The Metaverse: Crypto’s Gamechanger? Kristjan Kangro, CEO and Founder of Change, explores the emergence of the metaverse, what it means for crypto and the opportunity it presents to create a fairer, more inclusive digital economy Written by: Kristjan Kangro Founder and CEO of Change
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he term “metaverse” is everywhere. Ever since Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg claimed his stake in the metaverse and renamed his social networking company Meta, it has set off a stepchange in innovation as tech giants race to be the first to establish ‘the next iteration of the web’. This was seen in January as Microsoft acquired game developer Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion to provide the ‘building blocks for the metaverse’. 8 | APAC Outlook issue 54
Apple is also well into the metaverse mix, with it expected to announce a high-end headset that mixes Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) later this year. And Google continues to ramp up its AR and VR solutions behind the scenes. The result? While once a distant, futuristic idea, the metaverse, a virtual space generated by combining virtual worlds, AR and internet services, is coming. And it has the capacity to change everything.
Today, we use the internet as we choose. In the metaverse it will be woven into the very fabric of our lives. This will transform the human experience, from the way we work, play and go about all parts of our daily lives. In theory, it will mean that we spend lots of time interacting with our friends and colleagues in a virtual space and spend money there too. Alongside this it will revolutionise the business world, prompting companies to change their operations and how they engage their customers. Perhaps though, one of the most interesting yet less documented areas in all of this is the impact the metaverse is likely to have on the crypto world. The metaverse will, after all, bring with it a demand to deliver permissionless identity, financial services and high-speed exchange,
