Chapter 6Doing Business in the Metaverse
Things are only impossible until they're not!
—Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: Picard
Along with the metaverse, a powerful new economy is brewing. It features interoperable monetary systems, tracking and management of transactions, and new kinds of jobs. Some of these changes have already occurred, but soon they will be ubiquitous. This shift opens up new business opportunities and models.
When will this happen? It's hard to say–you could say it's already happening. This economic change will happen over time, but we can identify its key transformation drivers.
Decentralization is one of the most impactful shifts, as it empowers individuals and communities both socially and economically. We cease to play the single role of users of tech platforms as we did on Web 2.0. By the means of cryptocurrency, NFTs, and other blockchain tokens, we can become owners, investors, and much more involved in the digital side of our lives. More of us will take up additional roles in the web beyond being just users. So, more data, money, and decisions will flow, increasing the level of transactions in the metaverse.
Although this might sound like a fairly simple movement toward deeper participation in businesses, gaining public buy-in to this shift is no simple feat. It can happen only if we are able to trust in the metaverse and trust each other in it.
As many new headlines make very clear, Big Tech isn't known for being trustworthy. Their data ...
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