Enter the metaverse

Sorry for serving your porridge cold today. It will be a busy week trying to sort out immigration papers so bear with me as this week entries might come at odd times and probably will not be my finest.

Of course I cannot stop thinking about the metaverse, in my defense I have been thinking about it since last year but Zuck has just made the idea mainstream so please let me indulge myself.

Last week we saw the company formerly called Facebook announce that it aims to build the metaverse of the future. Many tech writers have opined on this topic and am sure you are bored to death hearing about it but who am I kidding? I have been bullish on the metaverse since I learnt about cryptocurrencies and the opportunities it presents, how it changes ones perceptions of finance and the economy. The gaming community are no strangers to the metaverse as many already function within this space, twitter took it to the next level by creating space for interaction on a simple scale with the mem culture and, finally the crypto space ran with it through the by inventing, trading and collecting NFT’s (Non Fungible Tokens). Now we see corporations scrambling to get on the NFT craze, from Coca Cola, to Dolce and Gabbana, to Time magazine, to the NBA and many more counting.

All these signaling a new era for merchandising, branding, community and identity in the new era where life will be based in a virtual world/community.

However, what Zuck and his team seem to be building does not seem to interest me as it will be a version of their own manifestations and the idea of a world they only would like to live in. Probably not what majority of Facebook users would agree with.

The issue that comes to mind will be one of decentralization vs centralization. My first question is, will or can Facebook (sorry Meta) own the rights to the metaverse? Who gives them the right? would it be users? or governments?

To me, it sounds like Zuck is saying he wants to own or manage the air we breathe or the internet we all use. Would this be advisable for a profit seeking corporation to own a community? I am not implying that the government should either, but thank the stars for DAO’s (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations), where a community can control, vote, and make decisions on how and what goals an organization should pursue. In this case, the community (the users of the metaverse’s) should be able to decide on how, where and what to do with their community without interference or compulsion. One can look at the many DAO’s currently in the crypto space or an existing cooperative; Mondragon Corporation here.

What I perceive will come to existence will be various metaverse’s existing simultaneously, while competing with one another by offering different perks and incentives to recruit new members. Metaverses will be similar to nations in that various communities will co-exist within them and work together to have a shared identity. This will be the final nail in the coffin for the nation state. I would love to witness the nation state and its leaders someday beg to be included in a metaverse as they will be inconsequential with time (to be honest, I can’t wait for their demise).

There are rumors of Apple working on its own metaverse, although one could argue that an apple ecosystem already exists with iCloud and apple products. All we know is that it will be a closed and extractive system to suck the life and money out of its users and developers but I digress.

Is this Zuck’s metaverse going to be one filled with more advertisements to fuel our materialistic tendencies? or one where we merely ‘connect’ online to people we can already meet up in person? or one that will train people to become better individuals? The answer will be interesting. This space is developing fast. It is fascinating to watch as we take the front seat in the battle of the metaverse’s.

See you tomorrow!

- Ope