Soulbound tokens play a big part in this new metaverse, which plans to give users citizenship

cointelegraph.com:

A new NFT and metaverse project is being built on the Ethereum blockchain — with a cutting-edge difference that could set it apart from rivals.

Astral Pioneers says it will enable players to own their own land, mine it for resources, and start building across 30 different planets.

But it's the in-game governance mechanism that sets this project apart, as it's going to use soulbound tokens to represent and ensure citizenship.

SBTs are a new approach to cryptoassets that has been championed by Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum. He was inspired by a feature found in World of Warcraft — and those with long memories will remember that this game was a crucial reason why he wanted to establish this blockchain in the first place.

Soulbound items cannot be transferred or sold to others — and Buterin's argument right now is this: This functionality currently can't be achieved through the ERC-721 standard. In a blog post published in January, he wrote: "If someone shows you that they have an NFT that is obtainable by doing X, you can't tell whether they did X themselves or whether they just paid someone else to do X."

Astral Pioneers says the arrival of SBTs won't affect a player's ability to lend tokens or lease their land to others — and the game will boast DeFi functionality to make this happen.

And in championing what makes their metaverse so special, this project claims it is the first virtual world to offer citizenship to users, all while offering resources that build intrinsic value. Becoming a citizen of AP means a user can vote on legislation, delegate their votes to others they trust, propose laws, and even become a senator who has a front-row seat in making things happen.

Each of the 30 original planets consists of