The Metaverse, Web3, and the Inevitability of NFTs

Be it connecting with coleagues via zoom or using FaceTime with friends.

Or be it playing a game of Fortnite over Discord.

Today a lot of the activities done IRL are ported to the digital realm: working, networking, socializing, gaming, etc.

Web 1.0 was the era of static webpages where content provided by the website developer was only meant to be consumed.

Web 2.0 catapulted the world from simple static desktop web pages to interactive experiences, user-generated content, and marketplace economics that brought us tech giants like Uber, Facebook and Twitter. Web 2.0 was mobile-first, social-first, and cloud-only.

Web 2.0 unlocked trillions of dollars of value for the global economy, but in doing so, we consumers gave up a lot of agency over our lives, in favor of the value of the services that a handful of companies provide us.

Today, we hand over our individual freedoms in favor of centralized services.

The big tech companies gather a lot of data from us: where we browse, where we shop, and even we are located in the physical world. They use this information to sell us products and nudge our behaviors to benefit their ultimate customer: the advertisers.

More on this dilemma is expertly covered in the Netflix doc The Social Dilemma .

Moreover, we allow these companies to house our information — leading to a single point of failure in the advent of a security breach.

The new era of Web3 champions:

• “Open” — meaning built on open standards, by an open and accessible community of developers and executed with full transparency
• “Trustless”— meaning participants can interact with the comfort that all information is correct and authenticated — without needing to trust a third-party to verify
• “Permissionless” — meaning no one can be barred from participation, even from an authority figure like a government

networks. Blockchain protocols like Etherium help build open financial systems where anyone can build and participate without the need of financial institutions.

If the Metaverse were to exist in a Web 2.0 setting, centralized institutions like Facebook and Google can control our experience — living in their data centers that can be shut off by their whim, where they control what we see, and our data gathered in order to sell for profit or to be shared with authorities like governments.

If you’re going to live a sizable chunk of your existence in the Metaverse, you may as well have ownership over those digital items.

NFTs cryptographically prove that you, and you alone, are the owner of your digital items. And no one else can take them away from you.

NFTs have cracked the problem of digital scarcity , enabling creators for the first time ever to accurately price and safely distribute their works.

As a result, NFTs allow artists to monetize their work in a new way, empowering them to cut out money-grubbing middlemen and forming direct relationships with their supporters and fans.

Everything similarly clicks together when skilled professionals look to work directly with their clients in virtual workspaces.