Thread by @pierskicks

As promised, a 13,000 word overview of why I think crypto is integral to the emergence of an Open Metaverse.

The essay just dropped on @master_the_meta.

📓Into The Void: Where Crypto Meets The Metaverse

TL;DR

👇👇👇

metaversed.net/Into-The-Void-…

2/ Crypto is laying the foundations for a self-sovereign financial system, an open creator economy, and a universal digital representation and ownership layer via NFTs (non-fungible tokens).

3/ The Metaverse is coming; trends indicate our direction of travel. Our next great milestone as a networked species awaits us: 7B digital souls with the option to exist almost exclusively online and participate in a virtual economy with societal impact.

4/ More time spent online will lead to more value created and consumed digitally.

In order to maximize willingness of individuals to allocate serious time and capital to virtual environments, establishing trust in their durability as well as economic robustness is paramount.

5/ As education of web 2.0’s shortcomings rises, users will prefer credibly neutral platforms that lack altogether the capacity for arbitrary censorship, undue rent extraction (also in the form of privacy cost), or sudden cessation.

6/ These threats are amplified by increasingly immersive, pervasive, and interconnected digital environments.

Decentralized networks provide a unique and unmatchable degree of assurance, whilst a universal erosion of trust in institutions is forcing the desire for alternatives.

7/ NFTs on top of them enable a standardized universal digital representation and ownership layer for any natively digital “thing” such as game assets, digital art, or domain space.

8/ Early breakout successes will drive FOMO as onlookers scramble to understand the new tool sets available. The network effects of these protocols prove difficult to overcome...

9/ ...as their open nature compounds permissionless innovation incredibly quickly as each additional creator builds on the shoulders of all who came before.

10/ Owning core pieces of these new worlds will bring great financial returns to those who believed; many of whom will be from emerging markets who were quick to move on the opportunities available.

11/ Beyond wealth, the initial players are granted additional advantages. As pioneers of a variety of new business models and technologies, their accumulated IP and know-how provide a significant moat.

12/ In the same way the rise of mobile forced large buyouts and talent acquisition, so too will the rise of crypto across gaming and the creator economy.

13/ In hindsight, it will be obvious that crypto’s role in the Metaverse was the most imperative yet least explored by those speculating on its emergence.

CCing primary sources of inspiration:
@ballmatthew
@TimSweeneyEpic
@VitalikButerin
@dfinzer
@jbrukh
@YieldGuild

Thanks for excellent feedback:
@ZeMariaMacedo
@anildelphi
@aaronbush100
@sillytuna
@gabusch
@RyanCrucible

Home on @master_the_meta, the most exceptional newsletter analysing the business strategy of the gaming industry I've ever come across.

Massive honour and excited to contribute.

Thank you @aaronbush100.

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