History

How did this all start?

In July 2021 Gala Games revealed a new project being developed via their subsidiary Gala Labs. Initially headed by long-time cryptopunks fan James Olden (“irrelevant” in Discord), the VOXfather passed the reins to Ali Shawar (“NFTHOON” in Discord) in December of 2021.

VOX were launched in the midst of the 2021 bull market PFP project craze, but with a great deal more ambition than most. Not merely an image, VOX are avatars and cross-platform utility NFTs. Each series is specific to a particular game or theme in the Gala ecosystem, and each VOX within a series is completely unique. Shortly after the 1st series release, a demo VOXverse town was made available for owners to explore (players were even able to tip Gala tokens to one another), and it became apparent that Gala intended to fully build out the metaversal capabilities of these characters.

Also noteworthy was the tagline of “Avatars that DeFi” that worked throughout the 1st series advertising campaign. In the year prior to the VOX launch, about $276 billion found its way to DeFi platforms from North American inhabitants alone, and the industry displayed a broad spectrum of application via thousands of DApps on blockchains like Ethereum, Cardano, and Solana. Gala announced a play-to-earn function very early on, but hinted at more to come. Despite significant probing from the Gala community, Gala has kept much of this close to the chest aside from an AMA leak regarding their intent to establish a DEX within VOXverse.