Coinsights #10: Defining the Metaverse
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If you ask someone to define the Metaverse, they’re likely to describe something along the lines of Ready Player One: a full fledged virtual world where everything of importance happens. Entire economies are organized around this Metaverse, with companies being formed to compete in virtual competitions while the “physical world” slowly loses relevance.
Meta’s Angle
Today, we’re going to talk about varying definitions of the Metaverse. First, from Mark Zuckerberg:
I think that the phrase “the real world” is interesting. I think that there’s a physical world and there’s a digital world, and increasingly those are sort of being overlaid and coming together, but I would argue that increasingly the real world is the combination of the digital world and the physical world and that the real world is not just the physical world. That, I think, is an interesting kind of frame to think about this stuff going forward.
Of all the people I’ve heard define the Metaverse, Zuckerberg’s vision seems to be the closest to the world described in Ready Player One. In fact, Oculus gave all it’s employees copies of the book! Zuckerberg wants to blend both the physical and digital worlds such that they come together, potentially trying to enrich the physical one with digital content. Perhaps this is a bit cynical, but it makes sense that someone from Facebook would want this: more immersive digital content = more ad revenue.
Ben Thompson
Ben Thompson, author of Stratechery, defines the Metaverse in a recent article as:
the set of experiences that are completely online, and thus defined by their malleability and scalability, which is to say that the Metaverse is already here.
Ben argues that the physical and digital worlds are not coming together, but rather increasingly separating in what he calls “The Great Bifurcation.” Many of our jobs and the entertainment we consume now live entirely in the digital realm. Ben states that these virtual experiences will only continue to become more immersive while leaving behind certain aspects of the physical world, like family experiences.
Mark and Ben’s definitions are on two opposite ends of the spectrum. I don’t necessarily see a world where the digital and real worlds completely merge, but Ben’s definition seems too strict! Take the case where you’re playing Dance Dance Revolution with a group of friends in a room: you’re existing and interacting in the physical world yet participating in an “online experience” that seems to define Ben’s version of the Metaverse. (For completeness, I would argue that Zuckerberg’s vision would have you and your friends in separate areas, connected via Oculus, similar to how Ready Player One works).
Is there a middle ground here? Or perhaps the Metaverse isn’t a place at all?
Shaan Puri
I highly recommend you read this thread in full, starting from the top. Shaan makes the point that:
our attention has been sucked from physical to digital
And where attention goes, energy flows.
I tend to agree with Shaan’s thread, but I think that it’s worth calling out that this “Metaverse singularity” will happen at a different point in time for everybody. It’ll happen multiple times for someone as various parts of their life slowly move online! A plumber will have their work rooted in the physical world but can earn badges as an air traffic controller in some virtual world, while I’ll write articles on my Oculus in the digital world while playing basketball in the physical world. In the end, each person will end up defining their own Metaverse. That’s the beauty of it.
What do you define as the Metaverse? Do you agree with the takes in this article? Come chat in the Coinsights Discord.
P.S. If you’re wondering how the Metaverse is connected to the blockchain, check back tomorrow :)