doxxed through Fractal, which I'll get to below, but I've been impressed with the build communication the team has done. They've explained to the community how game development works and what's being done in-house, what is outsourced, and what is bought from the marketplace. 

You may not realize this, but a lot of game development is off the shelf assets and tools. Game engines like Unity and Unreal Engine (the game engine Yaku is using) have huge collections of assets that developers can use to build with so they don't have to custom create every wall and chair in a world. Here's a look at part of the communication the team has done about how it's building. 

The team has also been seeking community input about design features. I appreciate this, but do hope that they don't lean too hard on the community because at the end of the day we're betting on Yaku's team to know what's best from a design and functionality standpoint. 

The Fractal stamp of approval

Yaku got on my radar because it's a Fractal launch on Solana. Fractal is a gaming focused NFT marketplace founded by Justin Kahn, who also founded Twitch. The Fractal business is new, but the company says that it fully doxxes teams and makes sure their game play is solid and well represented before they're allowed to mint. In a sense, a bet on Yaku is believing that Kahn's word is good. 

All-In on Yakushima

I'm more excited about the Yakushima ecosystem than I have been in an NFT project since Psychedelics Anonymous launched. The art looks great. The team seems to be building in public, showing animations and even working screen grabs of the Unreal Engine. A lot of work has yet to be done, but it's getting there. 

I also think the metaverse vision is better than most I have seen at a price point under $500. If the Yakushina metaverse is built, this could be a compelling metaverse project to be an owner of. 

YakuCorp has a lot of work to do in building this vision out, but that's the point of investing early. If the vision comes together as planned and the community engagement remains high -- as it is currently on Discord -- this could be an absolute home run project. The entry point for a bike and a capsule isn't cheap, but I think the upside is over 10x if the project goes well over the next year. 

Price today: 6.2 SOL for bike + 2.5 SOL for CapsuleX mint included with bike = 8.7 SOL. 

Disclaimer: Travis Hoium has not been compensated for this post and does own Yaku NFTs and plans to mint a capsule. The NFT Project DOES NOT provide financial advice. All content is for informational purposes only. The NFT Project is not a registered investment, legal, or tax advisor or a broker/dealer. Trading any crypto-related asset is extremely risky and could result in significant capital losses. DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH