Opportunity Zones in the Metaverse 🔥🔥

Is the metaverse all hype and no substance

DALL-E 2 prompt: a woman wearing a VR headset in the style of vaporwave

“The best way to predict the future is to look at the past.” - Robert Kiyosaki

Throughout the last few weeks, I have been trying to answer one burning question. Why the metaverse? Some of the answers that I have discovered were as a way to train artificial intelligence models for real-world use. Which is an interesting use case…but boring. At this moment, there is no clear winner of the Metaverse. What does that even mean? Meta is the clear winner in VR hardware with 90% of the market share. The market for VR is tiny, so what does that even mean? VR Chat is the clear winner for VR applications, but besides people who love VR, that app isn’t onboarding a mainstream audience. The answer I’m searching for is what would make someone who isn’t a VR fanboy, see a trailer for a metaverse app, then decide to purchase a VR headset specifically to use that app. To answer this question, I am going to draw comparisons to the smartphone revolution.

DALL-E 2 prompt: a woman holding smart phone, walking down a busy metropolitan street, people walking the opposite direction in the style of vaporwave

The last time a change this massive happened in how people use technology to communicate was with smartphones. Drawing comparisons to that era, Apple’s lead-up to the Smartphone era was very organic. Apple had a base of passionate users who loved the iPod. The iPod included a collection of features that greatly increased ease of use and accessibility among popular features at the time, the only thing that was missing was the ability to make phone calls and send and receive text messages. Once the iPhone released with that capability, the flood gates flung open and suddenly everyone needed an iPhone. Overnight, owning a smartphone made dumbphones obsolete. Instead of lugging around laptops to browse the internet and check your email, the smartphone was a convenient solution. What is the metaverse equivalent? The metaverse is proposing a transition to the next generation, moving away from smartphones exclusively to AR/VR headsets and cloud computing. The drawbacks are that metaverse tech is just too big. Transitioning to the metaverse feels like a downgrade, you need bulky equipment which causes dizziness and nausea. To quote the lady who went viral, “ain’t nobody got time for that!”

DALL-E 2 prompt: a business woman holding a smart phone, looking up at a vr headset the size of a skyscraper in the style of vaporwave

Controversial declaration incoming, a mainstream metaverse app isn’t possible until metaverse technology becomes more accessible. It’s too damn big! The headsets are intimidating to use. That’s the same barrier to entry before purchase and after purchase. I have to really…really… hype myself up to use my VR headset. It’s too much work to get up and going. I’m sure I’m not the only one who thinks this way. This means that the only opportunities available for entrepreneurs seeking to monetize the metaverse hype are geared towards metaverse enthusiasts. That’s a minuscule market. The highest selling VR game is Beat Saber which grossed $100m in the last year, for comparison, Candy Crush the top-selling game on the Apple Store earned $1.2 billion last year. I get it, the metaverse is a new market, so the earnings won’t be astronomical, but perhaps the problem lies in the sheer bulkiness of the technology.

DALL-E 2 prompt: a red haired woman wearing a a yellow hoodie, struggles to drag a VR headset up a hill in the style of vaporwave

My point is that building a metaverse app is expensive. Doesn’t mean that we won’t do it, but understanding the previous points, what are the clear rewards for entering into this market? There are about 2 paths that are available to new players in the metaverse. Build something now that grows with the metaverse, and pray that the application will be a top seller. As the industry of the metaverse continues to grow and technology becomes more accessible, we can position ourselves to scale the application with the increase in overall users. That’s the riskiest move in my opinion, because suppose I’m right? Suppose the size of the headset is a barrier to entry to most users? On the other hand, we could build multiple versions of an app; accessible in the metaverse, smartphones, and the web. That way, we won’t alienate mainstream users who aren’t interested in the metaverse, but simultaneously grow with the advancements made in the industry. As the metaverse becomes the dominant way to access information, then we can slowly phase out the other interfaces. The path I want Medallion XLN to go down is making our own VR headsets smaller and more powerful to tap into a wider, mainstream audience. That way we can have an app marketplace that isn’t reliant on VR enthusiasts, but on a wide array of new users. That’s also the most expensive path. Unfortunately, 3 articles in, and I still don’t have an answer as to why the metaverse? Writing my thoughts down is helping a lot, perhaps I’ll make this a series.

DALL-E 2 prompt: a red haired woman wearing a a yellow hoodie with a eagle logo, faces multiple forking roads in the style of vaporwave

DALL-E 2 prompt: a red haired black woman wearing a a yellow hoodie with a eagle logo, faces multiple forking roads in the style of vaporwave

Leave some emojis in the comments to help me gauge the excitement around the metaverse. Leave even more emojis if you want Medallion XLN to release our ICO already. Give some feedback on my thought process. Is my thought process too Doom and Gloomy, or is it a realistic way to approach emerging technology?

Owl, Bludgeon, Staff

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