Metaverse, Web 3.0 and its potential for businesses

The evolution of the web

Web 1.0 was all about reading and getting information. Web 2.0 was all about reading, writing and creating. So people joined social platforms and those platforms grew because of social content. Web 3.0 and the metaverse are all about reading, writing and owning. So people and creators can now own a piece of their community through eg. NFTs. Users can trade their possessions or use them for perks. Web 3.0 is all about ownership. 

The metaverse plays a major role in Web 3.0. But what exactly is the metaverse? I would describe it as a separate universe with components of virtual reality, the possibility of possessing things like watches and doing things like visiting concerts, etc. It’s a parallel universe.

A major difference between virtual reality and the metaverse is the economical aspect. Where virtual reality technologies are already used in sectors like sports education and therapy, it's still considered as a form of entertainment. The metaverse though is so much more. A fully functioning economic model in the Metaverse will need financial services. . 

Metaverse – why now?

Recently Facebook has changed its name to Meta, indicating a significant change to their mission and products. More and more companies are following this shift of focus on the Metaverse. Generation Z & Generation Alpha have access to computer technology and blockchain technology enables an economic system in the Metaverse. Did you know that according to recent studies people of generation Z feel more authentic in the digital world than in the real world? No wonder that the importance of digital worlds will grow even more than ever before in the next few years.

In Steven Spielberg's Ready Player 1, we see an example of the Metaverse in action. A person enters a digital world and in that world the person plays as his own avatar, races a game, earns coins and fame. The player is fully immersed in the game by using VR glasses, stands on a full moving platform and is therefore completely disconnected from the real world. Every move the person makes, is also made in the Metaverse.

Ready Player 1 was more about a game, whereas the current Metaverse thinking really focuses on an online world like our own. A world where we can interact with others, buy and sell anything with digital currencies, and pretty much do whatever we want. In fact, there is already a shopping mall in the Metaverse, namely Decentraland, an online world where you can explore, create and trade, and this is where banks can come into play. 

What’s in for banks?

A fully functioning economic model in the Metaverse will need financial services. Banks (as other B2C businesses as well) can have a special interest in the Metaverse because they can use it as a marketing platform. For example, banks can sponsor events inside the metaverse, and they can sell NFT tickets for these events. In order to be able to sell NFT tickets, they would need some form of infrastructure to sell NFTs, and this can be done by creating an online branch within the Metaverse. So we are seeing some parallels between the Metaverse and digital worlds, and that’s where banks can really make a difference.

If we talk about online branches, we effectively talk about online property and online real estate. As an example, JP Morgan is the first bank to enter the Metaverse by opening an Onyx Lounge in Decentraland, with the intention of becoming an online branch where you can do all the same banking services as you can do in their traditional branches. Yes, they already own digital real estate. And this is just the beginning. We can have concert halls with shows in the Metaverse, we can have museums with art in the Metaverse and all of those ‘places’ and objects can be bought, owned, and sold in the Metaverse.o where you invite people to, paintings can be shown there instead of lying in the safe all the time. 

Bejby Blue is already existing in the metaverse and is a great example of the possibilities. She is a digital persona created by Tatra bank in Slovakia, and basically promotes student bank accounts with amazing results. She has since played in music videos and had 5 nominations in music awards. That just shows one of the marketing possibilities of banks in the Metaverse.

The Metaverse is still growing and redefined, banks can play a crucial role in this by rethinking their real world strategies into the endless possibilities of the Metaverse. If done right this can be a great opportunity for not only banks, but all businesses.