The challenge goes beyond the technical interoperability of the next generation of interactive Internet platforms. Today, many virtual worlds commonly referred to as “metaverses” function as closed environments, each with its own communities, digital currencies, economic systems, and incentive structures. “We run the risk of ending up in a situation where things get unnecessarily complicated because we just haven’t coordinated like we currently do,” said Trevett of the Metaverse Standards Forum.
The worst case scenario is that coordination is not possible and multiple standards emerge. Without an industry-wide agreement, other companies could develop their own standards and make the situation worse. This scenario would not only jeopardize the very existence of the metaverse as a universal environment for digital human interaction, but would also bury the decentralized aspect of technology and give the most powerful players undue control over the lives of people. most dedicated users.
What does the future hold?
If the Metaverse becomes a 2.0 reality that allows Big Tech companies to centralize fundamental rules, it could be closer than ever to a digital future. A central point is the question of true digital ownership. When users build and create profitable objects, buildings and even businesses on these virtual platforms, they want to be the sole owners of these assets and not the platforms themselves, which determine the use of the objects.
“If we allow web2 platforms to control and weaponize the metaverse, we risk compromising human agency. The metaverse was not intended to be like Ready Player One, but rather a multiverse with different metaverses interacting with each other without a central authority. We need to make sure the metaverse is truly decentralized,” says economist Marc Arbonés.
Big tech drives innovation
According to him, Big Tech drives technological innovation and creates “walled garden ecosystems” with little or no incentives to establish and maintain interoperability between their ecosystems. Most, but not all, major tech companies have joined the Metaverse Standards Forum and encouraged collaboration, at least on the technical aspects of building an interoperable Metaverse.
For some commentators, like Ryan Gill, founder of the OpenMeta platform, Web3 has the ability to restore the lost values of the first version of the Internet, often referred to as Web1. It refers to the concept of empowering the end user through the decentralization of information, which is generally understood as a noble goal. This power, accrued through the adoption of Web2 business models by a handful of very powerful tech companies, can now be “back to the people” through the use of blockchain and decentralization.
Is centralization reaching its peak?
“It’s not like Facebook or Mark Zuckerberg is the bad guy here. It’s just the fact that we’re reaching the pinnacle of centralization. Anything beyond that point gets increasingly unhealthy. An open metaverse doesn’t is just a way to create a solution rather than making the problem worse,” Gill said in an interview at the Monaco Crypto Summit. The entrepreneur fears that big tech companies, in their quest to preserve shareholder value, will maintain business models that do not put the end user at the center, but use it as a means to generate more profits.
Gill remains pessimistic about the prospect of building an interoperable metaverse from the ground up, spanning all of today’s major tech giants. He anticipates that the open metaverse will be a smaller network than an enterprise virtual world, at least for the first few years, given the heavy use already made of Meta or Google products.
Why Big Tech’s Metaverse Plans Might Fail
Alien World’s McKenna is also a founding member of the Open Metaverse Alliance for Web3, in which several virtual world platforms such as Decentraland, The Sandbox and many others have come together to address interoperability challenges by offering standards and facilitating collaboration. McKenna isn’t worried about a potential risk posed by big tech companies trying to rule and dominate the future of the metaverse by exerting their influence on weaker players.
“It’s really not in their DNA to participate effectively in the metaverse. This does not mean that some of them will not succeed. I wish them good luck, but I don’t think they have a huge competitive advantage over the others,” McKenna points out. She thinks the outdated mindset that big tech companies bring with them can be counterproductive to their plans for success in a decentralized Web3 environment, because “it’s not that easy to change an existing business model to work on the Web3. “I don’t feel threatened by the tech giants. I think they probably feel quite threatened by Web3 and the democratization and open systems that are being created.” It remains to be seen what the future will ultimately bring and what changes will come for people. Here , you can learn more about the metaverse!
This post first appeared on Benzinga: