A lot of people are dissing the metaverse and NFTs and crypto as total garbage, and I think I see the main point they’re missing.
Reality is falling out of favor for hundreds of millions of people. Perhaps billions.
As the top 10% in the world take larger and larger shares of everything, from wealth, to income, to mates, to fame—more and more of the bottom 90% will simply opt for a different reality where they are able to compete.
Now, surely, some of meatspace’s advantages will follow into the metaverse (the real one, after the dust settles), but this won’t happen all the time because many who are winning in meatspace will be content to stay in that domain. Plus, there will be mechanisms to keep meatspacers out of the “real” world of the metaverse. Like a giant pay-to-play badge overlayed on their special items and such.
I just don’t think enough people—whether normies or journalists—are getting how annoyed people are getting with reality. Speaking just for the US, and just for the bottom 75% of the socio-economic field, life is fucking hard.
Jobs don’t pay enough. The work sucks. You don’t have any control over your life. You can’t afford a nice place unless you live somewhere without good restaurants. And even then you’re barely surviving because there are no jobs there.
They’re looking for an escape hatch from this thing called reality. THAT is what makes the metaverse a multi-trillion-dollar thing. THAT is the reason NFTs will dominate. THAT is the reason crypto and blockchain will succeed (in some form).
It’s not about the technologies themselves. It’s the fact that they are the avatars of reality rejection. They’re the tools that regular people will use to build a better one.
Notes
- There’s basically one internet. And there’s one online world in Ready Player One. When we talk about the metaverse, we’re talking about one thing as well. Right now, however, we have the beginning of the battle for which will win out. And it’s so early the eventual winner might not even be on the board yet. Meta (Facebook) is an obvious good bet, but there’s no guarantee there at all.
- Image from https://www.uctoday.com/collaboration/can-we-work-in-the-metaverse/.