Catalonia premieres its own metaverse

Catvers is the name of the new virtual world that the Centre Blockchain de Catalunya has created to get started in this new reality, in collaboration with the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce and the Govern. The businessman Quirzé Salomó, founder of Nostrum, is the visible face of this new project. Salomó was appointed president of this body in September 2020, after the prepared food chain entered bankruptcy proceedings in early 2019, with an accumulated debt of more than ten million euros.

Following the path set by Facebook with Meta, Catvers is intended to serve as a place to meet in a completely digital environment and in Catalan. The Govern thus takes the lead in an still incipient innovation, as it has already done with others, such as the new space economy. "Catalonia has to be there," defended the vice-president of the Govern and Minister of Territory and Digital Policies, Jordi Puigneró, at the presentation, which was made from this new metaverse.

Catvers can be accessed with computers, mobile phones and tablets, but with augmented reality glasses the experience is much more complete. It is designed for companies and entities that want to organize very diverse activities in this new format, from meetings to art exhibitions and events such as festivals. It is also expected to be enabled as an educational space for the university world. According to Salomó, the metaverse will allow higher interactions than those that occur, for example, through Zoom or Teams meetings, as well as visiting multiple spaces without leaving home.

Since this Monday it can be accessed through www.catvers.cat, but, at the time of writing this article, the website gives an error and does not allow entry to the Catalan metaverse. This is not the only problem the project is having at its start. Its presentation has had audio problems, with sound duplicities and conversations that were heard when they shouldn't have been, as well as users who have not been able to communicate correctly.

Initially, Catvers can be used for free, but it will start charging from March, with affordable rates according to Salomó. Regarding the initial budget to start this project, Salomó has quantified it in thousands of euros, without specifying the exact figure, while the vice-president of the Govern, Jordi Puigneró, has detailed that the Catalan executive has contributed 400,000 euros this year to the Centre Blockchain de Catalunya.

Salomó has also not wanted to specify if they have already managed to add partners to the initiative, but he has stressed that Catvers will end up being economically viable. He has not ruled out the creation of a virtual currency or token that can be exchanged in this new reality. In fact, in Nostrum, Salomó already promoted a cryptocurrency to finance an expansion plan, but it ended up failing.