Defining and building the Metaverse Pt. 1

A key lesson that I learned as the CEO of EVOS for that past five years is to always spend time identifying better ways to articulate your vision, to enable clarity for your organization and investors.

What we see in our minds, what we picture of the future and what we see coming, might not be what others are able to visualize

So with that, let me have a swing at breaking down how I view the metaverse, from an esports, gaming and creator economy entrepreneur perspective

*Disclaimer – This is a work in progress and will most definitely change in an hour of writing this haha

This is part 1 of me trying to define and build a Minimum Viable Metaverse and why I think it’s a collective effort by builders and entrepreneurs.

With so much hype surrounding the hot topic of 2021, naturally there will come plenty of criticism and questions on what actually is a metaverse.

To define it, I’d break it down into the tangible and intangible elements of it. This will probably be a 8 part post over the course of the next few weeks or months , so if you are building in web3, would love to connect and have a riff!

Firstly, the tangible part, defining what are the constituents that makes up the metaverse. I believe the reports from coinbase, messari and goldman sachs cover it quite comprehensively but ill most likely have a go on sharing my views of the NFT market in a subsequent post.

1)?????Digital Assets

2)?????Currency

3)?????Citizenship and identity

4)?????Virtual and interconnected worlds

5)?????Immersion

Secondly, the intangible elements. This is the part that interests me the most as it shapes the way we interact, progress and transact with the above constituents in the metaverse.

A metaverse that is purely visual in nature…. Is just a game. What you can do in it and how you experience it… is it’s economy

Where blockchain comes in is , what can you do in this environment? How is value created in the metaverse? How does money flow in and out of the metaverse? What is being transacted and how is it being transacted? Why do people want to “live” in the metaverse and what is their incentive for doing so?

For any economy to function, certain elements need to be present

Credit + Assets + Infrastructure + People = Value

1)?????Credit – How does money enter, exit and transact within this virtual world

2)?????Assets – What are the key constituents that has value in this virtual world

3)?????Infrastructure – How are assets accessed, moved and distributed in this virtual world

4)?????People – How do people reside and live amongst their chosen identities and communities

5)?????Value creation – the combination and relationships of the above is what created value for virtual economies

Once we define how value could potentially be created, next we can talk about how to think about designing the framework of the metaverse. To do that, I’d break it down into 3 categories. Each probably requires a post by itself, so ill keep it brief for now.

1)?????Social system, framework and infrastructure

a.??????Looking at social hierarchy, social exchange theory and control theory to define the framework and ruleset of how people will live, progress and operate

b.??????Building the social infrastructure to support the people’s interaction and progression

2)?????Economic systems, framework and infrastructure

a.??????Looking into fiscal and monetary policies of the metaverse and the governance of the economic system

b.??????Building economic infrastructure to enable Trade, transactions and collaborations in the virtual world – if you are a gamer, you probably can draw some parallels to WoW/FFXIV player made economies

3)?????Financial systems, framework and infrastructure

a.??????Building the financial infrastructure to enable the movement of credit and money. Lending, banking, investments and their role in driving the virtual economy

Why am I so obsessed with this?

When I started EVOS, i believed that if everyone was pursuing their dreams and doing things that they love and are passionate about, the world will be a better place. That used to be very idealistic due to the nature of how our real world economy works.

But the one benefit that decentralization brings… is accessibility.

Access to opportunities.

If you are a builder or looking to build in the space, do reach out, would love to just have a chat and share ideas on how we can build a better web3 future.