Kevin Soltani: CeDeFi in Metaverse and Gaming

During the past few months, I have been researching about?CeDeFi ?use cases in different industries. Many interviews have been conducted with experts in the gaming industry as well as?Metaverse ?and?DeFi ?ecosystem’s pioneers, with the goal of creating a brainstorming database for the future.

CeDeFi is the abbreviation of Centralized-Decentralized Finance and it refers to bringing the functionalities of both systems together. using CeDeFi we can have the privilege of an innovative financial product while it’s meeting the regulations.

In this article, I will share the insights that I have gained by interviewing?Kevin soltani , one of the pioneers in the Blockchain ecosystem who has a lot of experience in Esports and gaming industry. Kevin is the founder of GIMA Group, Inc. ?which is an Investment Advisory in California specializing in Blockchain and Gaming. He used to be the CEO of? Semper Fortis Esports PLC (AQSE:SEMP) ?in London and he is the strategic advisor of some Blockchain-related companies such as Functionland . Kevin has recently started his own Metaverse project which is called? Megavrse . If there is a blockchain summit anywhere in the world, you will probably see him on the stage.

Mahsa:?“How CeDeFi will create the next frontier of Esports and Metaverse? If we can create a Centralized-Decentralized Finance prototype in games, which connects the digital wallet of the gamers and their centralized bank accounts, how will it change the gaming industry?”

Kevin:?“When you look at?DAO ?structures that are totally decentralized, they’re community based; that’s the purpose of a DAO. However, gaming communities are also very DAO structured. gamers like to go toward their inherent game that they like. different titles become more popular than others and in Esports specifically, we have tiers of games. So tier one, two and three mean different things. Tier one sports or multi billion dollar titles all the way down to tier three that could be just hobby titles.

When you look at the Decentralized aspect of adding the DAO structure, which could involve a token and rewarding staking mechanisms for those communities, the only way in my opinion that it could work on a larger, multibillion dollar corporate scale is through something like CeDeFi. because it needs to be a little more centralized. The decentralization of it would then allow gamers who are inherently younger and less experienced in decision making, make decisions for the community, economics and tokenomics that might not otherwise probably be best suited for that group’s decision making.

I do believe that CeDeFi is the better suited route for gaming companies. I’ll give you an example: Epic Games in the next edition of their Grand Theft Auto game six will include things such as web3 innovations, digital wallets and digital assets. If they want to involve a token in their game, It will most likely be their own token; an Epic Games introduced token, GTA token, etc; which in essence is CeDeFi. Because they are centralizing everything. they need to take care of the burn, the token supply and all of the things that come with tokenomics.”

Mahsa:?“How will Metaverse change the human interaction with Media as well as the financial services?”

Kevin:?“Financial services are always looking for a way to engage with younger populations. I think that Robinhood ?did a great job at doing that; because they were able to introduce a gamified trading platform that allowed people to trade stocks and crypto. The average trader now is under 25 years old on Robinhood.

So, we’re creating an extremely financially literate population; But that’s on a digital platform. I believe the Metaverse is going to introduce a more technologically savvy population. But that’s also gamified. Gamifying trading is something that’s been happening over the last two decades. I think financial services and banking are boring. Banking is old; banking is moving away and it’s becoming digital. Digital wallets are a real thing. All of the banks in America and around the world in five years time will have a digital wallet. I will say with 95% confidence that more than 50% of the worldwide banks will have a digital solution. that digital solution can be a digital wallet or a web3 asset and that web three asset can be a Metaverse. different retailers like Pizza Hut have already put their flag in the ground, saying we would like to have a home in the Metaverse.

Regarding social media, It’s just more Ad space. Social media, TikTok specifically, works really well with digital platforms and the Metaverse. I think that it’s very that age demographic, it’s gamified and It speaks their language. so, if they can find a way to work with in-Metaverse Ads; to take that over from traditional Ad companies and make it social media driven; like what Facebook did; giving Ads based on everything in our profile; I think that’s a game changer.

And why not have hubs as well? For example Tiktok might have the largest building inside Metaverse. wouldn’t that make sense? a social company would have a large presence in a social environment. Maybe they’re gonna build their own Metaverse. why wouldn’t they? Why wouldn’t they build a TikTok world and only TokTokers can be there?

So, five years from now, banks will have a digital presence and that could look like a Metaverse as well. Regarding social media, more than 50% are already there. they should just go all in.

Mahsa:?“What would be the reaction of professional game players as well as the non-tech-savvy people to this new Gaming frontier? What if we can actually create a CeDeFi prototype which connects users’ in-game digital wallets to their centralized bank accounts? Would gamers like this or not? Will it encourage normal people to become professional gamers?

Kevin:?“Gamers live online, inside this camera box. nothing’s going to change for them. It’s actually probably less interactive for them right now. In 10 years, maybe when we have goggles, VRs, haptics, gloves and things like that; maybe gamers will be fully immersed in the metaverse.

Gamers are inherently streamers. streamers, stream for 8,9,10 hours a day in front of their camera. They play games, interact, share their screen and do zoom calls. It’s one of the toughest jobs in the world and that’s not cliche to say it drains your energy. What I’m trying to say is that gamers are already there. They need to have places where they can call home. Gamers in the metaverse don’t have a home. Twitch which is a streaming platform and YouTube Live are homes for them and their content. What is the Metaverse going to provide for streamers that are going to come in and provide their streaming in the Metaverse? What does that even mean for them?

Right now educators can get in the Metaverse, literally teach a class and write on a whiteboard. that is very useful. Now when you’re looking at gamers, it’s just gaming. So what’s the difference? Why should they come into a Metaverse to play games? AAA rated games are spending $300 million dollars on marketing alone; let alone Dev! So web3ising games such as GTA (Grand Theft Auto) and Epic Games is the best bet to close the gap for gamers.

If I have a Metaverse project, I’m going to have a hell of a time marketing the project to the gamers because the quality is not AAA rated yet or probably will ever be to compete against?Epic Games . So, gamers need to build the gaming future and that’s going to be from Epic Games, The Activision Blizzard, etc. to do that.

Then the gamers will understand what that digital wallet was; they will understand that they can take Epic coin or Bitcoin and buy a taco in the taco truck in the game; And then 10 minutes later, it’s at the door at their physical house. that needs to be played in the minds of people and I believe only gaming companies have that option; There’s gonna be messages popping up on the gamers’ screen about digital wallets. such as “fill your digital wallet, buy the taco.” and it will be an actual taco that will come to your house. So it’s just APIs and integration. We’re not too far off of that. In other words, corporations will always decide our fate.

Mahsa:?“What are some obstacles regarding banking in Metaverse games which need further research? For sure it will take some years until we reach the full potential of this technology; But what aspects should be researched to accelerate the progress and the mass adoption?”

Kevin:?“It’s tough, because everywhere in the world is different based on regulations. Banking around the world is so different. In America, we’re going to be lagging behind. And it’s again, going to be the game companies that can introduce it first; because it’s their own ecosystem. it’s custodial in their own ecosystem the same way you buy PlayStation credit, Fortnight tokens, or V-Bucks. These are fake because It’s custodial but it’s not cash custody. It’s internet magic money, as we call it in Bitcoin and crypto. So this internet magic money for Fortnight is V-Bucks. They are in-game assets, but they are non-custodial on a financial system; so they can get away with selling billions of dollars of a token. It’s not an actual token. It’s a fake game token; but it has in-game currency value; outside it doesn’t. so that’s the only way it’s going to happen for the foreseeable future; especially as it pertains to games and gaming ecosystems.

In play to earn models, such as Axie infinity, they attend the arena and go on till tomorrow; none of us would have seen that coming. Just because of the amount of users that came and left as quickly as they did. I don’t think anybody would have seen that coming. And no tokenomics would have been able to be written, had you not been able to predict that massive increase of users and then decrease. So you would have just put that in your burn rate, you would have put that in some type of vesting model or token release, etc.

The regulation side is going to take a long time. I think England had a big problem with loot boxes. it became illegal because it’s the securities essentially. Literally kids were buying them. I think it’s very interesting to see how the regulations are gonna go for now. the corporations that have been doing it for a long time are gonna have to adopt their own in-game currencies noncustodially. If anybody even wants to touch custody, it would be banking, and financial institutions wanting to offer that solution.”

About Crypto Diva

I’m already in the Future… Meet me there! Blockchain Technology is my passion and I have dedicated my career and research path to DeFi. My ultimate goal is to encourage more female professionals in the DeFi industry.

As the Marketing Manager of?Paycer Protocol , I’ve got the privilege of being in close contact with CeDeFi experts who are creating the foundations the future financial world. I love to make the impossible possible and i’m willing to go the extra mile for that. Be my companion in my DeFi journey and I’ll show you everything.

Peace & Love,

Your Crypto Diva

Stay in Touch with Me:

Twitter ?|?LinkedIn ?|?English Medium ?|?English YouTube ?|?Instagram ?|?TikTok ?|?Farsi YouTube ?|?Farsi Medium