Blockchains and cryptography create peer-to-peer computers, which result in digital systems with radical properties.

When Bitcoin introduced these technologies for the purpose of digital money, they got planted in the minds of most as something with primarily financial consequences. Their initial purpose effectively obscured their deeper properties, of which the financial consequences are important, but only one of many.

Dark Forest (2020) broke new ground by exploring how these technologies create Digital Physics, MMO-like rules that are as immutable and "hard" as physical laws. Movement, mining, crafting, and combat were all enforced using smart contracts. This hinted at a digital world that would be impossible to shutdown, reset, tamper, or forcefully update. One that is uniquely and maximally robust for people to settle and invest in.

While large MMOs tend to see player-driven emergence, Dark Forest saw it with a miniscule community of a couple hundred members. This emergence was driven by the credible commitment made by Digital Physics, rather than by the presence of a large social graph.

Countless Player-Built Extensions created social mechanisms on top of Dark Forest's physics. With The Astral Colossus, 50 strangers pooled their resources within 24 hours to a shared spaceship, governed by a player-created smart contract, to gain strategic advantages.

MUD (2022) and its services progressed Digital Physics from demonstration to production. It became faster to ship complex Digital Physics, build clients for players to interact with it, and interface with Player-Built Extensions.

Lattice, the developers of MUD, demonstrated these claims by building OPCraft within weeks, and extensions like the Supreme Leader emerged within days of launch. Many took notice, and a vibrant community of developers and designers exploring Digital Physics was formed.

Beyond taking Dark Forest's discoveries into production, MUD has begun enabling new properties like Open Scalability. Instead of depending on a single server owner to run and scale a world, individual players and organizations can contribute compute and do so themselves, limitlessly.

Biomes (2024) was developed with MUD and advanced the notions of Digital Physics and Player-Built Extensions introduced by Dark Forest.

When there is Digital Physics, there is also Digital Matter. The provably scarce supply of ores, crops, fluids, energy, and other resources that circulate according to the Digital Physics simulation rules.

Bitcoin was an anon-created currency that used cryptography to enforce supply and transfer rules, which allowed it to accrue >$2T in value. This wouldn't have happened if Bitcoin was managed by the anon's server. Similarly, Biomes hinted that Digital Matter may accrue far more value far faster than "monopoly resources" managed by a studio's server.

This creates natural incentives for early adoption. Early adopters can simply mine & farm matter for $0.0001 in computation fees. Late adopters have to compete. Unlike coins, matter isn't absolutely owned—it decays, depletes, or gets taken. Effort is always required, so the system remains fair across time.

While large MMOs foster economic activity, Biomes saw thousands of dollars spent by players in computation fees to mine resources with <100 daily active users. This was driven by the credible commitment on tamper-proof supply made by Digital Matter, rather than players desiring status in a large social graph.

Countless Player-Built Integrations defined the behavior of objects like chests, force fields, and doors to integrate social mechanisms directly into the world. WasdSwap programmed chests into shops to generate real money revenue for their guild.

Observing Dark Forest, MUD, and Biomes reveals many non-obvious consequences. Open Scalability surpasses server architecture limitations to create shared worlds which can accommodate everyone. Digital Physics & Digital Matter make credible commitments to support emergence & value accrual which is disproportionally larger than the size of the player base. Player-Built Extensions & Player-Built Integrations enable the emergent creations to interface with the broader internet and economy instead of remaining confined to the virtual world.

We've been engaging with "virtual worlds" for a while. It's pretty clear that they will play an increasingly larger role heading into the future. They may eventually even consume the entirety of where humans spend their time.

Our observations from Dark Forest, MUD, and Biomes have led us to formulate a question worth asking: what happens if a virtual world takes itself seriously?

The answer to Bitcoin's question of true digital scarcity evolved over 15 years from e-cash for idealists to payments for unregulated activity to digital gold for government reserves. Similarly, the answer that emerges to Dust's question promises to surprise.