How NFTs paved the way for the metaverse to take over
Right now is the best time for the metaverse
“Do what is great while it’s still small. Do what is difficult while it’s still easy. ” - Sun Tzu, The Art Of War
An idea before its time usually fails. Not because it’s a bad idea but because the infrastructure and market simply isn’t there. At my last job, I pitched the retail giant an idea to implement a VR space that allowed their shoppers to experience their various stores in VR. “Why wouldn’t they just go to the store?” an executive replied. A year before, I stood before Venture Capitalist and pitched a data security platform that used VR Arcades to onboard new users to a virtual world where everyone owned their own data. In both scenarios, I had no idea that I was pitching a metaverse company and neither did those I was pitching to. Who can blame them for not seeing the vision, there was no infrastructure nor market guaranteeing that the endeavor wasn’t a waste of time and resources. The market did not have an industry labeled “metaverse” that could succinctly summarize advanced data interactions. This all began to rapidly change in 2021. The first shift was when seemingly out of nowhere, Gary Vanderchuck declared that Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) were the greatest revolution in technology then bought himself a Cryptopunk. Next was when one of the world’s largest tech companies changed its name to Meta, short for metaverse. The stage was set. Celebrities now spend millions of dollars on NFTs from the Bored Ape Yacht Club, completely unaware that they are participating in the metaverse. The last week of January 2022, Twitter integrated a feature that allowed its users to verify their NFT avatars. Where there was no foundation or market for the metaverse suddenly opensea.io, the leading platform in the NFT space, is worth $13 billion.
Now what? The metaverse will create a brand new interface to interact in. Through out the course of the web, new interfaces have broadened our ability to interact online from emails to websites to mobile apps and now the metaverse. A world where data has no limits and users can interface with data on the deepest level. Instead of going to a museum’s website that shows static text & images, you will now be able to walk around a digital replica of their physical museum. Inspect the same art, interact with other visitors and buy merchandise from the gift stop that will be shipped directly to your home. Developers can build 3D models of their projects in the metaverse that receive real time data. When something goes wrong, the interface could pin point exactly where the bottle neck is to make it easier to debug. Musicians can debut music as a concert the never ends. Users can join and leave the concert as they please. Musicians could also sell merchandise and provide one-on-one interactions while they perform. The new possibilities are endless. The metaverse interface will excite even more new ideas that were not previously possible.
There are endless new opportunities that come with this industry. Reusable assets become center stage in the metaverse. NFTs will play an important role in verifying your identity but even more so identifying ownership of various assets. Creating an avatar that is used throughout multiple applications and game worlds will be secured by the blockchain. The last thing we want is for a bad actor to hijack our identity to do dubious actions. I predict the NFT market will exponentially explode throughout the upcoming metaverse age. NFTs will also be used by developers to monetize assets, tools & features that will be used across multiple applications. As opposed to web2 interfaces where many developers built tools that are used in multi-billion dollar companies but were never compensated. How could they be? Besides a largely ignored “Donate” option, there is no infrastructure to reward developers for their service. NFTs inherently provide that feature. The metaverse provides us with the possibility to rethink online infrastructure.
Follow Medallion XLN as we provide commentary on the Metaverse XR, Blockchain, NFTs and Artificial Intelligence. We are also building tools to help users monetize the internet.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MedallionXln
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/medallionxln/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/medallion_xln/
Discord: https://discord.gg/H2hCeTpNVB
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/medallion-xln
Tumblr:
https://medallionxln.tumblr.com/
Medium: medallionxln.medium.com