<ul><li>Mark Zuckerberg's vision of a centralized Facebook-style social metaverse has been dubbed "dystopian" by one of the firm's earliest supporters.</li><li>Microsoft, on the other hand, appears to have a zig-zag approach to realizing its metaverse ambitions.</li><li>The potential of Web3 as the digital infrastructure of the future cannot be overlooked.</li></ul>

Centralized Facebook Style Social Metaverse Is Doomed to Fail

In the Web2 model, we don't own anything so we end up tied into platforms and services simply so we can benefit from the work we've put into them over the years.Closing a social media account means losing followers, closing a streaming service means losing playlists and access to streaming material, closing an online marketplace listing wipes out an online directory.

The Problem With Centralized Internet Services

The only way to think of the ideal metaverse is through the building blocks laid by decentralized autonomous organizations, or <a href="https://venturebeat.com/2022/01/27/moving-forward-in-the-metaverse-are-daos-the-future-of-the-web/">DAOs</a>. The world is only just waking up to the transformative power of DAOs, which have made headlines for attempts to <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/11/what-is-a-dao-cryptocurrency-group/">buy a copy of the US Constitution</a>, <a href="https://decrypt.co/92332/assange-dao-raised-more-ethereum-constitutiondao">crowdfund legal fees for Julian Assange</a>, and lower the barriers to entry for <a href="https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2022/02/15/2385570/0/en/Real-Estate-DAO-indaod-io-Enters-the-100-Billion-Vacation-Rental-Market.html">real estate investing</a>. In the decentralized finance movement, DAOs are now the norm rather than the exception, and now that they’re beginning to penetrate the mainstream.

Decentralized Autonomous Organizations

The network effects of such a model would be unparalleled because the incentives are aligned.Users will want their friends and family to join so they can also participate in the rewards and make the network a better place to hang out.Thanks to the underlying blockchain infrastructure, people own the assets and benefits they accrue on any given platform.

Network Effects Of Decentralization

The race to the metaverse is on, featuring runners and riders including tech giants like Meta, Microsoft, and Epic, to blockchain old-schoolers like Decentraland and Somnium Space. The only problem is that it looks suspiciously like a repeat of the "format wars" we've seen play out time and time again

The New Format Wars

<ul><li>Big tech has a choice: embrace the open, decentralized nature of the future in the metaverse or continue operating closed ecosystems that are only designed to extract value at the expense of their most valuable assets.</li><li>Web3 empowers people to own their data, their follower counts, their customers, all the value they accrue online and take it with them, the "Web 2.0" business model is no longer attractive or sustainable.</li></ul>

The Bottom Line: Embrace The Open

The ideal metaverse should break barriers and transform the big tech business model. Embrace an open, decentralized model for the metaverse.