Facebook announced an ambitious rebrand last week and showed off a beta of its own digital utopia, Horizon Worlds.

Instead, the momentum stirred up gaming-related blockchain-based projects, including Decentraland and The Sandbox. Both are up more than 200% since Meta made known its “metaverse ambitions.” 

Both projects are digital worlds where all assets belong to users. Users can purchase digital real estate (LAND) to develop and govern virtual properties. Among the most interesting developments are digital casinos, virtual games, museums, and a fully-online university.

These projects, which lived long lives before Facebook’s reinvention, stand in contrast to Horizon Worlds, which will likely be governed and controlled by a central entity. And crypto maxis, already skeptical of the “tyranny of Big Tech companies” are looking for its alternatives.