The Mark Zuckerberg announcement on October 28 that Facebook would be changing its name to Meta, and that his company would be going lock stock and barrel into all things metaverse, may have surprised many. However, the way things have been moving in this sector, Zuckerberg and his team are nowhere near the first to get going on it.
Metaverse appears to be an unstoppable trend that is taking over the hype baton from the likes of decentralised finance and NFTs. Both of these niches are simply enormous growth areas within the crypto sphere.
Notwithstanding, the metaverse is where both will reside, as humankind starts to move more fully into an online world which will contain much of what they now get in the real world.
The key to everything though is decentralisation. Zuckerberg’s Facebook history of shoddy dealings with user data does not bode well for those wishing to enter its metaverse.
Even the regulators baulked at Facebook’s Libra stablecoin attempt, and now with its latest Diem project also struggling to get the go-ahead, it seems that MZ and Facebook have decided to pivot into the metaverse.
Nevertheless, can you see even those with a grain of sense wishing to KYC, and then have all their data harvested by such a corporation?
Luckily, we have decentralised metaverse to explore, to set up in, and to invest in. The Winklevoss twins, Marc Andreessen, Alan Howard, and other big hitters recently announced their part in a $100 million investment fund earmarked for NFT and ‘decentralised’ metaverse infrastructure.
Also, a quick look under the categories section of Coingecko reveals that the Metaverse category, well down in 21st position based on size of market cap, looks to be still fairly under represented.
In first place in the category is Axie Infinity, on the way to becoming a true gaming metaverse now that land NFTs are to become part of the ecosystem. The market cap for AXS is $9.3 billion, with Decentraland, Enjin Coin and The Sandbox taking up the next 3 places with $4.2, $2.8, and $2.4 billion respectively.
All areas in this category will be set to grow strongly over the next few months, in the variety of metaverses, size of market caps, and the position of the category itself as compared to layer 1 blockchains, NFT platforms, and stablecoins etc.
The metaverse is still in its infancy, but looking into the future, could this be what houses absolutely everything in Web 3.0?
Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
