Through their Research arm, Grayscale, the prominent Digital Currency Investment Firm, has commissioned a report that identifies the metaverse as a potential trillion-dollar industry over coming years. This bold statement starts right from their introduction:
“Crypto cloud economies are the next emerging market investment frontier and the Metaverse is at the forefront of this Web 3.0 internet evolution. The Metaverse is a set of interconnected, experiential, 3D virtual worlds where people located anywhere can socialize in real-time to form a persistent, user-owned, internet economy spanning the digital and physical worlds.”
Source: https://grayscale.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Grayscale_Metaverse_Report_Nov2021.pdf
The research authors recognise the already meteoric growth of virtual goods in gaming worlds, and the increased integration of social lives with gaming worlds. The report identifies that this is already a $180 billion dollar industry.
The metaverse provides extra opportunities for this meteoric growth. The metaverse, built on Blockchain, and utilising NFTs gives extra opportunities for those participating in the metaverse to take part in ecommerce experiences. The report already identifies a number of “real-world” activities happening in the Metaverse. These examples come from one of the more popular metaverse platforms, Decentraland:
• Art Galleries, such as Sotheby’s, have launched allowing owners to showcase and sell their digital NFT art at auction.
• Business Offices: crypto businesses like Binance and others have established digital headquarters in the Metaverse where employees can meet and collaborate.
• Games & Casinos where players can win MANA.
• Advertising: digital billboards have been built by property owners to advertise to game players for a fee.
• Sponsored Content, such as the recently announced Atari arcade which will feature games that can be played within Decentraland.
• Music Venues where DJs and musicians play music and hold concerts.
The metaverse appeals to participants because they can own part of their own experience, creating real world value but also the rise of the “play to earn” business model.
Metaverse platforms are also attracting real world investment as entrepreneurs identify other revenue opportunities:
Cryptocurrencies – Metaverse platforms, with their ingame economics, give rise to the development of cryptocurrencies. These currencies have fiat value and can be exchanged for fiat currency in the real world.
DeFi Platforms – These platforms give participants the opprtiunioty to transfer in game items or lending platforms for currency
NFTs – You can purchase “land” within the metaverse or other assets, with ownership verifiable via the blockchain.
This is just a small example of the value creation opportunities in the metaverse.
The key crux if the report, and the reason for interest and the rapid growth of participation could be summed up with this paragraph in the report, “Crypto virtual worlds have created a multi-million dollar primary and secondary market for creators and asset owners by eliminating capital controls and opening their digital borders to free market capitalism.”
Rather than the centralisation normally seen in today’s gaming economies, people are able to create real economic value from their social participation. At the same time there are still countless opportunities for platform developers to realise their own wealth in a decentralised metaverse.