An exciting new era for the Internet is arriving, the Age of Metaverses.
Artificial Reality
The fact that software is eating the world has not been lost on anyone who has spent any time at all on the modern Internet. We're now entering a new phase of the Internet, with 5G and VR/AR, delivered through more and more seamless glasses, contact lenses, and ocular implants.
Are we living in a simulation?
We don't know, but we will certainly be creating new life-like simulation and allowing netizens access to these virtual universes aka metaverses. We will be navigating the multiverse in a real sense of the word - across metaverses run by various platforms and organizations in various countries around the world - both by private citizens and also by governments.
Artificial Market
And regardless of whether it is the physical world or the digital world (across Web2 businesses) or now Web3 and metaverses, one thing never changes: it is always the economy, stupid!
And so it is with technology: what is the impact on the market for various products and services? And what impact to metaverses have on markets? Strictly speaking, any new significant technology shift, particularly as it relates to the knowledge economy, should allow for a reboot of sorts, a kind of re-democratization of business.
Will that happen with metaverses? Will new companies topple the existing Internet giants? In the short term, metaverses will each create new markets for businesses to find and engage potential consumers. It will bring new opportunities, but also new complexity for businesses who now will have to deal with multiple dimensions of reality, often with unique cultures and ways of doing business.
But the market always wins, the metaverses will not be any different, they're just new digital skins over the same basic thing - buying, selling, and marketing (
Market).
Artificial Economy
And it is the economic aspects of metaverses that are of most interest to us.
Ultimately, metaverses are full worlds (
Network) that connect various types of participants representing various types of potential value with each other. Businesses that have a plan to leverage the coming Age of Metaverses will benefit, particularly ones that view all metaverses including the physical world as types of the same thing.
The best businesses will develop protocols and platformize their industries across metaverses.
