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The Wistaverse has launched in The Sandbox open metaverse as the first global virtual protest platform with real impact.
It is a forum to educate the public about causes, host appearances by influencers and speakers, organize and fundraise for actions, enable participation in and carry out mass virtual protests, and provide safe and non-violent alternatives to those who can’t participate in real life.
It debuts today with the inaugural protest taking place May 13 to May 14. It will be a rally in support of abortion rights curated by Amnesty International.
The platform’s launch is timely in what has come to be called the “Age of Mass Protests,” when global problems like political repression, climate change, and economic downturn define the day and protest has grown by 12% worldwide within 10 years, the creators said.
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Wistaverse founder Grégoire Laugier said in a statement, “Using a virtual avatar and proxy system, Wistaverse can reduce the violence that characterizes protest in the physical world and enable universal inclusion and access to events, regardless of participants’ location in distant geographies or authoritarian regimes.”
The first mass protest on abortion rights will be organized by Amnesty International and feature key activists and celebrities in the movement, to be revealed during the event.
The Wistaverse itself is a neutral space that provides a platform for other players to organize and execute campaigns on subjects that they choose. The human rights organization Amnesty International is behind the platform’s inaugural pro-choice protest.
As part of Amnesty’s efforts to maximize reach, it has created Amnesty HU.R.R.A., its first non-fungible token (NFT) project, intended to use Web3 technology to support the right to abortion around the world. For this event, users can buy Amnesty’s HURRA NFTs to raise funds for the cause. Future fundraisings will be amplified by using the Wistaverse utility token $WISTA.
Director of Amnesty International Belgium Philippe Hensmans said in a statement, “Amnesty International sees the blockchain environment as a way of sensitizing a new audience to its work by addressing topics in a more interactive and decentralized manner than it has ever done before. We are thrilled about this collaboration with the Wistaverse because it allows us as a brand to start envisioning what will be possible in the years to come to educate and engage new audiences about the defense of human rights.”
All proceeds from NFT sales are decentrally paid directly to AI and other causes by automatic wallet transfer without an intermediary. Payments and plans for the supported protests will be documented on the Wistaverse platform and its Discord channel, while the identities of users and donors remain anonymous.
Wistaverse will debut in The Sandbox, a leading decentralized gaming virtual world. The Sandbox COO and co-founder Sebastiean Borget said in a statement, “With over 4.5 million registered wallets, having Wistaverse as part of our community ensures that its voices are heard and that diversity and empowerment remain at the core of the metaverse that we are building together. We look forward to seeing our community announce, host, and follow social action to enact change in The Sandbox and beyond in the physical world.”
Besides vast social media coverage of the metaverse protests, other operative digital actions are possible according to community proposals and popular vote, such as sending mass emails or educational content and links to petitions to the stakeholders and decision makers targeted by the protest.
Powered by their utility token $WISTA, The Wistaverse code will eventually become completely decentralized, immutable and unstoppable like that of Bitcoin. Its decentralized treasury will provide a central pool for funding protests and platform development, fueled by a 0.5% fee for transactions on the platform. The Wistaverse aspires to be a safe and non-violent forum for protest that is compliant and responsible. When needed, the platform will be using zero-knowledge proofs that can confirm but do not reveal users’ identities, to ensure that no violent or extremist organizations can misuse the platform to raise funds. The website will have practical info like how protesters can protect themselves.
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