The metaverse has become a vision for the next generation of the internet, and everyone has a different idea of what it will be. And so a new book hopes to explain the basics of what it will be.
Navigating the Metaverse is a vision for the economy, strategy, and advice that companies can follow as they make their way into the metaverse.
The book was written by metaverse luminaries Cathy Hackl, chief metaverse officer of the Futures Intelligence Group; Dirk Lueth, co-CEO of Upland; and Tommaso DiBartolo, scholar at the University of California at Berkeley. Is it all a bunch of hype? Do we need cryptocurrency and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to get there?
It’s one of multiple books in the works to help explain what companies like Meta, Epic Games, Roblox and more are gunning for as they prepare to move into the next generation of computing.
The authors believe the metaverse is the next technology inflection point akin to the Internet and social media
– creating new commercial opportunities for those willing to pioneer. They believe that the metaverse economy is unique in that decentralized app (dApp) operators, users, and businesses come together to form tokenomics that are mutually beneficial to all. They believe consumers will participate in community and brand-building that will make them into more like partners and creators of user-generated content.
I talked to them about the opportunities and some of the risks around the metaverse, like whether gamers are really going to go for NFTs. I also asked them about the concerns people have about decentralization, the open metaverse vs. closed ecosystems, and some of the hucksterism involved. The book features a forward by Yat Siu, executive chairman of Animoca Brands.
Here’s an edited transcript of the interview.
GamesBeat: How long ago…