Will Blockchain Technology Unlock the Metaverse’s True Value?

Will Blockchain Technology Unlock the Metaverse’s True Value?

The metaverse is made up of virtual worlds where people can do many things they do in real life. To paraphrase Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, it’s an “embodied internet”, where instead of just viewing content “you are in it”. And cryptocurrency will almost certainly become the primary payment method in the metaverse.

UK-based blockchain VC company Outlier Ventures confirmed: “The defining characteristic of a true Metaverse is that it needs its own economy and currencies native to it, where value can be earnt, spent, lent, borrowed or invested interchangeably in both a physical or virtual sense and most importantly without the need for a government.”

As a result, I recommend that you research metaverse and its related technologies before making any key investments.

 

What is the metaverse?

Metaverses are inter-connected virtual worlds where people can do things they can’t do in real life, such as work, entertainment, shopping, fitness, and socializing. In a virtual environment, people can start their businesses, buy land, create artwork, and attend concerts. Metaverses create spaces for people to kill time by utilizing virtual reality, augmented reality, social media, and blockchain technology including NFTs. Although the development of the metaverse is still in its infancy, in simple terms it’s easy to see that it will eventually become a virtual world with a virtual economic system.

In the future, users may purchase clothing for their virtual characters rather than clothing for their real-life wardrobe. Rather than buying a piece of art to hang on the wall, it is preferable to purchase digital art to display in a virtual gallery.

 

The relationship between cryptocurrency and the metaverse

Cross-platform currency is a critical link in the virtual economic system. The emergence of cryptocurrency is as if it were tailor-made for the virtual world. It enables users to use cryptocurrency in metaverses in similar ways they would use cash in real life. Furthermore, transactions in metaverses are almost instantaneous, thanks to the blockchain technology underlying them, which aims to establish a trust mechanism for both parties to the transaction and ensure the transaction process’s safety.

In explaining the attraction of programmable crypto to metaverse developers expert Matthew Ball explained: “Most important is the fact that developers and users can invest their time and capital with confidence that a blockchain’s policies, incentives, or economics won’t change arbitrarily over time.”

Camilo Echeverri, Co-Founder of MGH DAO mentioned “Seeing all these developments of play-to-earn and metaverses is really motivating because Web3 is going to change everything, especially in the way we interact on the Internet.”

When asked what is metaverse to him. His answer was “The metaverse is a place on the Internet where you can watch your favourite movies, play your favourite games, listen to your favourite artist, and do everything you like with your friends and family.

Consider Decentraland, a decentralized 3D virtual reality platform. Users who want to buy items on the platform must use the platform’s token MANA as the transaction currency. Indeed, metaverse cryptocurrencies such as MANA, Sandbox (SAND), and Enjin (ENJ) have recently received a lot of attention. The popularity of various pet meme coins has also increased due to the popularity of metaverse’s cryptocurrency. Led by Dogecoin, especially in the US, and with celebrity backing from billionaire entrepreneurs Elon Musk and Mark Cuban, it’s not difficult to see the advantages of its payment-friendly features in terms of low fees and infinite supply for online communities and marketplaces.

Borget Sebastien, Co-Founder and COO, The Sandbox was also invited as a speaker at a Twitter Spaces session on metaverse said. “Imagine the metaverse as a digital parallel world where we can experience more social and immersive interactions from wherever we are in the world. We can choose our identity, play, collaborate, enjoy entertainment, and earn revenue. It will be fun and borderless.”

 

How to start participating in the metaverse

The metaverse is a concept that is still in its infancy. At the moment, there are many different ideas about how metaverses will look and what role they can play in our lives, both at work and at home. Meta (formerly Facebook) has ambitious plans for its future development as the pioneer of metaverses technology such as VR headsets. The plan calls for the introduction of virtual fitness equipment and space for virtual business meetings. And although VR technology has advanced significantly, there are still numerous technical issues that must be addressed before it reaches mass adoption.

However, we can participate in the metaverse today in a variety of ways as cryptocurrency investors. The simplest way to get started is to buy existing metaverse-related cryptocurrencies. These cryptocurrencies are available from major cryptocurrency exchanges. Simultaneously, you can purchase NFTs or even consider purchasing real estate and artwork in the metaverses world. However, I advise that if you want to join the metaverse, you should do a lot of research. Access to what’s happening in the existing metaverse, such as playing the online game Fortnite, is a good way to comprehend its potential and to start thinking about the expected value of your investments.

Do not join the metaverse based solely on celebrity endorsement and the current media hype, as you might with any other crypto investments. It is critical to devote as much time and effort as possible to understand how they work and which metaverse projects are most likely to survive and prosper in the long run. Similarly, buying NFTs at random simply because of the hype is not a reasonable investment strategy.

Before purchasing NFTs, you should investigate which NFTs are appropriate for your interests, which ones are likely to be profitable, and do the research to ensure a good experience in buying NFTs.

It should be noted that mature blockchain network projects should be chosen for investment as much as possible. Many metaverse projects that use crypto or blockchain technology are built on established ecosystems like Ethereum (ETH) or Solana (SOL), which will therefore benefit investors, and offer a lower-risk investment option. Because even if the more ambitious elements of an always-on metaverse are not realized, Ethereum or Solana will likely continue to prosper.

Anndy Lian, Chairman, BigONE Exchange commented too that “The economy is growing in metaverses. Cryptocurrency is playing a very big part in this whole development. A lot of governments do not have a good way to regulate De-Fi products. If we’re going to add DAO or metaverse to the scenario, it will take them a long time to catch up. We have to exercise self-regulation and constantly communicate with regulators to provide updates on the progress in the space, in order to minimise misconceptions of the crypto world.”

We don’t know how the metaverse will evolve in the future. People have been discussing how to develop it for many years, and the term ‘metaverse’ is decades old, but progress until very recently has been slow on creating these persistent virtual worlds. Although there may be changes this time around, it is critical not to invest based solely on hype.

All cryptocurrency investments are risky, and you should only invest funds that you can afford to lose money. Don’t let the fear of missing out (FOMO) drive your investments. If the metaverse is a worthwhile investment project, it will be worth waiting to invest in once your research is completed. As a result, I remind all investors to choose investment projects with caution and not rush into a decision.

 

Original Source: https://hackernoon.com/will-blockchain-technology-unlock-the-metaverses-true-value

What is metaverse?

Metaverses are inter-connected virtual worlds where people can do things they can’t do in real life, such as work, entertainment, shopping, fitness, and socializing. In a virtual environment, people can start their businesses, buy land, create artwork, and attend concerts. Metaverses create spaces for people to kill time by utilizing virtual reality, augmented reality, social media, and blockchain technology including NFTs.

What is the relationship between cryptocurrency and the metaverse?

Cross-platform currency is a critical link in the virtual economic system. The emergence of cryptocurrency is as if it were tailor-made for the virtual world. It enables users to use cryptocurrency in metaverses in similar ways they would use cash in real life. Furthermore, transactions in metaverses are almost instantaneous, thanks to the blockchain technology underlying them, which aims to establish a trust mechanism for both parties to the transaction and ensure the transaction process’s safety

How to start participating in the metaverse?

We can participate in the metaverse today in a variety of ways as cryptocurrency investors. The simplest way to get started is to buy existing metaverse-related cryptocurrencies. These cryptocurrencies are available from major cryptocurrency exchanges. Simultaneously, you can purchase NFTs or even consider purchasing real estate and artwork in the metaverses world.

What is Anndy Lian's view on metaverse now?

The economy is growing in metaverses. Cryptocurrency is playing a very big part in this whole development. A lot of governments do not have a good way to regulate De-Fi products. If we’re going to add DAO or metaverse to the scenario, it will take them a long time to catch up. We have to exercise self-regulation and constantly communicate with regulators to provide updates on the progress in the space, in order to minimise misconceptions of the crypto world.

Anndy Lian is an early blockchain adopter and experienced serial entrepreneur who is known for his work in the government sector. He is a best selling book author- “NFT: From Zero to Hero” and “Blockchain Revolution 2030”.

Currently, he is appointed as the Chief Digital Advisor at Mongolia Productivity Organization, championing national digitization. Prior to his current appointments, he was the Chairman of BigONE Exchange, a global top 30 ranked crypto spot exchange and was also the Advisory Board Member for Hyundai DAC, the blockchain arm of South Korea’s largest car manufacturer Hyundai Motor Group. Lian played a pivotal role as the Blockchain Advisor for Asian Productivity Organisation (APO), an intergovernmental organization committed to improving productivity in the Asia-Pacific region.

An avid supporter of incubating start-ups, Anndy has also been a private investor for the past eight years. With a growth investment mindset, Anndy strategically demonstrates this in the companies he chooses to be involved with. He believes that what he is doing through blockchain technology currently will revolutionise and redefine traditional businesses. He also believes that the blockchain industry has to be “redecentralised”.

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Dataverse/Metaverse Twitter Spaces: Speakers Camilo Echeverri; Borget Sebastien; Anndy Lian etc

Dataverse/Metaverse Twitter Spaces: Speakers Camilo Echeverri; Borget Sebastien; Anndy Lian etc

Metaverse has been the talk of the town since Facebook’s decision to rebrand as Meta in October this year. However, the word “metaverse”, a portmanteau of “meta-“ (meaning beyond) and “universe”, existed way before this. The term “Metaverse” is often credited to Author Neal Stephenson’s 1992 dystopic, sci-fi novel Snow Crash, and many see a more recent inspiration in Earnest Cline’s 2011 novel Ready Player One. Unlike what is portrayed in movies and blockbusters, the metaverse I’m talking about is far from the stuff of sci-fi – and we’re not unfamiliar to it.

The concept of metaverse, also known to many as “Web3.0”, clearly means extremely different things to different people. The metaverse is currently split into two categories – a world of gaming and game creations, and a blockchain-based digital world. The former is made up of a series of embryonic digital spaces such as Facebook’s Horizon, Fortnite, and Roblox, while the latter houses Decentraland. These spaces have clear boundaries, different rules and objectives, and differing rates of growth.

The metaverse could fundamentally change the way we interact with the digital world. In the same way, non-fungible tokens (NFT) have brought new opportunities to creators, artists, and gamers, the metaverse could very possibly not just reshape the creator economy, but invent it anew.

MGH DAO organised a Twitter Spaces session inviting metaverse experts and enthusiasts to talk about Metaverses in general.

– How far will the ongoing Metaverse trend go?
– In what context is the Metaverse related to the Dataverse?
– “MetaFi“ and now “DataFi”?
– How is the Dataverse supporting fair pricing within the Metaverse?

The MGH DAO strives to foster the convergence of DeFi, NFTs, the Metaverse, oracles and AI. The goal is to foster an ecosystem that enables access to decentralized NFT Pools and NFT Pool Tokens (synthetic assets tracking the pool value) and thus enhancing the value factor of NFTs without the sacrifice of ownership for NFT holders – they can stake their NFTs but do not have to sell them. Furthermore, MGH DAO will provide a sophisticated AI-based oracle that allows the analysis of the respective NFT’s fair value and seamless, transparent integration into the NFT Pool.

Camilo Echeverri, Co-Founder & Operations mentioned “Seeing all these developments of play-to-earn and metaverses is really motivating because Web3 is going to change everything, especially in the way we interact on the Internet.” When asked what is metaverse to him. His answer was “The metaverse is a place on the Internet where you can watch your favourite movies, play your favourite games, listen to your favourite artist, and do everything you like with your friends and family.

Borget Sebastien, Co-Founder and COO, The Sandbox was also invited as a speaker for this session. “Imagine the metaverse as a digital parallel world where we can experience more social and immersive interactions from wherever we are in the world. We can choose our identity, play, collaborate, enjoy entertainment, and earn revenue. It will be fun and borderless.”

Anndy Lian, Chairman, BigONE Exchange commented too that “The economy is growing in metaverses. Cryptocurrency is playing a very big part in this whole development. A lot of governments do not have a good way to regulate De-Fi products. If we’re going to add DAO or metaverse to the scenario, it will take them a long time to catch up. We have to exercise self-regulation and constantly communicate with regulators to provide updates on the progress in the space, in order to minimise misconceptions of the crypto world.”

What does the future hold for metaverse? With Facebook’s extravagant entrance to the metaverse, and even rebranding themselves as Meta, Zuckerberg announced plans to fund $10 billion this year on the development of the metaverse – an ecosystem of interconnected digital experiences, services, and platforms that seamlessly blend with the real world. We certainly hope to see that Zuckerberg’s ambitions become our new reality.

Tech giants of all shapes and sizes, from Microsoft, Amazon, Tencent, and Alibaba, to Disney, and even Tinder, have announced their plans towards building a metaverse. What does this entail? Similar to Bitcoin, these whales will move and develop the metaverse faster than you can say “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”.

While it’s impossible to predict exactly how the metaverse will look like, or when it has reached its peak, the importance of cryptocurrencies for its growth is engraved in stone. As technologies like virtual reality develop, and current industry leaders like Facebook gets involved, advancements in blockchain technology and the world of cryptocurrency will play an equally important role in shaping the metaverse’s future.

 

The full recording can be found at:

Anndy Lian is an early blockchain adopter and experienced serial entrepreneur who is known for his work in the government sector. He is a best selling book author- “NFT: From Zero to Hero” and “Blockchain Revolution 2030”.

Currently, he is appointed as the Chief Digital Advisor at Mongolia Productivity Organization, championing national digitization. Prior to his current appointments, he was the Chairman of BigONE Exchange, a global top 30 ranked crypto spot exchange and was also the Advisory Board Member for Hyundai DAC, the blockchain arm of South Korea’s largest car manufacturer Hyundai Motor Group. Lian played a pivotal role as the Blockchain Advisor for Asian Productivity Organisation (APO), an intergovernmental organization committed to improving productivity in the Asia-Pacific region.

An avid supporter of incubating start-ups, Anndy has also been a private investor for the past eight years. With a growth investment mindset, Anndy strategically demonstrates this in the companies he chooses to be involved with. He believes that what he is doing through blockchain technology currently will revolutionise and redefine traditional businesses. He also believes that the blockchain industry has to be “redecentralised”.

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On The Metaverse with Anndy Lian

On The Metaverse with Anndy Lian

HackerNoon Interviewer: First, tell us a bit about yourself. For example, name, profession, and personal interests.

My name is Anndy Lian. I have provided advisory across a variety of industries for local, international, public listed companies and governments. I am an early blockchain adopter and experienced serial entrepreneur, book author, investor, board member and keynote speaker.

 

Currently, I am appointed as the Chief Digital Advisor at Mongolia Productivity Organization, championing national digitization. I am also appointed as the Chairman, Asia for BigONE Exchange, a global cryptocurrency exchange started in 2017.

 

I believe in giving back to society. I am doing philanthropy work in Asia on my own, helping different grassroots organisations to aid several communities. On top of this, I am also the Non-Executive Chairman at EG Association, the social impact body of Elongate.

Please sum up what the metaverse is in 1 to 2 paragraphs.

Put simply, the metaverse is a virtual digital world that exists alongside the real world, though like the real world it’s got no single creator or commonly agreed on definition.

 

First used in Neil Stephenson’s 1992 fictional novel ‘Snow Crush’ the term metaverse refers to a loose federation of 3D immersive shared spaces, including social media, augmented reality, online gaming, and cryptocurrencies and NFTs.

Are you currently, directly or indirectly, working on building a metaverse?

At BigONE as an innovative cryptocurrency exchange, we are supporting projects developing decentralized finance (DeFi) which are key to building the payment rails for an interoperable metaverse – what I like to call the ‘metaverseFi’.

 

DeFi needs to play a key role in the development of the metaverse, to avoid two versions emerging: one dominated by the likes of Facebook, and the other built on open interoperable platforms. Together with NFTs, the role of DeFi is to provide the essential infrastructure for the vision of an open metaverse which liberates us to explore our online identities in both work and play.

In your opinion, is the metaverse inevitable, or is it just another passing trending tech topic that’ll lose hype?

It’s understandable that many regard the metaverse as a tech concept that may never fully materialize into the grand vision for a virtual world of the future. Certainly, in its recent review of the metaverse, the BBC concluded, “everything is in the early stages. The evolution of the metaverse – if it happens at all – will be fought among tech giants for the next decade, or maybe even longer”. Yet just a couple of days later it reported plans from Facebook to hire 10,000 people in the EU to work on the metaverse.

 

However, on its own, the involvement of tech titans like Facebook is not enough to make the metaverse inevitable unless people see real value in it. This is why the work Facebook is putting into building VR remote working apps for its Oculus VR headsets is particularly relevant in our post-COVID world of remote working.

 

That said, we believe the ultimate success of the metaverse will rely on the engagement of engaged individuals and communities, connected by their use of gaming worlds such as Fortnite and able to easily build their online identity and creative work through crypto-enabled NFTs.

Why is the metaverse such a revolutionary concept?

Tim Sweeney, the chief executive of Epic, which is behind the metaverse-like game Fortnite explained the potential impact:

 

“This Metaverse is going to be far more pervasive and powerful than anything else. If one central company gains control of this, they will become more powerful than any government, and be a god on Earth.”

 

Clearly, the development of a fully functional metaverse has the potential to fundamentally alter how people interact with the digital world. A collective virtual experience would reimagine the creative industry and open new doors for creators, gamers, and artists.

 

Just as smartphones created the mobile internet the revolutionary impact of the metaverse would not just be in a parallel digital world, but it is connecting the digital and physical worlds together for the first time in a seamless experience.

 

As Mark Zuckerberg outlined recently in his vision of the immersive metaverse this for example would allow you to take your office with you whenever you went, and in return allow colleagues to see the full context in which you are working, from anywhere around the world.

What can people build in the metaverse that we can’t build on the Internet, or in virtual reality today? What limitations of our current technology does the metaverse free us from?

Currently, our use of technology with smartphones isn’t in a simple sense that far removed from the vision of the metaverse, in that we are connected to our phone from waking up to going to sleep, talking to friends and colleagues, with a whole host of uses from dating apps to cryptocurrency trading. The vision for the metaverse is removed from what critics often see it as currently, a bolt-on VR headset like out of a scene from Ready Player One.

 

Rather it’s a place where we can merge our online and offline worlds together more naturally, so that for example in a workplace in the metaverse you would have a sense of being in the same physical space as people, as you do in the real world right now. But with the metaverse, we can dress our virtual selves as we see fit, attend the meeting from all corners of the world, and bring up documents and the like in a 3-D environment, rather than the current 2-D world of Zoom we deal with currently.

 

If you still cannot visualize what I am saying, for starters, you can find out more about metaverse from The Sandbox. You can experience, play, create, own real estate and monetize their virtual experiences. Snoop Dogg is there too.

How are the metaverse and blockchain related? Can we build a metaverse without blockchain technology?

A key reason why the future of the metaverse is inextricably linked to the use of blockchain technology comes down to the use of cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum as programmable payments rails. The properties of blockchain as inherently decentralized, trustless, and able to automatically compensate users means that developers can build apps for the metaverse confident they won’t be dependent on a proprietary payment currency as exists in online games currently, for example.

 

As metaverse guru Matthew Ball explains:

 

“Today, only a tiny fraction of online users and gamers even have a crypto wallet, and almost no brands and games issue NFTs. But irrespective of multi-month dips in the blockchain/crypto/NFT economy, we see more of these groups embrace blockchain-based experiences each month. This produces a virtual cycle that drives more users to register a wallet, mint an NFT, or integrate crypto assets.”

 

So, while we do not yet know what it will look like, or say when a metaverse is finally created, the key role of blockchain-based cryptocurrencies and NFTs in making it a reality is already apparent.

How quickly do you think the metaverse will be developed? How much can we expect metaverse tech to grow in the next 5 to 10 years?

The DeFi and NFT technology to enable payment and identity as well as interoperable wallets within different virtual worlds are already here, and only likely to accelerate in development following news of Facebook’s big bet in this sector.

 

Only in August this year the world’s first intelligent NFT was released by software developer Alethea AI this year, and later auctioned off for $478,000, while securing $16 million in funding via private token sale to create a metaverse populated by its bots. What’s interesting is that as AI bots, they have the potential to take the metaverse to the next level with “fully interactive, engaging and autonomous agents that can learn and evolve from the environment.”

 

Therefore, as more and more connected technologies come together, pulling together blockchain and AI, NFTs, and gaming, the rate of development could see a tipping point in the next few years, which makes talk of timescales less useful than the kind of exponential growth that is already taking place in new technologies such as electric vehicles and AI.

 

What is your hope for the metaverse? Do you have any worries or does the concept pose any threats?

The metaverse has a lot of potential to bring people together, not just corporate works connecting with their colleagues over virtual meetings, but also in giving hope to people who’ve had less opportunity to earn a living for themselves or learn new skills. Certainly, the growth of play-to-earn gaming, with the likes of Axie Infinity, where a younger generation of gamers in countries like the Philippines shows how this can make a real financial difference to people’s lives. This is also why the role of DeFi in the metaverse, can be so important in providing people with a low-cost way to earn, save and send money from person to person.

 

I believe like any radical technology, which is attracting the attention of large players such as Facebook and no doubt governments keen to keep control of the internet, there are risks involved as well as rewards. But I’m optimistic that the decentralized community-led nature of the development of an interoperable metaverse will ultimately have positive outcomes if user safety is a key part of it using NFT and blockchain solutions.

Thanks for your time! Any final words?

The development of the metaverse concept may still be in its early stages, but the example of Facebook’s backing shows it’s here to stay, as people’s activities and technologies converge online. While we do not yet know what it will look like or say when a metaverse is finally created, the key role of cryptocurrencies and NFTs in making it a reality is already apparent. With the combined involvement of tech giants, the advancement of cryptocurrencies, and the NFT sector, it appears to be a matter of when, not if, the metaverse will become mainstream!

 

Original Source: https://hackernoon.com/on-the-metaverse-with-anndy-lian

Anndy Lian is an early blockchain adopter and experienced serial entrepreneur who is known for his work in the government sector. He is a best selling book author- “NFT: From Zero to Hero” and “Blockchain Revolution 2030”.

Currently, he is appointed as the Chief Digital Advisor at Mongolia Productivity Organization, championing national digitization. Prior to his current appointments, he was the Chairman of BigONE Exchange, a global top 30 ranked crypto spot exchange and was also the Advisory Board Member for Hyundai DAC, the blockchain arm of South Korea’s largest car manufacturer Hyundai Motor Group. Lian played a pivotal role as the Blockchain Advisor for Asian Productivity Organisation (APO), an intergovernmental organization committed to improving productivity in the Asia-Pacific region.

An avid supporter of incubating start-ups, Anndy has also been a private investor for the past eight years. With a growth investment mindset, Anndy strategically demonstrates this in the companies he chooses to be involved with. He believes that what he is doing through blockchain technology currently will revolutionise and redefine traditional businesses. He also believes that the blockchain industry has to be “redecentralised”.

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