Metaverse & Blockchain: The virtual world for everything

Aside from technological limitations, what is the biggest challenge to the Metaverse?

Interoperability. Right now, even so-called Metaverse precursors such as “Fortnite” do not allow players to recreate their own user-generated content (UGC) on other platforms. To allow for true interoperability between platforms, the corporations that own these platforms must relinquish some control over their player bases’ content and user experience. This process is already underway. Sony, a notorious holdout against cross-platform play, recently moved to allow PlayStation users to more frequently interact with players on other consoles.

Shahar Sorek, CMO of Overwolf, an all-in-one UGC platform, believes that this relinquishing of control is inevitable because UGC (as opposed to developer-created content) is rapidly becoming a central aspect of the modern gaming experience. “Unlike the banks or any other centralized system, there is an experience that is shared with a community, and how the community reacts to that experience is at the core of what drives engagement,” Sorek said. “So a game maker, if they see their community is all about creating content, they have to change, because they understand that if they don’t, a competitor will come along.”

Why is blockchain technology important for the Metaverse?

“I’m hopeful that the future, as we lay it out, will be one that is truly decentralized and in the hands of the users as its citizens,” Baier-Lentz said. “By far the best, and maybe the only solution that we have for something like that today is blockchain technology and applications built on the Web3.”

Without the oversight of a Metaversal government or other regulatory body, blockchain technology would ensure that transactions and identities in the Metaverse are safe and public. Furthermore, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) would allow users in the Metaverse to own unique and bespoke items, much like in the real world, and cryptocurrencies provide a roadmap for how a Metaversal economy might take shape. The creation of this Metaversal economy is already underway: some companies, such as AB InBev, have already begun auctioning off limited-edition branded NFTs for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

According to Sorek, the currency of the Metaverse will likely be something between modern cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum and the V-Bucks of “Fortnite.” “Perhaps each game maker would offer a token that you buy just like V-Bucks,” Sorek said. “They would have their own exchange, and you could cash out from one to the other.”

Is the Metaverse inevitable?

Probably, though its future users might simply know it as the internet. At no point will a flip be switched to turn on the Metaverse — rather, the Metaverse will come about gradually, as cultural changes and technological upgrades give internet users the ability to move increasingly freely and more easily create and share bespoke content on the web. Just as no formal change marked the transition from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0, the development of the Metaverse will occur naturally as people spend more time online and tie more of their identities to their digital lives.

Though “Fortnite” and “Roblox” are often described as precursors to the Metaverse, the most significant precursor to the Metaverse is the internet itself. But if the internet is a video tour of the apartment, giving brief glimpses into each room in a defined sequence, the Metaverse would be the apartment itself. We might not be living there yet, but we’ve already signed the lease.

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