Why Cryptocurrency and the Metaverse Are a Match Made in Heaven
It seems like there is not a day that goes by without someone mentioning the metaverse at some stage. What is the metaverse apart from being the current buzzword on everyone’s lips? The metaverse is a decentralized, three-dimensional virtual reality world where users can interact with others and objects in real-time. There are already several metaverses out there, although they are a far cry from what some of the biggest tech companies envisage they could be.
The metaverse is the perfect opportunity for crypto assets and blockchain to enter the mainstream. Microsoft recently acquired Activision Blizzard in a $68.7 billion deal. Activision Blizzard boats 400 million active players, many of whom are already making microtransactions within and outside the game’s realms on various marketplaces. It does not take a genius to imagine Microsoft steering this gigantic tech-savvy customer base to another metaverse.
Likewise, it is not difficult to imagine how cryptocurrency and blockchain would go hand-in-hand with a metaverse. The metaverse promises users a virtual reality experience that may be better than the physical world regarding opportunities. Users can buy land, build businesses, and create assets in an engaging, immersive surrounding and from the comfort of their own homes. Metaverse creators want users to spend an increasing amount of time in virtual reality, so those users want and need to know their information is 100% secure, and any transactions they make will actually happen. Cryptocurrency sounds like the perfect solution, does it not?
Metaverse Virtual Worlds Already Exist
Many of the current crop of metaverse or metaverse-like products, such as Decentraland, PolkaCity, and The Sandbox, revolve around buying and selling in-game NFTs. Players can purchase avatars, clothing for those avatars, plots of virtual land, and trade virtual products from the businesses they create in the metaverse. It should not be surprising that all three sites mentioned have a tradable cryptocurrency with real-world value.
The biggest issue with hundreds, potentially thousands, or players frequenting a virtual world is proving who owns a particular asset. Blockchain offers digital proof of ownership for a player’s metaverse assets. There is no arguing over who built, holds, or even destroyed a particular asset; the blockchain contains all the relative information.
Furthermore, all that proof of ownership and personal information is safe and secure on the blockchain. The blockchain is immutable and practically unhackable, which is perfect in a virtual world setting and for making the metaverse trusted in the mainstream. Users want to know their transactions are secure and that nobody will run off with their money. Even if the user quits the game or the game itself is deleted, those assets remain undamaged and retain real-world value.
Safe, Secure, and Instant Transactions
Speaking of transactions, video gamers already use microtransactions in various games. In addition, there is a grey market – some say black market – for some in-game assets. The Counter-Strike: Global Offensive game has some rare items in it. One “skin” for a weapon sold for $100,000 in July 2020. We can only imagine the stress of such a transaction from both sides. Who sends first in that situation? Blockchain negates this problem by taking care of the transaction and doing so immediately. Those super-fast and secure transactions will be needed if and when metaverse users become business moguls in their virtual setting.
There has already been a significant trend of people leaning towards online payments over cash for quite some time. Now moving cryptocurrency around is easier than ever before, with established payments processors like MasterCard, PayPal, and Visa getting in on the act. It is easier than ever for users to conduct transactions via crypto or a crypto-based platform; the payment routes are already in place.
Everything points towards cryptocurrency, and the blockchain being a vital component of any metaverse, you could say they are a match made in heaven.
