Ok, So Let's Dive into the Metaverse
Yup, it’s the official buzzword now. Facebook changed their name to include “Meta” now and silicone valley along with numerous developers are all currently building out the architecture and code to make it a reality. In the next ten years, we will see 1 trillion dollars dumped into this new investment space every year. The CEO of Nvidia has recently said that the metaverse will be so huge it will create it’s own economy in the coming years. IT’S OWN ECONOMY!
So what is it? The simplest explanation is probably just saying that instead of interfacing with the touchscreen devices you use to go online, you will now be inserted into the internet virtually. Entire worlds are currently being built where this is already a possibility. You’ll be able to walk around virtual marketplaces and buy Nike shoes from the actual company for your avatar to wear. What is an avatar? It’s a digital representation of yourself created virtually in whatever world you choose to traverse. Hundreds of millions of dollars have already been invested into virtual real estate in these places that will generate passive income for it’s owners. This can be in the form of casino table games sitting on land you own that you probably bought with ethereum. This can be any point of commerce that you’re providing in these places that give you a percentage of income from the other human inhabitants of that space. What? Yeah, I know. I’m only scratching the surface.
image courtesy of bigscreenvr.com
The venues will most likely be anything you can imagine. From buying a new Gucci bag (that are more expensive here than in the real world) to going to a random nightclub (see artist rendition above) inhabited by other people. Music will be playing and you’ll be able to interact with other avatars much like yourself and go anywhere or do anything with one another. Well, almost anything anyway. Who will be making a killing in this space? The person who owns the nightclub you’re in. The artists doing virtual concerts that you can attend in arenas owned by other players (research NFT’s).
This isn’t really sci-fi anymore, it’s just sci.
THE DAO’s
Decentralized Autonomous Organizations is what the above means. These worlds have to be governed by something right? Decisions need to be made on what to include and what to omit. Anything from the sales tax you might pay to buy property to the types of attractions that exist, there will absolutely be governance. So how does that work? Well all of these worlds will most likely have their own form of currency, in this case the type of coins used will most likely be coins or tokens that run on either Ethereum or Solana. The particulars of that don’t really matter. What does matter is that if you purchase a certain amount of these tokens, whatever they may be called, you can deposit them into that particular system’s DAO and not only be able to make decisions about that current world you invested in with said tokens but also make a monthly recurring revenue based on the profits that game or virtual world makes every month. In some instances this can be up to 30% from my most current research.
BUSINESS
Business and commerce will absolutely be done here. Don’t be surprised when you hear about the first board meetings from Fortune 500 companies taking place here. It’s already in the works and I’m sure beta testing has already happened. Imagine multi billion dollar deals done with your virtual avatar, signing a smart contract, and a blockchain transaction taking place with digital assets or stable coins being deposited into your crypto wallet. These transactions have been taking place for over a decade now and these networks are currently being beefed up and made faster for this next step in their evolution. Even Visa and Mastercard have moved very aggressively into the crypto space to facilitate these future needs and of course to profit by being early adopters. I recently mentioned on LinkedIn that I don’t even use cashback credit cards anymore. I consider them legacy garbage from an era that will soon be a distant memory. All of my cards these days pay me in crypto rewards from bitcoin to alt coin rewards only. I don’t care about anything else. Especially when the dollar is tanking and holding less value every day. Got a savings account? Congratulations, you’re essentially holding ice cubes.
SUMMATION
I personally don’t really care about entering into the metaverse myself and from the comments I read on youtube and other places, neither are a lot of other people. I don’t blame them. This is the ultimate in “social distancing” and interacting with people even less in real life. We’re currently at a time where we don’t even need to leave our houses to get the things we need to live anymore. I’m not super fond of it, I prefer to interact with others on a far more in personal level, but with the pandemic and the media scaring people have to death over it, it’s probably wishful thinking that I’ll get to experience that world I once knew and loved without other people having massive amounts of anxiety and fear from shaking hands with me or anyone else. So despite my own personal beliefs in where I think the world is going, one thing is absolutely true: The Metaverse is coming. This is something I know and realize beyond a shadow of a doubt. I’ve already invested heavily in what’s coming and if you’re on the sidelines still wondering what the next big thing will be, you should start researching things as well. Finance is going to look very different in a few years than what you’re seeing now with these legacy systems and banks that pay you 0.04% on your money if you’re lucky. Decentralized Finance (DEFI) removes every roadblock people have when it comes to investing, like having to be an accredited investor or having to have a certain amount of capital to get into a hedge fund. None of those things exist where we’re going and defi may even prove to be bigger than the metaverse.
As an acquaintance of mine told me in an email not long ago, the internet needs a new renaissance. You can read about him on my business website here. Just the same though, there were people back in the day when motor vehicles were invented saying “Nothing will ever take the place of the horse and buggy.” So my question to you is, do you want to be one of those people that continually sit on the sidelines and say “If I had only invested in this back then” or “If I only had the foresight to see what was coming back in the early 2020’s”…..etc. Or do you finally want to move in the flow of big capital and big opportunity?
As I said in my book, only 4% of the global population even touch these assets, but in the next decade that 4% will be hailed as genius. Those that sat on the sidelines will of course simply live with the regret of not being there when the influx of capital arrives elsewhere. Opportunity doesn’t hang around forever and neither do ‘almost’ free lunches that are rewarded with patience. The clock is ticking.