Real gains and losses in the metavese - Tech Tribune France

Mark Zuckerberg loves metavers, to the point of renamed Facebook in Meta Platformms.Emerging virtual worlds like decentraland have the potential to be the next successes of social networks.Bettors can also take advantage, for example, from the purchase of virtual real estate.But is the metavese real and, if so, what does it offer to users and investors?

What is the metavese?

The idea of the metavese refers to a shared digital environment, 24 hours a day, sometimes using augmented and virtual reality to make it more realistic.There are potentially several metovers.Some video games, such as "Fortnite" by Epic Games and the Roblox platform, have undoubtedly created such spaces, allowing users to go out, chat and walk.

The concept has become fashionable because Covid-19 forced people to interact online rather than in person, while the progress of VR helmets and high-performance chips have made its feasibility less fanciful.

More recently, the emerging metals have extended beyond the game to reproduce places where daily activities take place, such as shopping or attend concerts.For example, Decentraland is a web platform that imitates a metropolitan area, with commercial districts, offices and event spaces.A music festival that was held in October brought together around 50,000 virtual fans.

Why would I like to drag there?

Because in the long term, the metavese is supposed to offer distractions of social media and online purchases, but in a more immersive way.Apart from video games, most metavers have niche audiences, partly because the content creation is still in its infancy.Most also look like games even if they are not, due to the use of user avatars and style game graphics.

But the potential is there for more.Metaloves can extend the availability of certain activities, since there are no limitations related to accessibility, travel or public health.Last September, rapper Snoop Dogg teamed up with the metaverse sandbox platform to create Snoopverse, which will include a virtual version of his real world manor to organize holidays and organize concerts.The majority owner of Sandbox, Animoca Brands, lifted $ 3,59 million from investors on January 18, including the Winklevoss and Soros Fund Management twins.

Many platforms adopt decentralized models.They allow participants to vote on the management of an area and to share income.For example, in decentraland, the community can offer and have its say on various questions, including land auction, market costs and subsidies for development efforts.

This type of system corresponds to the wider definition of the web 3.0 or web3, as it is now called.This is the latest version of the Internet in which power is more dispersed, instead of what is called model 2.0 in which huge technological companies like Meta Platforms or Alphabet, owner of Google, control.

Ok, so how do people earn and spend money?

The ways in which users can earn or lose money are similar to the real world, whether through real estate, advertising, purchase and sale or invoicing of people to assistto virtual events.

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One of the characteristics of digital real estate is that in theory, there is an almost unlimited offer, which is not conducive to investment.But platforms like decentraland limit the amount of virtual space available, and certain areas, such as a shopping center, are therefore in demand.Tokens.com, listed in Toronto, spent $ 2.4 million in November for what the company said it was the equivalent of around 6,100 square feet in the DECENTRALAND fashion district.

Due to brands trying to reach consumers in this new world, advertising is another game.Tokens.Com plans to be a digital owner, loading companies and Nike to market users or rent virtual stores.Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) opened a temporary store in Decentraland, while the Sotheby’s auction house created a virtual gallery last June to present digital art.

Users also participate in the growth and trade of a metavese.Roblox users can design mini-games and sell them to other players for Robux, who can then be converted to real money.Many platforms allow users to create art, clothes and more in the form of non-fungible tokens, or NFT-unique digital assets stored on the blockchain.They can then sell them to other users.

Wait, now we are overlapping cryptocurrencies?

YUP-cryptocurrencies are often the only way to carry out transactions, and many metovers have unique currencies to their platform.For example, buying real estate in decentraland means paying in Mana, whose value - currently about $ 2 each - will partly depend on the popularity of the decentraland platform.

It can be expensive.A user paid about $ 450,000 in December to be the digital neighbor of Snoop Dogg.Expensive access to the rapper's metavese cost about $ 1,600 each at the end of January.

What are the risks ?

There is a lot to consider, for sure.First, the value of a platform, its real estate and any dedicated cryptocurrency depend on popularity.The different metavers are generally not interoperable, so even if the concept takes off, some of them could deperate, which would reduce the value of the associated assets.Facebook -type network effects could still reproduce while metovers are fighting.

Second Life, a virtual world created almost 20 years ago, is an edifying story.He reached a peak of more than a million active users per month in 2007 before disappearing, although it still exists.A challenge was the learning curve to use it;Another was that he had trouble developing a mobile version.There are similar obstacles for today's newcomers: it can take some time to master travel in Decentraland, which works on a mobile version.

Decentralized governance, a characteristic of many metovers, could also prove to be a bug given the potential for decisions that do not favor all users.Of course, platforms and digital assets are also vulnerable to hacks, as are individual cryptocurrencies, whether via the wallets used to keep them or otherwise.Safety flaws could endanger data, vital element of virtual worlds, as well as user money.

It may be easier to see how companies read more could sink more into a sort of metavese, given the obvious value of digital rallies for dispersed employees trying to work in a team.For all others, the future can contain anything, from occasional metavisites to dependence on virtual reality glasses.What is certain is that when companies hunt consumers in virtual reality, the top and low financial in the real world will follow them.