Within the vAtom ecosystem, we consider the three different roles, in addition to the BLOCKv organization that provides the initial technology and operates the platform system. All ecosystem roles use VEE, the BLOCKv token, to interact with each other and the technology.
A vAtom publisher is an entity which creates and publishes vAtoms. The process of creating vAtoms includes the data and properties of a vAtom, the graphical representation (look and feel) as well as the behavior and interactions. A publisher can use tools provided by a developer for the vAtom creation or directly use a programmatic interface (APIs and SDKs). An example could be a consumer brand company who wants to issue a free sample for a new product as a vAtom that can be distributed to potential customers and redeemed for a real product sample at a point of sale. A publisher might also develop a branded smart wallet including specific functionality, which customers can use to view and interact with the brand’s specific vAtoms. Publishers will have to pay a fee in VEE to emit vAtoms and to keep them alive.
BLOCKv will facilitate a developer community where developers can build smart object templates and write code for the behavior and user interface functions, as well as actions and reactors. A publisher might then use that vAtom template and code for its own use cases to publish vAtoms. The community will come up with new development tools, compilers, coding languages or SDKs to facilitate the implementation of vAtom use cases far beyond our current imagination. These contributions can be open- sourced or offered for free or against a fee in VEE through a BLOCKv developer marketplace. Much like the WordPress template stores, the vAtom templates will grow in volume quickly as the developer community makes new templates and modifies existing ones and puts them back into circulation for community use.
A user is an individual who holds a smart wallet containing vAtoms. A user can view and interact with vAtoms using their smart wallet. A vAtom-enabled smart wallet can be anything from a browser-based web viewer to iPhone or Android mobile apps to SmartTV apps to a 3D virtual reality viewer. Through their smart wallet, users also have access to vAtoms offered on a marketplace or dropped on the map, etc.
For users, vAtoms provide a completely new experience. Unlike an app on a mobile device, vAtoms can be dropped, bought or sold, transferred or traded with other users. Unlike an mp3 music file, vAtoms are unique and can’t be copied. Unlike a ticket in PDF-format or in your Apple Wallet, a vAtom can be interactive: for example, it can play a song or change its state over time, providing pre- and post- experience on top of access to the actual event. Users are adopted into the system in an exponential virtuous cycle, as each time a new user receives a vAtom for the first time, an inventory is automatically created for them associated with their unique identifier (such as a mobile phone number). From that point on, the recipient now has a vAtom “account” automatically and will be able to secure that inventory with a password, biometric ID, or other means. On an opt-in basis, users can receive gifts from other users, exchanges, directly from brands or event promoters, or via serendipitous findings in the AR or VR worlds.