The famous designer, technology consultant and writer Neal Stephenson is the man who coined the term “Metaverse”. What today is the main character of the economic and technological revolution we’re witnessing, is the result of Stephenson’s visionary genius. In this interview by Alex Zhavoronkov, Stephenson shares his opinions on technology, literature and life.
JPMorgan invests in the metaverse: the blockchain-based world Decentraland hosts a virtual lounge of the bank. This market opportunity is worth $1 trillion. The name of the lounge is Onyx Lounge, and visitors can see a digital portrait of Jamie Dimon there.
The metaverse is becoming more and more popular and successful: entrepreneurs and investors are buying lands and houses in the metaverse, and now also people who have no money to invest are starting to get mortgages to buy their virtual houses.
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, announced that the company is working on bringing Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) to Instagram. Zuckerberg said that he hopes that NFTs will be available for minting in the next few months.
Mastercard wants to expand its business to the Metaverse: the latest trademark applications filed by the company proves that, and Mastercard is not the only giant that wants to exploit the virtual economy.
Covid-19 forced us to reconsider traditional business models, and tourism makes no exception. The Metaverse could become the future of tourism, and museums are already taking the necessary steps to benefit from digital opportunities and events.
Also the investment company Fidelity joins the several brands that entered the metaverse to expand their businesses in the digital world. The new platform, built in Decentraland, will give users more investment opportunities, as well as a virtual place where they can work and socialize.
The prices of real estate in the metaverse are dropping – to about 15% now. But experts say that this is just a deep, and that the metaverse still represents one the main investments of big companies. Is it time to buy?
Even if the growth of the NFT market has been inconsistent, in the first month of 2022 investors have already spent over $37 billion in NFTs. Investments amounted to $40 billion in all 2021.
