How Will Money Work in the Metaverse?

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How Will Money Work in the Metaverse?

This post was written by Robin Raskin, and originally published on Observer.com.

In 2020, the global GDP amounted to about 84.97 trillion U.S. dollars. Citibank analysts recently projected that the Web3 economy will reach $13 trillion by 2030. It’s the beginning of an entirely new economy. While the concept of the metaverse (Web3) has been around for a while, the metaverse economy has recently attracted some of the biggest brands, including banks, entertainment companies, global fashion brands, and even governments. 

“This year will be the peak hype cycle,” says 8th Wall’s VP of Product, Tom Emrich, in his  “Trends to Watch for in 2022″” (Emrich’s company was recently purchased by AR giant, Niantic.) “Right now the metaverse is more mirage than miracle,” he says. “The more we get into this, the more we’re going to realize that there’s a lot of work that still needs to be done.”

The Metaverse Construction Site

In broadest terms, the metaverse is a digital twin of the real world. And just like the real world it gets seen from different perspectives. “For me, the metaverse is a digital space where you interact with your friends in a social and gaming type of environment,” said Reggie Fil Amie, former CEO of Nintendo in a speech at SXSW. “I believe that elements of the metaverse already exist.”

Join us for a roundtable conversation on Money and the Metaverse May 19. 

But the billion dollar idea is for the metaverse to be one gigantic immersive and interoperable experience where you do everything you might do in a real world, just virtually. At the moment nascent metaverses are more like nation-states than a universe. Decentraland is based on its own currency called MANA. SAND is the native cryptocurrency of the Sandbox. Roblox uses Robux; Fortnite uses VBux. You get the idea. Others like Superworld and Axie Infinity rely on cryptocurrencies, typically Ethereum, to make purchases.