Voxelus, the virtual reality (VR) content creation platform and marketplace, has announced that it will fund Voxel Foundation, in a bid to expand the use and adoption of its revolutionary in-game cryptocurrency, the Voxel.

Martin Repetto, Voxelus CEO and founder, made the announcement in a blog post. He said that the foundation will be initially endowed with a grant of 5 million Voxels, with up to an additional 10 million Voxels in the forthcoming years to support its mission.

“I’m pleased to announce today that Voxelus is endowing a new Voxel Foundation to expand its outreach, engagement and impact throughout VR communities globally, including universities and gamers across the world”, Repetto said. “As a vital first step, we are contributing 5 million voxels to this cause…”

The Voxel Foundation aims to expand the cryptocurrency to work with various networks, games, VR platforms and entertainment content providers, brands and advertisers, as well as to promote its adoption in universities, VR enthusiast groups, and gaming/VR enthusiasts across the globe. It will particularly focus on universities and users in countries with no access to traditional financial markets, including Latin America and Asia.

By engaging in a global developer outreach, the foundation will help create new assets, APIs and applications to connect the Voxel blockchain to the $100 billion gaming industry and $800 billion global entertainment market.  It will also open up its currently closed-source GitHub for interested developers and announced plans to hold contests and bounties to encourage development of applications that will leverage the digital asset-backed nature of Voxels, culminating in an annual developer and content creator conference.

“Since our extremely well-received launches of the Voxelus Creator and Marketplace, it has become clear to us that our core game developers should now concentrate on building out those platforms and our cryptocurrency team should have the structure of a foundation to expand the Voxel to new markets,” said Repetto.

Voxels are the first in-game cryptocurrency and the only form of money used inside the Voxelus Platform. Voxel raised $500,000 in its initial crowdsale, which ended in December 2015. It trades on Bittrex, Poloniex, Livecoin and Uphold under the symbol VOX.

The announcement also named the initial team members, adding that other regional directors will be named as they are chosen:

• Repetto will serve as executive chairman of the Foundation, as well as liaison to the Voxelus platform
   
• Voxel core developer Jim Blasko will serve as technical director for the Foundation and will recommend technical needs and opportunities, as well as oversee the integration of additions to the codebase
   
• Cryptocurrency veteran Gavin Knight will take on the role of community director, responsible for outreach and education to the VR, education, gaming, technology, advertising and cryptocurrency communities