Most of us have seen dozens of "rebrandings" after which nothing changed except for the logo and loud statements. Usually, it's just a marketing riddle: old team, old problems, new name. But with Vanar, it turned out a little differently.
The project started back in 2017 as Terra Virtua Kolect - a platform for NFTs and virtual collectible items.
Then it became Virtua, focused on the metaverse, AR, brand experiences. The token was $TVK . Everything is typical for the crypto boom of 2021-2022: beautiful virtual worlds, partnerships with brands, promises of "the next Facebook in the metaverse". And then - November 2023. The team announces:
"...we are no longer just a metaverse. We are moving to a full-fledged Layer-1 blockchain..."
The name becomes Vanar, the token changes 1:1 with $TVK to $VANRY . Outwardly - a classic rebranding. But you need to look deeper.
They didn't just change the sign. They rebuilt the entire stack: from ERC-20 token on Polygon/Ethereum to their own mainnet L1 with PoA + Proof of Reputation, a fixed fee of $0.0005, EVM compatibility, and built-in AI modules (the same Neutron and Kayon that I wrote about yesterday).
This is not cosmetics, it is a transition from "selling NFTs in a virtual universe" to "building the infrastructure on which others can do PayFi, tokenized assets, games with real economies, and AI automation."
Why is this important? Because many metaverse projects from 2021-2022 simply disappeared or turned into meme coins. Virtua/Vanar survived, gathered experience (and partnerships) from games, brands, entertainment - and used it to create not another "quick chain", but a specialized L1 for real applications.
The name "Vanar" is not a random word:
a combination of Virtual + Narrative + Revolutionary
as CEO Jawad Ashraf explained in his video announcement. They consciously moved from the narrow niche of the metaverse to the broader "Intelligence Economy"
But there are also doubts. The rebranding in 2023 was more than two years ago. The mainnet launched, products are growing, but will history repeat itself when the team promises a "revolution" and then quietly liquidates? So far, the numbers and updates look stable, but I'm not a fanatic - just observing.
@Vanarchain bets on making Web3 useful, not just another casino. Whether it works out - we'll see.
Tomorrow we will analyze the team, who these people with experience in gaming and brands are, and why their past may be more important than any whitepaper.
