Blockchain company AMAXG said it is focusing on the metaverse, artificial intelligence and digital personal safe businesses this year.

Having laid the groundwork for the BizAuto platform last year, this year the company expects to boost the AMAXG Metaverse World where metaverse meets nonfungible tokens, big data and AI.

AMAXG Group said on Thursday it will establish a metaverse-AI convergence research center, and expand and reorganize its business structure to make progress on new businesses. 

Researchers of AMAXG K2Soft and AMAXG Anistar will be brought together to launch the metaverse-AI think tank, and will concentrate their technological and contents capabilities on research and development and AI.

They recently hired about 10 blockchain developers and 20 content developers, raising the number of research personnel to around 70.

Linking with the scalability of the AMAXG Metaverse World, AMAXG Group also set up a control tower named AMAXG Media for cultural, environmental and technological innovation to set up strategies to go global.

“To proactively tackle issues in a fast-changing hyperconnected and hyperconverged society, we must foster specialists and liaise with external partners in various industries,” AMAXG Group chief executive Choi Jeong-moo said.

“New businesses derived from virtual assets such as digital personal safe and blockchain donation should go along with this year’s business keynote -- portfolio expansion and system building.”

The research center was established to contribute toward AMAXG Group’s business reorganization and to concentrate research capabilities on metaverse and AI, under the belief that change and innovation are the basis of creating new knowledge, the company said.

The new think tank will study AI avatars; AI multilanguage and voice translation; mobile-optimized three-dimensional graphics; metaverse development using Unity and Unreal Engine; and the legal system involving the world of metaverse.

It will research and build a system that interprets and translates different languages used in the metaverse world on a real-time basis.

When various characters meet and converse in their own languages in the metaverse, AMAXG’s new service will interpret first in English, and translate back into languages that the characters signed up for. Real-time voice translation will also be available.

Minors can be exposed to crimes in the virtual world, and are vulnerable to possible personal information leaks, fraud, libel, and sex crimes. In addition, it can become a place of escapism for them to avoid reality. The research center is considering introducing a real-world legal system that internal operators cannot interfere with, by establishing a real-time data search system.

If an illegal act occurs in the metaverse space, the system will track illegal use of words in voice, posture and chat on a real-time basis, and flag the characters in question. Perpetrators will be subject to criminal punishment in the real world.

“To develop competitive specialized technology in the metaverse and AI, we will make bold investments, converge different fields of research, and seek cooperation with external partner firms,” Choi said.

“It will greatly help to lay the foundation to share the research outcome of our think tank through a value chain, and allow AMAXG Group to become a next-generation technology-based innovator.”

Together with the Korea Blockchain Enterprise Promotion Association, AMAXG Group plans to host the “AMAXG Biza DApp contest” for developers in the first and second half of this year.

The idea is to offer a chance for developers to take part in developing AMAXG’s BizAuto platform service, or DApp, and provide training and consulting for startups.

The contest is an opportunity for platform developers to develop the protocol that forms the basis of AMAXG’s BizAuto MainNet and software such as Wallet and DApp so that companies can focus on their business while users can use the platform without having to learn about blockchain.

Developers around the world will submit services they developed such as DApps using the BizAuto MainNet, and a panel of judges consisting of AMAXG Group’s service partners, members of research organizations and university professors will select the winners.

The deadlines for the contest will close in late June and in December.

Fifteen teams will be selected each time, and a total of 1.7 billion won in prize money will be given.

The winners will be awarded with commendation from chiefs of government and public agencies in July and January next year.

“The purpose of the contest is to discover and foster promising developers, hire them and support their businesses,” Choi said.

“We can also find talent to develop killer service DApps for the blockchain-based BizAuto platform, and to send to our overseas corporations.”

By Kim So-hyun (sophie@heraldcorp.com)