Virtual reality world builder and marketplace Voxelus Inc. is using its own cryptocurrency in a novel crowdfunding bid.

Voxelus has finalized its first-ever company equity program for members who hold the company’s cryptocurrency tokens “voxels.” Under the program, the company will be offering portions of a 33.3 percent stake in the company to token holders who currently own 2 million or more voxels.

Voxelus opened crowdfunding in November 2015 with the debut of the world’s first VR cryptocurrency, called voxels. The tokens, tradable for other similar currencies such as Bitcoin or Ethereum, could be used to pay for VR artwork, models and other work in the marketplace. The crowdsale closed in December of the same year and produced roughly $544,000 for Voxelus with the sale of just over 1.4 million voxels to 212 contributors.

VR artists and developers can find 3D content, models and assets in the Voxelus marketplace for a multitude of projects as well as create and publish their own. The marketplace uses an app that can be run on Macs and Windows personal computers for creating and importing VR models, a standalone VR viewer for Windows and a Samsung Gear VR app for mobile work.

Voxels are currently the only way to purchase assets and content from the VR marketplace and will remain so even after the equity exchange program is completed. At the current market price, $1 converts to 66.42 voxels. Martin Repetto, chief executive of Voxelus, said that he believes this is the first time such a conversion has been offered.

“The virtual reality market is growing, but its most significant initial use cases have been in the corporate world,” said Repetto. “We wanted to give the opportunity for some of the largest voxels token holders to convert some of their tokens into equity in the corporate entity that is addressing both consumer and corporate applications.”

The company intends to use the re-acquired tokens to fund its next round of crowdfunding. With the cryptocurrency to company equity program, the company seeks to buy back 15 percent of the total number of voxels currently issued. Eligible participants will be able to exchange two million voxels for a 2.116 percent stake in the company at a fixed rate irrespective of the current market price of voxels. The maximum number of voxels a participant can trade in for equity is 10 million.

The equity stake in Voxelus will be in common stock in Voxelus Inc., which is a Delaware corporation with offices in Los Angeles and technical operations in Argentina. No preferred stock will be issued, so everyone participating will have equal footing with founders, early investors and employees.

The exchange will begin Monday, April 10, and run for one month. A countdown has appeared on Voxelus’s new voxel information site–www.thevoxel.com–along with further information about the equity conversion program.

Image: Pixabay