The Metaverse isn’t just a concept anymore; it’s slowly becoming our new reality.
When technology affects our lives, it is not always unexpected. The internet, smartphones, and cloud technology, to name a few, all arrived in the world after a brief appearance in science fiction. The “next big thing” in the digital age is almost certainly on its way, bringing with it the potential to change everyday life. This concept is also known as “The Metaverse.”
When it comes to the Metaverse, it’s described as a virtual shared area created by the convergence of virtualized real-world environments, augmented reality environments, and the internet. Many famous video games, like Roblox, Fortnite, and Animal Crossing, have incorporated it into their designs. Neal Stephenson’s 1992 science fiction book “Snow Crash,” in which a pair of delivery truckers travels through the Metaverse in order to escape a capitalist dystopia, was the first to use the phrase.
Many futurists and enthusiasts envision a metaverse similar to the ones depicted in science fiction films such as “Ready Player One.” While no one knows exactly what the Metaverse will look like, its basic characteristics have been established: it spans physical and virtual worlds, is centered on a fully functional economy, and allows users to travel through its various “places” with relative ease while retaining their purchased goods and avatars.
Consider a virtual theme park with no restrictions on size or creativity. Imagine seamlessly transitioning from there to a virtual music concert with thousands of other people, all within the same digital universe. That is what this new technological frontier has the potential to enable.
How could the Metaverse change the world?
Even if the Metaverse falls short of the epic vision that many have for it, it can potentially change the way we interact with the digital world fundamentally. A collective virtual experience, similar to non-fungible tokens (NFT), could open up new opportunities for creators, gamers, and artists, not just reshaping but also inventing the creator economy.
The Metaverse’s virtual world could become its trillion-dollar industry. A destination for entertainment, commerce, and, for some, even a place of employment. The Metaverse is being referred to as a successor rather than an extension of the internet. And it is being built with the help of blockchains and decentralized applications.
The Metaverse could be the gateway to most digital experiences, a critical component of all physical ones, and the next excellent labor platform. The Metaverse will be the driving force in creating a new generation of companies, similar to how the internet became popular. Perhaps more intriguingly, it may lead to the demise of incumbent industry leaders, as we have seen with the rise of digital platforms.
The world’s effort towards bringing the Metaverse to life
Mark Zuckerburg and Facebook were the forerunners in claiming that they’ll bring the Metaverse to life. After assembling a team of executives to spearhead the product, Facebook has been adamant about its vision and ambitions of the Metaverse.
Facebook has outlined its ambitions for what the Metaverse could be. They aim to create virtual workspaces where workers can easily collaborate within the Metaverse and be more productive.
Facebook also brought up that the Metaverse could provide solutions to social inequities. Mainly because the workforce’s geographic location tends to correlate with their financial opportunities, the need for geographic location will ultimately diminish in a world with a popularized metaverse. And as technology develops in the virtual and augmented reality sector, remote work and the Metaverse could become more effective and accessible.
Other tech giants
Google, Microsoft, Samsung, and Sony have also joined Facebook, informing the XR Association, a group of technology companies dedicated to shaping the future of “experiential reality.”
Gaming is far ahead of other metaverse technologies in many ways, and it has the potential to lead the way in the future. For years, video games have leaned on the concept of in-game economies, in which players can buy and sell items that have no real value outside of the game’s universe. The most recent example is Fortnite, but older examples include the ongoing success of games such as Grand Theft Auto V. Despite being released more than seven years ago, the game made more than a billion dollars in profit in 2020, thanks to a large online community that is still active in the game’s online, open-world universe.
The Metaverse aims to unite these in-game economies under a unified virtual experience. The Metaverse, unlike the world of video games, is not objective. Our interaction will be more akin to how we interact with the internet than with a virtual role-playing game.
What Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain technology brings to the Metaverse?
There will be a demand for permissionless identity, financial services, and high-speed exchange behind the scenes of the Metaverse. Data must be stored and distributed to millions, if not billions, of people. The solution to these issues lies in blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies.
Decentraland and The Sandbox have created virtual worlds that integrate cryptocurrencies to digital power economies, allowing gamers to create and monetize structures such as virtual casinos and theme parks.
In Decentraland, MANA is the money that is utilised, and it can be bought on cryptocurrency exchanges such as Coinbase. There are even casinos in Decentraland where you may gamble in MANA and where the dealers get compensated in MANA for showing up to work each day.
NFTs also play an essential role in the Metaverse, allowing people to fully own their characters, in-game items, and even virtual land. The largest sale to date within the Decentraland Metaverse was an NFT of a 259-parcel virtual estate sold for over $900,000.
Moreover, Interoperable marketplaces will eventually allow users to buy and sell virtual goods from various games and universes. So, for example, someone could sell their virtual plot of land in the Decentraland world and use the proceeds to buy Fortnite skins. Cryptocurrencies may become the sole legal tender in the Metaverse, with all virtual objects and intangible items represented by NFTs.
Nobody can anticipate precisely what the Metaverse will look like or when it will be fully operational, but it is clear that cryptocurrencies will be critical to its development in the coming years. The advancement of blockchain technology, as well as the cryptocurrency industry, will both play a significant part in defining the future of the Metaverse, as we monitor the development of technologies like as virtual reality and how existing industry giants such as Facebook are becoming engaged in the space.
How could Stablecoins evolve the Metaverse?
Many pioneers within the cryptocurrency space see the Metaverse as a massive economic force that will significantly alter people’s lives in the coming years.
As blockchain technology advances, Metaverse’s vision of an internet-enabled virtual world where people have avatars and interact with digital assets and even corporeal objects through augmented reality is rapidly evolving.
With NFT platforms and metaverse platforms rising in the market, Dollar Stablecoins, such as USDC and USDT, quickly become the preferred currency of NFT marketplaces and storefronts in various metaverses.
Stablecoins are stable, transparent, and fully backed by reserved assets held at regulated financial institutions; stablecoins have emerged in recent years due to their ability to provide an alternative to the volatility associated with traditional cryptocurrencies. While the volatility of such digital currencies has made them appealing to speculators and investors, it has made them less appealing to consumers looking to use digital currency to fund purchases of goods or services.
The stability that has propelled digital dollar stable coins rapid growth has proven appealing in the NFT sector. As a result, some of the most popular NFT platforms facilitate trading with digital dollars.
Most NFT marketplaces within different metaverses must develop a solid payment infrastructure that provides a seamless, intuitive customer experience. Interestingly, this can be accomplished by allowing customers to quickly deposit funds into their accounts, which they can then purchase NFTs without going through a series of intermediate steps. In an ideal world, they would enter their credit card information and have money in their account within the Metaverse.
Some platforms have started to allow their business users to accomplish this via native payment processing settlement into stablecoins. Sales of tokens can be settled back into stablecoins within the Metaverse.
Thanks to their rising prices, with cryptocurrencies becoming harder to acquire, stablecoins can serve as the perfect medium to securitize NFTs and the Metaverse. With the introduction of asset-backed securities thanks to stablecoins through collateralized backed stablecoins, we could see a whole new perspective of digital economies and decentralized finance within the Metaverse.
Ending thoughts
With the Metaverse inching towards its final form, a stable asset powering the ever-expanding Metaverse is utmost importance. Stablecoins prove to be the perfect asset considering their stability and roots. The Metaverse can change the lives of millions of people; however, with a solid payment structure and a stable economy powered by stablecoins, it could change the world.
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