Avatarzzz: What is the metaverse?

You probably guessed it: There is no one size fits all answer to this. First of all, it depends very much on who you ask. Asking the crypto community it could be anything from DeFi, to Gaming, to NFTs, or decentralization in general. Asking Big Tech Companies like Meta, the answer can be found somewhere between augmented reality and VR glasses.

One thing we can say for sure: There will be multiple metaverses out there. So if you’re new into this space, remember: Meta ist not the metaverse. However in terms of marketing and reach, renaming Facebook after a certain vision or technology was quite a smart move and did bring some reach and leverage to all players involved in this game. So if we can`t give a simple answer, let’s instead describe what it currently is and what it may become.

Metaverse: The status quo

Now we could tell you a story about how advanced (or not) Metas Quest VR glasses are, which blockchain has the most loyal developers or which startup collected the most VC to bring their vision of a metaverse to life. But we won`t.

Instead we want to tell you about people around the world using decentralized applications, millions playing blockchain based games, using decentralized finance, or simply exchanging their digital assets (NFTs) into real life benefits. About individual players creating new types of digital communities that gather around a certain NFT collection, about world wide known brands that team up with these new digital communities in order to get their product or service placed in these little metaverses. About scalable blockchain technology and thousands of enthusiastic developers, entrepreneurs and supporters around the globe that work on their own vision of an upcoming metaverse.

So the truth is: The metaverse is currently more of a diverse growing patchwork than a solid big something. Not only will we probably face this situation for a few more years, we might even end up in an ocean full of metaverse islands. In that case each metaverse can only be as big as its will to cooperate with other metaverses. It’s like Truman Burbank sailing out into the endless sea, suddenly bumping into the open sky and realizing that the world he lives in is not as big as he thought it was. If this is too abstract, developers would probably describe it with open standards. The potential of all metaverse will be best realized if it is built on a foundation of open standards.

Metaverse: What’s next?

Good news: You got here just in time. In case you are planning to create your own little metaverse (we recommend doing so) yours may just be as advanced and successful (define success) as Meta’s metaverse at this status quo. Think of it, as it was 2004, you are about to create a Social Media Website and there are only a very few entrepreneurs that have the same idea. We are all on the same page here. This should give you hope and confidence. Just keep in mind: When we think of a metaverse it is important to understand that partnerships and cooperation will make the difference. The more users you can onboard into your metaverse community, the better for all participants.

Metaverse: Who will benefit?

There are (at least) three types of groups that can benefit
from a rising metaverse:

1. Brands and companies that provide the physical layer to deepdive into a metaverse in order to make it an immersive experience for users. In other words: The next iPhone moment. Because as long as users can only stare at their web2 browser, the metaverse will remain just another type of a headless react website with some blockchain working in the background.

2. Early owners of digital assets like NFTs. Just like in the real world (digital) ownership will play a (very) big role in the metaverse as well. As an NFT owner you may have no (or little) influence of what the metaverse you are involved in will look like, but you may take away long term (real life) benefits from a generally growing metaverse society.

3. Creators of metaverse. This of course goes along with number two, because your metaverse will need a web3/blockchain/nft educated community that can takeaway some sort of benefit by the end of the day. However controlling (or being part) of a metaverse community can make you and your fellow members the gold nugget that brands and companies are going to dig for.

Need an example: Love it or hate it, but yugalabs and their BAYC NFT collection have proved that even the biggest brands like adidas had to team up with yugalabs/BAYC in order to get a foot into the/their metaverse. This gave big benefits to the metaverse creators (Yugalabs) and their early NFT holders. You got here just in time.