This post is a collection of replies from engineers, executives, and experts on substantial issues in the crypto industry. The answers also touch on new business models that might emerge and help make ads more appealing.
Open Metaverse Anticipates Bad Business Models
The truth about decentralized web/ Web3 is that it will grow exponentially in this decade, but the actual impact will not be realized until the next. Web3 can help to alter the identity, utility, and equitable monetization models that we know of today. When that finally happens, the internet will run via nodes, helping to flex the high potential of the token economy.
In contrast, the centralized internet (Web2) will continue being controlled and manipulated by tech billionaires, tech firms, and nation states. Today, the tech firms will integrate central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), which will be easily monitored by their own protocols.
How long will Web2 keep standing in the way? Only time will tell.
Advertising Redefined, Made More Tasteful
A number of traditional Web2 business models, such as advertising, are no doubt going to persist even after we get into the metaverse. However, blockchain-based or adjacent technologies, such as zero knowledge proofs (ZKP) and decentralized identity will make people’s identities be preserved in the metaverse if the foundations are set right.
When these technologies are leveraged, especially ZKPs, there is also a risk of developing an additional hurdle related to latency because the zero-knowledge proof is, from a computational point of view, expensive.
On the internet, most recommendation engines are real-time, which implies they match the visitors’ most relevant ad slot at a sub-second rate. ZKPs take more time, more seconds, and at times minutes, implying that companies will need to look for more clever methods.
In the decentralized metaverse, recommendation engines will select suggestions as you check the virtual banners in geo-spatial settings or completely offline. The result might be thoughtful product, service, or experience recommendations tailored to you. Note that this is done while strictly preserving the privacy rights and, when requested, total transparency. These are the experiences that are likely to emerge in the metaverse.
After Facebook rebranded to Meta, one of the most notable things was that it still focused on centrally-controlled metaverse, which means that a few companies and ad-funder models will shepherd it. Now, new developers across the globe, in contrast to Meta’s focus, are moving ahead and considering an alternative ecosystem: the hyperverse.
The hyperverse will include financial protocols, community, multimedia, and the blockchain technology that will serve as a fully permissionless and shared infrastructure layer. New organizing designs, such as DAOs (decentralized autonomous organizations), are emerging fast to support hyperverse. The aim is to open the internet with collaborative economics, where traditional incentives can pair with tokenized models.
