Money in the Metaverse, Money 20/20 in Bangkok
Come and join us for the launch of our new book!
The MIT Technology Review lists the Apple Vision Pro as one of its “breakthrough technologies” for 2024 because the mixed-reality headset has a display that is radically better than any that has come before. The Vision Pro’s twin micro-OLED screen provide a much higher resolution and sharper contrast than the liquid crystal displays (LCDs) found in most VR headsets which mean the ability to provide an incredible immersive experience. This device, together with Meta’s new VR headset (which Meta has just announced will also display Apple spatial video), will bring the Metaverse to the masses.
There is a new ecosystem around the corner. Louis Rosenberg, CEO of Unanimous AI, carried out doctoral work at Stanford University that resulted in an immersive augmented-reality system built for the U.S. Air Force back in 1992. He recently predicted that by 2035 people will laugh at images from today that show people walking down the street staring down at a phone. He thinks that we will see metaverses (built on virtual worlds) and augmented metaverses (with layers of rich virtual content overlaid on the real world) and goes on to predict that they will replace mobile phones as the primary gateway to digital worlds, with the transition from mobile phones beginning in the middle of the 2020s and completing by 2035 or “possibly sooner”.
If that sounds hyperbolic, in the light of current technology, bear in mind that “Gen Z” already spends far more time in the proto-metaverses than they do in the web world familiar to you. The next generation of consumers are showing the way: there are roughly 3.4 billion gamers, or 1 in every 2.36 people. 90% of Gen Z, 80% of Millennials and 63% of Gen X already interact with games and/or the metaverse. Where games begin, commerce follows and commerce will come because those standard solutions of the trading of assets between digital identities will form the security layer that was missing from the Internet because security is an integral part of what the metaverse actually is.
While the Metaverse may have dipped out of public consciousness, there is no doubt that financial services strategists have to take it seriously. With demand from the entertainment, education, and defense industries and a forecast CAGR of more than 40% through 2030, the finance sector will look on as the opportunities for transactions proliferate and then be forced to respond because all of those transactions will require rails to move value around, to effect payments whether that value is fiat currency, game tokens or things that have not been invented yet. The transactions may be virtual, but the business implications are very real, and the Metaverse – in fact, a multitude of metaverses – is the next evolution of the internet. This will power new business models that, crucially, demand reimagined financial services.
The World Economic Forum’s new Insight Report on The Future of Global Fintech shows that more than a quarter of the world’s fintechs are in the Asia Pacific Region and almost a third of them are in payments. It is a crucible of innovation, which is why Victoria Richardson and I are so pleased to announce that our new book Money in the Metaverse: Digital Assets, Digital Identities, Digital Economies and Why Virtual Worlds Mean Real Business will be launched at Money20/20 Asia in Bangkok (April 23rd-25th).
Victoria and I will take part in a panel discussion on April 25th where we will explore the future of financial services across the emerging metaverses and the ‘always-on’ immersive future internet. Please come and join us!
In our book we talk about the technologies needed to make the metaverses useful for business and explore the new services that they will deliver. The book links the virtual worlds where transactions can take place, the digital assets that will be exchanged in those transactions, and the owners of those assets. It goes on to develop a comprehensive and practical model of the Metaverse and the nature of transactions in a business environment. Its clear view of virtual worlds, its simple taxonomy for digital assets, and its tried-and-tested model of digital identity will provide a better understanding of the opportunities in the many metaverses where we will work, rest and play in the near future.
This is not a manual for programmers writing smart contracts or service providers who want to use the European Digital Identity wallet. Rather, this book aims to bridge the gap between the creators of metaverses and financial services strategists looking to create value from virtual worlds, web3 and digital identity. Our goal is to facilitate more efficient interactions between the stakeholders and more effective development of new products and services.
To this end the book sets out a consistent and, we think, helpful model of the metaverse, in which commerce is the exchange of fungible and nonfungible tokens in transactions that are enabled by the reputations of counterparties. In other words, payments in the metaverse must take the form of fungible tokens that exhibit the characteristics of money in the circumstances. The obvious candidate is what people refer to as stable coins. In the not–too-distant future central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) or private sector tokens with reserves in either central bank money or perhaps other assets such as gold (or oil, or electricity or who knows what else) will step in to fulfil this role for most jurisdictions. We feel that the time is right for organisations all across the payments value chain to begin working on their scenario planning and strategies for this inevitable future.
A clear view of virtual worlds, a practical taxonomy for digital objects and a tried-and-tested model of digital identity will lead to a better understanding of the opportunities in the many metaverses where we will work, rest and play in the near future. Developing strategies to support real business in virtual worlds is imperative and we hope that you will agree that we have delivered a practical and accessible handbook to achieve this.
Here’s what some early reviewers have said about our approach:
"A must read book for anyone wanting to delve into the future of financial services."
@Jim Marous, The Financial Brand
"Rarely do business-oriented books bring so much imagination to underpin their argument as David and Victoria’s has done."
@Eva Pascoe, Co-founder of Cyberia, London’s first internet café.
Money in the Metaverse: Digital Assets, Digital Identities, Digital Economies and Why Virtual Worlds Mean Real Business will be published by The London Publishing Partnership in Spring 2024. Pre-order your copy online today!
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