The Metaverse Started with Gaming

cloud, that is allowing us to provide the analytics, the artificial intelligence, the data science that makes it possible to create these advanced virtual worlds.

The difference between Web 2.0 and Web 3.0

Melvin Greer:

The shift from Web 2.0— where we have several companies are taking advantage of users’ data to generate larger and larger revenue streams—to Web 3.0 technologies, where the idea of data sovereignty is built into the system; where we move away from users presenting data to others, to creators who are maximizing the use of their imaginations and creative capabilities to monetize those in a cryptocurrency blockchain environment.

That is a significant difference, and it's going to span not only fields like education and music but things like healthcare, where we will be able to share our health data only with people who we want it to be shared with in a way that we want it to be shared so that the advances that come from it can also be monetarily compensating back to us. So, it's an exciting time.

Decentralization of web technologies, the sovereignty of the data we create and own, and democratization of the compensation models are driven by individual creations. One of the first steps in developing distributed compensation is the idea of a non-fungible token. We're seeing creators using NFTs inside this Web 3.0 decentralized infrastructure capability. Along with blockchain and crypto, these creators take full advantage of their data sovereignty, security, and monetization opportunities.

Unfortunately, having the capacity to do so does not translate into our ability to do so without some education. We need to be very clear-eyed about what will be required for all citizens to be able to take advantage of these new environments. I’m excited about this because young people are most engaged in this activity.

Is there room for us in the metaverse?

Melvin Greer:

My sons are 11 and 13, and they've been working on Roblox and Minecraft, which have the same construct as distributed web technologies. So, when they get their allowance, they buy Minecraft coins that allow them to create virtual environments that provide them access to new tools. They can develop those modules for themselves, which become revenue streams they can also monetize. So, what's exciting about it is, is not only do we have a marriage of the capability, but we now have an education or