Digital world has seen everything, but not in one place - Metaverse overview

Metaverse as a new reality

It's been 30 years since Neal Stephenson published his novel Snow Crash, in which he described the metaverse concept. With the advancement of technology, it has become possible to connect and live in virtual reality. This is a logical progression of information technologies that change our behavior and online interaction, creating a new Web 3.0 concept. Web 3.0 is becoming a shift toward decentralized solutions and the extensive use of blockchain technology, which will simplify interactions between people. It is possible mostly thanks to decentralized finance, which eliminates the need for intermediaries such as a bank.  Exchanging goods, investing in valuable items (like NFTs and lands), and even getting paid without intermediaries is already possible with the solutions offered by crypto projects in the metaverse.

In essence, Metaverse is the digital and virtual space that reflects the real-world elements we are living in. At least this is something Mark Zukerberg is aiming to achieve. However, there is no one particular Metaverse, different companies offer their own versions of the Metaverse, with their own economics, rules and restrictions. One of the main ideas is the vastness of actions and interactions that the user can freely control within the world of the metaverse. So one metaverse platform can make it possible for users to make a profit on NFT investments, buy digital properties and then rent them out, create avatars and various items. Another platform expands the boundaries of human interaction, creating entire music festivals within the metacommunity with real-world artists. Meta platforms allow people to create and directly exist within the content. An indicator that this will become a big financial, investment and social trend in the near future is the increased interest in investing in Metaverse by technology mastodons like Facebook and Microsoft. They offer a rethinking of the work environment and the merging of virtual reality with real one. Covid pandemics have already reconfigured our way of working and employee interactions for good. Microsoft goes further and literally breaks the screens that separate one worker from another.

You don't have to stand in hour-long traffic jams to get to another work conference. With the use of VR glasses and powerfully synchronized software and servers, you can literally feel your presence and the presents of your coworkers at meetings without leaving the comfort of your own home. Imagine walking around the Wall Market and buying items in the metaverse that will actually be delivered to your home later. Facebook (or should we call it META) is going to digitalize the real world, providing the computer-generated elements in our daily life that were only seen in video games. Augmenting Reality (AR) will allow us to have a 3D experience, supplementing our real life with computer-generated elements. Holograms are already a reality with the prospect of mass application within 5-7 years. So being in one place you can see and interact with a person in another location while playing hologram chess or showing projections of places of the recent trip. Giants like Google and Apple are working to improve the metaverse experience by developing a progressive ecosystem around artificial intelligence and augmented reality.

Business relations in Metaverse

Brands like Nike, Adidas and Balenciaga are looking at the metaverse as a place for their product placement and new sales channels, offering digital online versions of clothes and accessories for meta participants. Land and homeowners can provide advertising space on their buildings for a certain fee. Without having to be physically present, you can advertise your brand to a large audience. Over time, smaller enterprises will catch up with the big companies entering the metaverse and seeing an opportunity to expand their business activities. Indeed, the creation of virtual digital objects is much faster, cheaper and scalable to an audience of millions. Since no raw materials are needed for the production of meta-products and no regulators are needed to obtain licenses and permits, the metaverse can become a world of surplus. Where in addition the purchase of digital objects takes place directly between buyer and seller. It means new experiences and the e-commerce marketplace and adjusting the connecting elements to that experience. That's how Binance set up its office, with real employees in one of the metaverse platforms. And tech giant Samsung is hosting its first meta events. 

It is possible that major corporations like Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Netflix will use several cryptocurrencies in their shared metaverse, opening tremendous market niches for crypto and NFTs investors. Naturally, business angels, venture capitalists, and global firms are looking at startup investments related to the development of the metaverse. Big companies fundraise millions of funds, pointing their investors in the metaverse direction. For example, the company Epic Games has announced a round of funding of $1 billion, indicating that the game industry will be one of the leading links in the development of the meta market. This point was also positively perceived by Microsoft, which acquired Activision-Blizzard for $68 billion. 

Image caption

We can expect to see hundreds of startups creating augmented reality components, cryptocurrency projects bringing their blockchain solution inside the metaverse, or hardware companies improving the ecosystem in the near future. This can be compared to the development of web1, in the '90s, and web2, in the early '00s, where thousands of connectivity elements appeared to accompany the development of digitalization. However, the funding model for such ventures remains a mystery, as outdated funding methods will not be effective or even possible. The answer to this question, however, may be the Tecra Space platform, whose ecosystem is fully tailored to the needs of technology startups operating on a global scale.

Startup funding websites can move completely into the metaverse, where they can raise funds directly for the needs of the internal system. For example, why conduct a real-world fundraising campaign for NFT collection auctions when you can immediately fundraise in the same ecosystem, interacting straight with the NFTs elements. It is the interactive element that can enhance the financing market, as it will be created in a closed ecosystem, which will be much more convenient for creators and investors. Creators of certain projects (e.g. holograms in AR) will be able to showcase their products to startup investors inside the metaverse, uniting bakers from all parts of the world. And the decentralized system will improve equity crowdfunding by monetizing assets much faster than in the real world - for example, without waiting for company to be listed on the exchange, participants in the metaverse can organize an event to sell digital assets to all interested parties.

Investing in Metaverse at the early stage

The metaverse is already established as a solid concept, and the trend indicates that it will become one of the norms of the social world. There is still a lot to overcome, such as building powerful services to process and synchronize data, software that integrates multiple metaverses, better VR goggles and other accessories for the full meta experience, or the development of futuristic augmented reality technologies. The capitalization of this market will be billions of dollars, and people will be able to contribute to its development and profit through fundraising campaigns for meta startups and projects.

Another task that falls on the shoulders of the developers of the meta-universe is the responsibility to set the rules for creating an environment closer to reality. What will the transfer and implementation of laws, government positions, responsibilities, property protection, security, culture (or rather multicultural), religion, education, medicine look like? It's going to be a real struggle to move serious aspects of social life into the digital world.

Tecra Space is taking up the gauntlet of supporting the funding of such ventures. If you have a project that breaks into the metaverse, you can create a fundraising campaign on our platform to develop such startups.