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Spells of Genesis game celebrates 5 years by opening a virtual NFT history museum

CryptoVoxels will be the home of the Spells of Genesis trading card exhibit, as NFT galleries become increasingly commonplace in the metaverse.

Thursday marks the fifth anniversary of Spells of Genesis; generally regarded as the very first play-to-earn blockchain game. EverdreamSoft, the game studio behind SoG, first distributed many of the game's trading card-based NFTs back in 2015, though its mobile trading card game did not go live until 2017. To commemorate the occasion, Everdream Soft announced the opening of an NFT History Museum within the CryptoVoxels metaverse on April 20. This virtual exhibition will feature new and vintage SoG cards as well as assets from various other popular NFT collections.

Spells of Genesis fuses a trading card game with point-and-shoot arcade gameplay. Players have to collect and combine cards to create the strongest deck in order to fight their enemies and earn cryptocurrency at the same time. Original cards from the collection's inception will play a prominent role in the upcoming showcase.

Each month, one vintage card will be chosen and displayed on the museum's rooftop. Users who click on the showcased card will be transported to the Spells of Genesis Showroom, which acts as a gateway to learning about blockchain gaming history. According to the company, the museum has been in development for several months and features collections from projects that "have advanced the ongoing evolution of digital assets."

Shaban Shaame, CEO of EverdreamSoft, believes that the NFT History Museum "puts forward some of the most historical and iconic NFT projects in the industry." Other assets to be displayed in the museum include the Bitcoin Genesis Block, the Nakamoto card from RAREPEPE Series 1, as well as collectibles from another early game named Etheria. Cryptopunks, Counterparty, Mooncats and Axie Infinity collections will also be exhbited. 

Additionally, users will receive a special discount on the card of the month and one lucky participant who signs the NFT Museum's guestbook in April could secure a Spells of Genesis card from 2017. Other signees could gain exclusive access to a future SoG experiences and events throughout the rest of the year. 

Related: Crypto Stories: Spells of Genesis card game resurges in popularity as sales skyrocket

Recently Cointelegraph interviewed Shaame for a YouTube episode of Crypto Stories, where he answered questions about the game's recent resurgence in popularity. Originally, in-game cards could only be minted on the Bitcoin blockchain using an early blockchain protocol known as Counterparty. After several years of stagnation, it wasn't until SoG became compatible with the Ethereum blockchain in 2020 that sales started to rise again. In conversation with Shaame, he revealed his vision, that has now become a reality, of displaying those so-called rare SoG trading cards in a museum setting.

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Crypto Stories: Spells of Genesis card game resurges in popularity as sales skyrocket

The latest episode in Cointelegraph's Crypto Stories series' walks viewers through the history of the pioneering blockchain mobile game as told by its creator.

Cointelegraph interviewed Shaban Shaame, CEO of EverdreamSoft, whose company produced what is considered to be the first blockchain-based mobile game called Spells of Genesis, or SoG, in 2015. This trading card game launched at a time when few investors and gamers saw the value in blockchain gaming or even Bitcoin, and it faced heavy competition from AAA game producers who shifted to a free-to-play model. 

Originally, players who reached a certain level could mint in-game cards as tokenized digital assets on the Bitcoin blockchain using the Counterparty protocol. After years of stagnating sales, however, SoG became compatible with the Ethereum blockchain in 2020. It wasn't until mid-2021 that NFT collectors put the game's rare NFT cards back on the map and sales began trending upwards.

Other blockchain games like CryptoKitties, that allows players to collect, breed and trade virtual cats, had been in the spotlight. The CryptoKitties NFT collection came to the market in 2017 and is largely given the credit of showing collectors and gamers that in-game asset ownership was added value. At the time of publication, CryptoKitties ranked 15th in top most traded collections on OpenSea in terms of volume. 

As an early blockchain aficionado, Shaame admitted he "found a new family" with the crypto community made up of people who are "genius and a bit crazy." He likened Bitcoin's invention to that of the internet's and he set out to create on-chain collectibles that could survive the game's life. Always believing that SoG trading cards would go up in value, Shaame envisions those cards displayed in a museum 50 years into the future. 

Related: Crypto Stories: Gavin Wood discusses why he decided to code Ethereum

Shaame admitted he was not prepared for the sudden recent spike in usage and price. At the end of the video, he revealed he has another project in the works with plans to "revolutionize the use of computers" in hopes of "changing lives."

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