Both NFTs (non-fungible tokens) and Metaverse form the most hyped topics in the current scenario. Both have generated a lot of media buzz and interest and struck up huge business potential. Let’s look at both these terms and navigate through the developing world of NFTs and Metaverse.
What is the Metaverse?
The Metaverse is a post-reality universe that blends the digital virtual worlds and physical reality in a persistent and continual multiuser environment. The first mention of the term ‘metaverse’ was in 1992 in Neal Stephenson’s science fiction novel, which went by the name Snow Crash. The modern Metaverse is different from Neal’s initial version.
The Metaverse is a hypothetical iteration of the internet and converges the VR (virtual reality) and AR (augmented reality) technologies. This enables multimodal interactions with virtual environments, digital items, and people. One can enter the Metaverse utilizing a VR headset. In this virtual world, users have a customizable avatar, a home, and an environment with many spaces to visit. Users can interact with each other, work, play, and do almost all activities they would do in their regular everyday lives. Everything is accessible and connected.
What are NFTs
Non-fungible tokens or NFTs are tokens that are 100% unique. These are like ownership certificates existing on the blockchain. These are created by the process of minting, in which an ownership and originality certificate is generated, usually via Ethereum or other smart contract-based protocols.
NFTs are digital assets and are not easy to steal and copy. NFTs can be copied innumerable times, but as digital assets, they are meant to provide an unbiased and neutral confirmation of its owner.
NFTs in the Metaverse
NFTs tokenize the intangible or digital assets and represent the tokenized versions of assets like land and buildings in the Metaverse. The underlying technology of NFTs, i.e., blockchain, along with NFTs themselves, plays a critical role in developing the Metaverse.
NFTs have several diverse use cases in the metaverse. They integrate with the existing AR and VR technology in the Metaverse and regulate the whole metaverse economy. Let’s take a look at how NFTs transform the metaverse space:
Virtual Marketplace
NFTs can be indicative of any ownership in the Metaverse. NFTs can be in-game assets, real estate properties, virtual avatars, and anything on the Metaverse. The metaverse-based NFT marketplace allows its users to explore and select the product of their choice just like we do in real life. A user’s avatar in the Metaverse is synonymous with our original selves in real life.
Art Gallery
Metaverse, with the confluence of VR/AR, 3D modelling and spatial technologies, forms an excellent platform for viewing art. It is possible to view any piece of artwork or sculpture from every nook and corner and see the details from every angle. It is different from a conventional marketplace as the prices are already set and not negotiated. But collectors can take part in virtual auctions where they can bid their prices for a particular artwork. Also, the assets are all of one type, and the atmosphere is more relaxed.
Several museums are currently presenting NFT artwork in metaverses like Cryptovoxels. It hosts “art galleries and museums, including FC Francisco Carolinum Linz in Austria and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art,” according to The Art Newspaper.
New Frontiers
Real estate forms a very lucrative industry to work in, in both the physical world and the Metaverse. Here real estate refers to digital land and territories being sold partially or completely for further development by the user. An example is Decentraland, a 3D virtual area where plots are sold as NFTs. This digital region has its own digital currency and is expected to form a part of the Metaverse later in 2022.
NFT Marketing in the Metaverse
Businesses can leverage NFTs and their various upsides into the Metaverse. These enterprises can trade virtual products and interact with each other by employing their avatars, just like in real life, thus, providing an unmatched social experience.
Worldwide corporations employ NFTs and virtual products to reach a wider audience. Industries like gaming attract users from all over the world, and as such, NFT marketing in such gaming metaverses can help the brands gain popularity and effectively engage with potential customers.
The transfer of ownership regulated via NFT technology is easy and immutable. For gaming, NFTs act as simpler means to trade the in-game assets. NFTs are powered by blockchain technology and are non-fungible. Thus, avatars or digital assets, once NFT-tokenized, cannot be replicated or counterfeited. This maintains a digital scarcity in the Metaverse.
The ever-growing expansion of the Metaverse brings in more possibilities for leveraging NFTs into the virtual world. The numerous advantages and attraction of the NFTs have made them into an intangible part of the Metaverse. This collaboration is bound to reap benefits as web3 functionalities unfold in the coming years.
