The thing is, “utility” is easy to claim, and becoming easier in the metaverse. Consider the justification for “greater fool” economics from the last decade:
Bitcoin ponzi: “store of value” is utility!
Filecoin: storing files is actual utility
ERC20 memecoin ponzis: “shibaMUSKinu community .. utility is coming… we will um, fork an open source wallet or dex”
NFT ponzis: “join the bored ape punk community, utility is working out in our gym on a private island, only 1% ever bother to show up”
Metaverse: “virtual worlds and real estate is utility! Accessorize your avatars. First people who come get to be the kings, next people can be the landowner class, later people will work their way up from serf. You’ll be able to fight and win virtual land, play to earn…”
The thing is, many of these things can legitimately be considered something of a utility for someone.
And frankly, this is STILL better than Web2 corporations owning the metaverse. It’s bad enough they employ psychologists to figure out how to make you more addicted to your phones and spending your time outraged, contributing content in political arguments while ignoring your kids. Imagine now you will be spending hours in virtual reality. What’s next, computer chips in your brain via neuralink?
If it was open source software, at least I can sort of control the economics of it. Otherwise… by 2040… you are a slave, Neo! Think about it.
This is STILL better than Web2 corporations owning the metaverse
Centralization is worse in NFT land. The NFT industry is Axie Infinity, OpenSea, and the little guys. Back end mostly goes through Metamask. Few people interact with the blockchain directly.
Metamask can and does blacklist coins and wallets. OpenSea can and does blacklist NFTs. While in theory you can go around them, they can seriously reduce the value of assets at whim.
To get an NFT onto Decentraland, there's a US$500 "curation fee".
OpenSea has raised over $470 million in VC capital [1].
That means that they will easily crush their competition and cement themselves as the home of NFTs. And then of course their "filtered view" of NFTs will become the source of truth and not the blockchain itself. And they have shown they are happy to do this filtering when asked [2].
Bitcoin ponzi: “store of value” is utility!
Filecoin: storing files is actual utility
ERC20 memecoin ponzis: “shibaMUSKinu community .. utility is coming… we will um, fork an open source wallet or dex”
NFT ponzis: “join the bored ape punk community, utility is working out in our gym on a private island, only 1% ever bother to show up”
Metaverse: “virtual worlds and real estate is utility! Accessorize your avatars. First people who come get to be the kings, next people can be the landowner class, later people will work their way up from serf. You’ll be able to fight and win virtual land, play to earn…”
The thing is, many of these things can legitimately be considered something of a utility for someone.
And frankly, this is STILL better than Web2 corporations owning the metaverse. It’s bad enough they employ psychologists to figure out how to make you more addicted to your phones and spending your time outraged, contributing content in political arguments while ignoring your kids. Imagine now you will be spending hours in virtual reality. What’s next, computer chips in your brain via neuralink?
If it was open source software, at least I can sort of control the economics of it. Otherwise… by 2040… you are a slave, Neo! Think about it.