As it develops and continues to grow non-stop, the Metaverse presents a new platform of opportunities for companies and users to grow their economies. It’s expected to potentially contribute more than $3 trillion to global GDP by 2031.
Early estimates value that places like Dubai, Seoul, and Taiwan also have plans to take advantage of the Metaverse through twin-city projects. It also brings a new range of industries that go from education to training, passing through remote work and art or entertainment, building ways for people to engage.
What Makes the Metaverse an Economic Success?
The two key components that make the Metaverse economy crucial for the technological sector are interoperability and portability. These two will be powered and developed further into the future, thanks to the complete adoption of Web3 features.
Policymakers are also giving a lot of attention to applying blockchain technology for financial services, such as stablecoins, cryptocurrencies, and crypto exchanges. But, at the same time, blockchains can have many non-financial uses that set the foundations indirectly of the Metaverse economy.
Non-financial relates and includes non-fungible tokens (NFTs), which self-positioned themselves to establish ownership in the digital world, enabling experiences that the current world doesn’t allow.
Building the Metaverse economy also needs to ensure that many people will be able to benefit from it, no matter if it’s creators, users, or businesses. Setting fair Web3 rules can keep up with safety and innovation. These are three of those cores or important rules:
- Adopting technology-neutral approaches: methods that focus on the “same risks, same rules” to maintain a balance.
- Recognizing that decentralized systems have a role: unlocking new economic opportunities can foster innovation, competition, interoperability, and portability of ownership and identity.
- Embracing collaboration between the public sector and industry can allow critical foundations for
Types of Economy in the Metaverse
Business opportunities are still coming to focus in the Metaverse, projecting itself into many expansion opportunities. Three big nascent groups can greatly benefit from this new way of earning money in virtual worlds:
Creator Economy
Independent creators in different mediums use platforms and marketplaces to create and disseminate, getting paid for their output. When these decentralized versions flourish, they must be built out and filled with content, especially created by designers and creators.
Blockchains can secure the creators’ ownership of a product or asset, letting them easily monetize it and control how others can use it. Meanwhile, a centralized blockchain generates content for creators, just like today’s Internet does. The difference is that it allows less control for creators.
Data Economy
Big platforms define the online data economy as how it is known, but that can drastically change in a decentralized Metaverse, where Blockchains are given a mechanism. These controls allow databases to control information, even up to selling or exchanging it independently.
Financial institutions, no matter how big or small they are, fintech startups and third parties are some of the places these data could be delivered to. This happens because organizations need permission to access consumer data to build innovative products, marketing campaigns, and many more.
Crypto Economy
In decentralized universes, cryptocurrencies are used to transfer many values all across virtual and geographical borders. Even in a Metaverse world where big technologies dominate, digital currencies and NFTs can make financial transfers faster, more transparent and easier.
Having straightforward financial moves also means simplifying the cumbersome process of sending money from one platform to another, among many other things. No matter the scenario, it’d make crypto a proper medium of exchange instead of a vehicle of speculation for many people.
How NFTs Fully Transformed the Metaverse Economy
When non-fungible tokes stepped into the mainstream world, investors quickly discovered a new way and used to invest. This was further explored once the frenzy of releasing digital collectibles and other assets slowed down.
The prime example of NFTs connected to the Metaverse is its fast-paced development: both inevitably help each other grow, adopting methods from the other subject for the long term. In essence, NFTs can also serve as a gateway to the Metaverse, empowering their identity and communities.
Opens Up the Gaming Frontier
While the gaming industry was outpacing every other technology industry, such as movies, amusement parks, concerts, and sports, the Metaverse boosted it. This was also acknowledged when Mark Zuckerberg announced Facebook’s name change, saying that gaming was one of its motivations.
Gaming has also been tied for a long while with virtual reality, meaning that consumers from the sectors are familiar with many of these products. Most gaming VR today is based on standalone desktop, mobile, and headsets applications that provide a unique and immersive experience.
Its relationship with the Metaverse opens a new frontier where pay-to-earn (p2e) and portable game assets take the lead. NFTs are the key to unlocking these new experiences since most of them count as currency in these video games.
P2E methods are also more valuable to video games since the more a user owns, the more valuable it becomes. After obtaining these assets, users can trade, sell or do whatever they want with what they collected.
Unlocks New Social Experiences
The role of NFTs in enabling new experiences for virtual communities, personal identity mechanisms, and social experiences is another important point.
Users can explore any specific hobby they want or show their support by buying NFTs, for example. As a result, NFT owners can form communities and share their experiences to collaborate for more relevant content creation.
Avatars are another vital concept introduced with NFTs, which are a core part of the socialization world in the Metaverse. They do not only represent a user but also whatever they imagine, being an alter-ego of a person. This makes some NFTs an extension of people’s real-life identities.
Brings the Virtual and Real World Together
Most of the social experiences created in Metaverse worlds can also be transitioned offline, with the non-fungible tokens effectively bridging this huge gap.
The Bored Ape Yacht Club is one of the prime examples of this bridging gap. This conglomerate of primate avatars has made inroads to connect virtual reality and the real world. Owners of these NFTs gain admission to exclusive clubs and other features, such as private real-life events.
How is the Metaverse Economy Promoted?
The Metaverse economy has many methods to promote these virtual worlds, with online marketing being one of the most successful. Creators of these worlds need agencies like Exonite to promote them, bringing audiences into it that can kickstart the economy and generate profit.
A good agency can promote and realize SEO methods to optimize its searches online, grow its community, and many more.
Teams of cryptographic and marketing experts make a difference when focusing on search engine marketing and community growth. Both organic and social media positioning can entirely decide if a virtual platform can succeed or fail, depending on how public opinion receives it.
Conclusion
The Metaverse economy has seen a lot of changes since the boom of the virtual worlds, virtual reality, and non-fungible tokens. However, it’s important to know that it is still in the early stages and that trends can change in no time.
This doesn’t mean cryptocurrencies can disappear or stop being the main currency, but it still needs a lot of development that is already being done correctly. At the same time, people will not only be able to profit but also entertain and socialize with others in these worlds, benefiting everyone.
