When the advertising campaign around Web3 and Metaverse Cooled, many wrote the whole category as another excessive imagination of Silicon Valley. But in Algeria – from the stages of the San Francisco or Dubai conference – a very different story plays. There, an initiative by the government makes a calculated bet on block chains, impressive media and creators -based platforms. And in its center is Lamina1, Blockchain Layer 1 founded by author Neal Stephenson, whose 1992 novel Avalanche wrote the term “Metaverse”.
Numidia Valley focuses on creating an infrastructure for education, gambling, entertainment and IP … more
The project, started through a new initiative called Numidia Valley, offers a rare, specific example of what some call “media 3.0”. Its focus is the infrastructure – a foundation for education, gambling, entertainment and IP ownership in an economy that failed many of the 20th -century analog systems.
“Algeria does not have the inheritance of the infrastructure to overcome, it can jump directly to digital creative economies,” says Yasmina Kazitani, co -founder of Numidia Valley. “And Lamina1 is the only platform we found to really focus on the creators.”
Algeria has ambitious plans. With the newest population in Africa and a strong STEM talent pipeline – 80% of which are women, according to Casitani – the country invests in skills development, starting incubation and digital IP exports. The Lamina1 collaboration includes three pillars: the development of creative tools based on blockchain at universities, the support of local game development through the Lamina1 platform and the launch of fan knots, such as a digital clubhouse for the National Football Team of Algeria.
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These projects live in spaces, Lamina1’s flagship product is a web3-native youtube-meets-patreon for submerged content. Unlike the central platforms, spaces are surroundings that belong to the creator, where distribution, community and revenue are closely integrated. Creators receive grants to Lamina1’s inherent discreet (L1), which can be betted for performance, used to reward fans or convert to Stablecoin for production funding. Smart contracts automatically handle rights divisions and real -time micro -business segregations.
“This may look like youtube if it belonged to its creators – not Google,” says Rebecca Barkin, CEO of Lamina1. “We are not here to chase the volume of transactions. We build infrastructure for immersion IP and community narration.”
Rebecca Barkin, Managing Director of Lamina1.
This distinction is vital. Lamina1 has avoided many of the traps plaguing early web3 businesses: speculative tokenomics, play-to-earn tricks and a close focus to Defi. Instead, he is placed as a first stack of entertainment immersion, built by and for people who make 3D games, moving series, virtual concerts and films produced by AI.
When I talked to Neal Stephenson earlier this week was blunt for bets. “If millions of people are going to spend time on Metaverse. They need a reason to be there and that reason will be content -games, music, stories. We created Lamina1 to make sure these people can really be paid.”
Austin, Texas – March 16: Neal Stephenson talks to the scene on “Keynote: Neal Stephenson” during … more
For Algeria, cooperation is more than symbolic. It is a strategic move to build dominant creative capacity using world infrastructure. Ministers Noureddine Ouadah (newly established businesses) and Yacine Ooualid (vocational education) support the project as part of a wider impulse to make Algeria technology and culture for the African continent linking newly established businesses, government and international partners such as Lamina1.
Lamina 1’s CBO, Geraldine Pamphile, took the lead for the company after traveling to Algeria last December. “Working with the Algerian Government and Numidia Valley allows us to support a flourishing ecosystem of creators, developers and entrepreneurs who will shape the future of impressive digital experiences.
If it works, Algeria could become a standard for digital development in areas often excluded from the first wave of web2. And Lamina1, instead of chasing the next coin Meme or Metaverse Land Sale, can appear as the backbone of a new kind of internet – one of which creators, not platforms, keep the keys.
