Did you know that there is an entire Reddit community dedicated to the belief that Mark Zuckerberg is an alien or a robot? If you don’t believe us, check out r/ZuckMemes for yourself. With quirks like his odd devotion to the tangy Sweet Baby Ray’s barbeque sauce or his real world treasure trove of American consumer data, theories range from Mark being a robot to someone out for world domination.
If you thought it was bad before, Redditors have only become more fervent in Zuckerberg meme creation since the announcement of Meta. What is Meta, you ask? Under Zuckerberg’s leadership, Facebook has officially decided to change its name to Meta to highlight the company’s mission to “bring the metaverse to life.”
While Zuckerberg’s Sweet Baby Ray’s obsession may be unique, Meta’s pivot towards the metaverse makes sense. The metaverse has become a highlight topic of interest in 2021, and techies from giants like Microsoft and Facebook all the way to micro-projects in the cryptosphere are working to make this futuristic vision a reality. The GameFi industry will be particularly affected, with metaverse technologies changing the way gamers communicate with each other, interact with their virtual environments, and earn profits.
What Is the Metaverse?
The metaverse is a virtual reality in which users can interact with a computer-generated environment alongside other users. While this dictionary definition provides a broad umbrella for this complex digital world, let’s dive deeper into how we should actually understand this difficult (and highly debated) concept.
At its essence, the metaverse should be understood as a digital universe in which users can live and interact with other users and objects that are not in the same physical space. The metaverse blends major technologies, including the internet, virtual reality (“VR”), augmented reality (“AR”), digital assets, and more to create a real-time 3D-rendered world or simulation in which many elements of the real world can be recreated, such as individual identities, objects, histories, payments, and accomplishments.
Does the Metaverse Exist Now?
What makes the metaverse murkier for newcomers to understand is that many believe that early elements of the metaverse currently exist, while others point out that the true metaverse is unlikely to exist for another five to ten years. A key distinction again comes down to one’s view on what the metaverse actually is.
For example, a Meta statement was quoted, “The metaverse isn’t a single product one company can build alone. Just like the internet, the metaverse exists whether Facebook is there or not.” Essentially, this points to the idea that the metaverse exists in the same way that the Internet does. While individual websites and web apps host information, content, or media that we seek out, the Internet is a whole. It is a vast, diverse ecosystem of platforms that unlocks opportunities that a single website alone could not. From this perspective, while elements of the metaverse may exist today, a true metaverse does not exist in the absence of a truly diverse, interoperable digital world built from many platforms.
Nonetheless, many techies are excited to point to modern day elements of the metaverse, in which VR, AR, digital assets, and the internet seamlessly blend together. In fact, a key hotbed for metaverse innovation is in GameFi, where many developers are merging the concepts of virtual worlds with play-to-earn games that payout NFTs or cryptocurrency.
Why Is the Metaverse Important to GameFi?
In GameFi, the metaverse is being implemented across games to allow gamers to connect and interact, as well as to allow players to earn income through novel channels. Traditionally, many non-metaverse play-to-earn games provide players with access to NFTs, which can be used in game. These NFTs may take the form of an in-game character that you battle with, like an Axie in Axie Infinity. The metaverse takes this concept one step further. In metaverse-based games, players can strap on a virtual reality headset to see and interact with their characters, avatars, objects, and other NFTs in a real-time simulation.
Could you imagine a virtual world in which you could purchase a digital plot of land, build a house on it, and mint these as NFTs? Could you imagine if you could furnish it with digital furniture, a digital TV, and put a digital car in the garage? When it’s time to upgrade cars, you could then list your car on an NFT listing platform and sell it for real-world currency? Well, you can, and two decentralized projects are making these feats a reality — a virtual reality that is.
Decentraland and The Sandbox
Decentraland and The Sandbox are both virtual reality worlds in which players can buy land, put NFTs into use, create experiences, and monetize their work. Both of these platforms have become particularly famous for their map of land parcels, which have been sold off as digital plots for players to use in the metaverse as homes, venues, or other P2P experiences. In fact, a plot of land recently sold for over $4.3 million in The Sandbox metaverse, so it is safe to say that many people are looking to the future of the metaverse.
And, both worlds offer a variety of games and other experiences for users’ entertainment. In fact, Snoop Dogg is partnering with The Sandbox to recreate his real-world mansion in the Sandbox metaverse. Alongside, he will be launching a line of NFTs, including ‘Snoop Dogg Private Party Passes’, which give passholders the right to partake in virtual concerts, Q&A interviews, and other exclusive experiences.
Play-to-Earn in the Metaverse
Both metaverses thrive off of user-generated gaming content, as players can use developer tools to design and monetize their own games, NFTs, and parcels of land. With growing audiences and developers, these platforms have become diverse ecosystems of games, and they particularly have become hotbeds for play-to-earn games. Decentraland recently announced their Play-to-Earn Incubator, a program that aims to help foster up-and-coming talent to build income generating games in their metaverse. To support this diverse ecosystem, both platforms offer in-game marketplaces to trade NFTs with other players, which helps players access new games.
Building a Robust Metaverse Economy
A robust metaverse economy is what awaits us; though, it will not build itself overnight. In fact, a diverse metaverse gaming ecosystem relies on more widespread adoption and use from players. Poignantly, rising participation also provides a direct challenge to its further popularization: a higher barrier to entry.
As GameFi and the metaverse grow in popularity, the tokens and NFTs that underpin these gaming ecosystems continue to climb in value, making it more difficult for new gamers to start out. Fortunately, Kyoko.Finance provides easy solutions to this problem through guild-to-guild credit lending, peer-to-peer lending, and cross-chain NFT lending. By either directly borrowing the NFTs required to play a game — or borrowing credit to purchase your own — players can start playing new games and earning income right away with little-to-no out-of-pocket costs, while guilds can monetize their idle or siloed in-game assets. So, when it comes to the pricey pay-to-play-to-earn in the metaverse, Kyoko’s got your back.
Kyoko will also add its fine touch to the metaverse with its exhibition area that will allow Guilds to display their history, progress, and other accomplishments, while players can connect with others in a world that can be built in, developed, and sold off.
A Whole New World?
The metaverse and GameFi are a match made in heaven. In examples like Decentraland and The Sandbox, virtual worlds are beginning to emulate real-world scenarios: players can buy land, build houses, and furnish them with cherished belongings. Even more exciting, both Decentraland and The Sandbox are developer-oriented, in that they allow players to become makers. Strong developer tools and a passionate community on these two platforms have created a hotbed for GameFi innovation and unleashed a multitude of new play-to-earn crypto games.
The metaverse is opening up new opportunities by making real-world distance and space irrelevant. How feasible would it be for someone in Thailand to attend a Q&A interview at Snoop Dogg’s mansion in real life or to design your own digital house and sell it for millions of real-world cash? Probably not much — but thankfully, with the metaverse, you may as well throw your prior concepts of “the impossible” out the window.
About Kyoko
Kyoko.Finance is a cross-chain GameFi NFT lending market for guilds and players. Kyoko’s Guild-to-Guild lending, P2P NFT lending, and cross-chain asset lending platform aims to solve the most pressing issues challenging the GameFi market, including the rising cost of entry and siloed in-game assets across different blockchains. Kyoko’s metaverse will also allow Guilds to display their history, progress, and other accomplishments, while players can connect with others in a world that can be built in, developed, and sold off.
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