Fold AR is creating a real-world metaverse.
The metaverse could use a lot of energy.
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Fold partners with Niantic to create AR-based Bitcoin rewards app

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 2 min

Fold is launching an augmented reality experience where players can earn Bitcoin in a kind of augmented reality environment.

Fold, a reward and payments app, partnered with Niantic to create the Fold AR beta app, which overlays Bitcoin prizes over the real world. It uses Niantic’s real-world mapping tech and Fold’s feature for earning Bitcoin rewards. The company calls this a step into the real-world metaverse, the universe of virtual worlds that are all interconnected, like in novels such as Snow Crash and Ready Player One.

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.