Metaverse - digital ecosystem with democratic potential

Facebook becomes Meta

As part of the Facebook Connect developer presentation in October 2021, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook's parent company will be renamed Meta with immediate effect. There is much more behind the name change than just a re-branding. Zuckerberg justified the new name by saying that in future, the Group will no longer focus exclusively on social networks such as Instagram, WhatsApp or Facebook itself, but on the development of a metaverse. On the Meta site It says for itself: “Our company's vision is to bring the metaverse to life. That's why we have a new name that reflects our vision of the future.” Meta will henceforth be the overriding force of all the company's activities — from social networks, messaging, fitness and gaming to virtual reality headsets from the Meta brand Oculus Quest (VR glasses).

Facebook (Meta) sees itself as a “social technology company” that provides the platform and development resources that also enable external developers to shape the metaverse. In addition to its desired technology market leadership, Meta also wants to tap into new user groups with the change of name. About 80% of Facebook users in the USA are currently over 25 years old — The trend is rising. Younger people are now using other platforms such as TikTok or Snapchat. The name Meta is now intended to represent a new beginning and inspire Generation Z and younger with visionary, connected worlds.

What is the metaverse?

However, the term meta is not new; it originates from science fiction author Neal Stephenson. In his 1992 novel “Snow Crash,” he describes the metaverse as a virtual world in which pizza delivery and hacker Hiro dives into to meet with people and their self-designed avatars.

Similarly, Meta should also represent a three-dimensional universe in which we can move with our personal avatar and interact with other users in a completely natural way. As the next evolutionary stage of the Internet, the metaverse should be intuitive, accessible and self-explanatory. In it, users dive into virtual worlds with VR glasses. At the same time, digital content is displayed on displays or with the help of projector glasses into the viewer's real environment and expands their reality (augmented reality).

In metaverse practice, users could play together, attend fitness classes, shop and work together across platforms. These areas, which were previously separated on the Internet, should merge into a virtual space and give the user the feeling of being “right in the middle of it.”

Decentralized business models and user empowerment

Not only Facebook is pursuing this goal, but also other players such as Google or Microsoft. Its widely used collaboration platform Teams will be available from next year with avatar support and VR meeting rooms. Google, in turn, has created a new department called “Google Labs,” which combines innovative, technological projects and ideas under one roof.

This could also include the next big topic from Silicon Valley: Web3. The idea of Blockchain-based, self-organizing networks and applications based on it are hyped as a decentralized online ecosystem that is controlled by users. It should not belong to tech companies such as Google or Facebook, nor to banks or political systems.

Web3 could therefore — similar to the original idea of cryptocurrencies — represent a countermovement to existing systems that undermines centralized control and power asymmetries and once again aims more towards democratization. In any case, Web3 can pave the way for serious competition for the Big Tech business model and give users back control of their data and profiles to a large extent.

The role of digital currencies in the metaverse and Web3

Whether metaverse or Web3: digital currencies such as in-game tokens, NFT (digital certificates of authenticity) or coins will probably be the most important form of exchange in virtual worlds. For example, users can use NFTs in the metaverse to buy digital works of art and display them in the virtual home purchased with coins. Big brands such as Nike or Adidas would sell clothes in “shops” and users could buy tickets for virtual concerts of real stars for their avatars with coins.

The underlying blockchain technology offers several advantages. Transactions can be carried out quickly, cheaply and relatively securely. In addition, real values, such as land or real estate, can be simulated and as tokenized assets sell. Potential gains and losses can then be realized in the “real world” by changing coins into traditional fiat currencies.

In addition to well-known cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum or Meta's own digital currency Diem (formerly: Libra), there are already specific Metauniverse altcoin tokens such as MANA or SAND. These are cryptocurrencies that are used in existing metauniverses. Decentraland (MANA) is about buying virtual lands or objects for your avatar in a 3D universe. The means of payment in this world is the MANA token. The vision of the SAND development team is to offer a profound metaverse in which players can create virtual worlds and games collaboratively and without central authority, establishing SAND as a local cyber currency.

Virtual Worlds: “The Next Big Thing”?

It is very likely that Metaverse, Web3 and/or other virtual parallel worlds will establish themselves and open up completely new worlds for users that will permanently change the structure of the network. However, their exact structure and the question of which tech companies will play a key role in this are still open issues. Another important aspect is how the regulation and establishment of legal frameworks or data protection issues can be enforced in areas that have not yet been regulated.

In any case, what blockchain technology is already doing is consistently thinking ahead with digitization in almost all industries and areas of daily life. But this thinking ahead should also take into account all facets. When we talk about a digital universe, do we only think of our happy moments or even our low points in Second Life?

And what about liability if providers of unregulated tokens suddenly simply disappear with the money? Even though the beautiful new community of online clans will be organized in a radically different way than we can imagine, it will have to negotiate generally binding rules and conventions for disputes. The tempting world of glitter should not prevent us from defining and anchoring our society's core values in the digital world.