The Metaverse: What's Different This Time

The Metaverse: What's Different This Time

 

Digitally native artwork is just a particular case of virtual things in the Metaverse. From the character's clothing, skin, hairstyle to the design, decoration, furniture, facilities, and environment props, logically speaking, virtual things do not create boundaries. These virtual things' ownership, use rights, and transaction rights can realize their scarcity by binding NFTs like works of art. Metaverse took over the banner of NFT and continued to call on people to put more value into the digital virtual world.

 

There are two significant changes from digitally native artwork to virtual things in the Metaverse.

 

The first change is that of the entrance. The entrance to the Metaverse is a dedicated terminal device for VR/AR. These devices are very different from the entries based on public platforms such as computers and mobile phones. Users have to go through these devices to have a relationship with virtual things, that is to say, these devices themselves. In terms of hardware, it plays a player's role for audio and video works. Provable scarcity starts from the entrance. Can put the private key into the helmet or glasses, Can use NFT to define the user's various rights to virtual things. . can use the blockchain to record the user's non-repudiation consumption trajectory in the virtual world, thus providing credible payment for consumption. Certificate.

 

The second change is a change in the pricing model. There are many irrational premiums in the pricing system of artworks. In the virtual world, those who participate in the design of the virtual world and the creation of virtual things, and those who provide resources and support for the product, operation, and operation of the virtual world, all need corresponding incentives, which determine the pricing and cost of most virtual things. The cost of creating them is directly related, more like the pricing of natural objects in the real world. Of course, virtual items are not worn and are easily copied. Only through the artificial method of NFT the scarcity of virtual things is strictly controlled. Such a virtual world is a world that can introduce value and continuously create more value.

 

From artwork NFTs to the Metaverse, the status of scarcity has not only not declined but has increased. DRM, which is not very successful on the portal of the general Internet platform, can be transformed into NFT and resume its old business in the Metaverse.

 

Scarcity of Interconnection

 

The above analysis focuses on the level of scarcity of technology. The exploration of the Metaverse has just begun; whether it is at the commercial, financial status, or the supporting VR/AR technology, it is far from reaching the stage of mature application. The advancement of individual technologies related to the Metaverse concept does not constitute an innovation in the true sense. Substantial innovation in the Metaverse will only occur if significant progress at the top-level design and protocol level for interconnection and interoperability. The top-level design does not mean centralization and authority, but, like the Bitcoin white paper written by Satoshi Nakamoto, truly achieves protocol innovation, mechanism innovation, and integration innovation.

 

The interconnectedness of scarcity makes a lot of sense. It means that another Metaverse service provider can wear the clothes bought from this service provider to enjoy the service corresponding to the remaining rights and interests in the clothes. The two service providers can transfer the right to use is settled on a precise metered basis. Therefore, when we talk about the intercommunication of the Metaverse, we mean the intercommunication of virtual items and the intercommunication of the rights and interests carried on the virtual objects. Interconnection is not an "obligation" but a "transaction." Maybe, the virtual worlds provided by the two metaverse service providers are only one street away, and even you have me, and I have you. Only this interconnection can make the Metaverse be called "The Metaverse" like the Internet is called "The Internet." Suppose it is just a virtual hilltop that does not communicate with each other. Will waste such an excellent false name.

 

The Metaverse is still just a concept or label at the moment. Scarcity technology is at the core of the metaverse technology ecology, which is of great significance and indispensable. The scarcity of interconnection is a higher state of absence, and it is also an important symbol of the Metaverse reaching a new level. Realizing new technologies of starvation in the digital world and completing the top-level design and protocol innovation of scarcity interconnection and interoperability are the vital missions of serious metaverse pioneers.