Why the Metaverse is pegged to become a $800 Billion market by 2024

Summary: Everything known in the physical world will soon be experienced as a digital 3D twin in the metaverse. The metaverse will interact with the real world via NFTs in countless unpredictable ways. NFTs allows users to own, control, and monetise their digital content, this is how digital content is transformed to valuable digital assets. Due to the World Economic Forum, 70% of all economic value created will be derived from digitally enabled platforms within the next decade. A big driver will be the metaverse and it’s pegged to become a USD 800 billion market by 2024.

There’s a new tech battle in town.

Forget the space race between Musk, Bezos, and their billionaire friends. The new tech battle is between established tech giants (Team Centralised) and new disruptive Web 3.0 players (Team De-Centralised).

So, what are they fighting for?

Well, due to the World Economic Forum, 70% of all economic value created will be derived from digitally enabled platforms within the next decade. A big driver will be the metaverse and it’s pegged to become a USD 800 billion market by 2024.

Team Centralised vs. Team De-Centralised

Team Centralised, represented by established tech giants such as Apple, Epic Games, Google, Nvidia, Meta, Microsoft and Tencent are fighting on different battlefields to set the metaverse’s standards for tomorrow. The internet today is already dominated by these centralised players, and data mining has turned more profitable than oil. It’s big business to collect and monetise data from users on today’s internet.

Team De-Centralised, represented by a cohort of new disruptive Web 3.0 players, is having a complete opposite approach. They collaborate to ensure privacy in new digital infrastructures and use blockchain and peer-to-peer technologies to develop new sophisticated solutions within primarily decentralised finance (DeFi), games and entertainment.

The weapons between the fighting parties are everything from wearables such as VR/XR headsets and glasses to NFTs and cryptocurrencies combined with omniverse chips and crazy amounts of computing power.

What’s the Metaverse?

In short, it’s about how we experience tomorrows interactive and virtual 3D internet.

The metaverse experience can be provided by any player from Team Centralised or Team De-Centralised (Web 3.0). It’s a merge between our physical world and a variety of virtual worlds, all depending on the experience provider.

A great introduction to the metaverse can be found in Steven Spielbergs movie "Ready Player One" (2018) based on Ernest Cline's science fiction novel of the same name. It shows a dystopian near future (2045), where everything in life is mixed with virtual reality, and where a few centralised players are trying to take control of everyones lives.

Some experts say we "enter" the metaverse with goggles or other devices to create a seamless experience of extended reality, other says we don’t necessarily need special VR/XR gear to experience the metaverse.?

For this cohort, any tablet, smartphone, or connected device can serve as sufficient gateway to new virtual worlds.

The metaverse content is as diverse as our current internet, the game changer is how we experience and interact with the content. It can be everything from education to social networks, entertainment, fashion, gaming, dating, partying, you name it:

Everything known in the physical world, can now be experienced as a “digital 3D twin” in the metaverse. It’s built on a wide range of technologies, including virtual and augmented reality, mixed reality, and social media.

How Fast will the Metaverse Grow?

The metaverse is expected to grow exponentially over time, and some lessons can be derived from already known virtual worlds, increased internet speed and how fast users were activated:

• Twenty years ago, “EverQuest” had a half million subscribers at its peak
• Fifteen years ago, “World of Warcraft” had 12 million subscribers at its peak
• Today, “Roblox” have around 200 million active monthly users

Every kid, who have tried to play Roblox (or Fortnite) is familiar to the concept of skins or other digital assets in games. These skins are small upgrades to the underlying product. It’s a few bucks here and a few bucks there. But all these additional bucks are big business in the gaming industry, and the same will happen in the metaverse.

Today, you cannot transfer skins or other digital assets between games provided by Team Centralised. But in the metaverse it will be possible to transfer any kind of digital assets between different virtual worlds, especially if they are provided by Team De-Centralised (Web 3.0).

The perfect tool to transfer digital assets is smart contracts known as NFTs. By 2025 the NFT market is expected to reach a market cap of more than USD 80 billion.

When you own an NFT, you are the one in control of that specific right. You can sell it or store it as you want. It’s your contract, your property, and your ownership is registered digitally on a distributed ledger (blockchain).

How to use NFTs in the Metaverse

NFTs in the Metaverse are like digital keys that can open and activate content.

It can be traditional entertainment options like games, music, and movies, but it can also be advanced 3D-based travel options and education.

Why not buy an NFT, that gives you access to a virtual space tour in collaboration with NASA? Why not learn about the periodic table in a virtual classroom, where you can mix everything and make virtual explosives?

NFTs are smart contracts and the coding opportunities for the contract are unlimited.

They can be self-executing, fully automated, and they can be coded to be upgradeable. Such NFTs can evolve and mutate over time, they are not static. By using an upgradeable NFT, the content creator can retain control of any spin-off products and even profit of it.

Again and again for every upgrade that sells in the market.

The metaverse can interact with the real world via NFTs in countless unpredictable ways, because the metaverse is all about the merge between virtual and physical worlds. NFTs allows users to own, control, and monetise their digital content, this is how digital content can be converted to valuable digital assets.

The global NFT market is expected to reach a value of USD 122.43 billion by 2028, at a CAGR of 34.10% over the forecast period (2022 - 2028).

That's why the metaverse and the development of NFTs is an area to follow closely.

Dr. Jeppe R. Stokholm is a lawyer and investor based in Zürich. He is founder of Stokholm Ventures, a Swiss entity specialised in new disruptive technologies (www.stokholmventures.com). Please do not hesitate to reach out, if you have any questions or comments to the above.