Pixel Boss LinkedIn Audio — Across the Metaverse
Metaverse & Digital Identity in Web3
Pixel Boss holds regular LinkedIn Audio events featuring a panel with some incredible international Web3 minds. This week we’re answering questions around the Metaverse as part of our mission to demystify Web3 and create open, democratic spaces for anyone to learn. If you couldn’t make the live event, we’ve got you. Check out some of the highlights below.
The Panel
Hosted by Daniel and Ivan from Pixel Boss, our panel featured:
What is the Metaverse?
The definition of the ‘metaverse’ is ephemeral, it keeps changing week in and week out, as new virtual spaces emerge, new applications of Web3 tech, new instances of VR and AR and concepts of digital land. Remco Sikkema says “the first thing I say is that ‘the metaverse doesn’t exist yet’- which confuses a lot of people.” With spaces like Facebook (with its commitment to parent company Meta and widely advertised desire to promote, grow and be a key part of the ‘metaverse’), Roblox, Fortnite, Decentraland, Sandbox, etc all being hailed as ‘the metaverse’ or part of the metaverse, Sikkema believes that these are preliminary to the metaverse, which is still only a concept and not yet full emergent.
Tom Sargent agrees. “The metaverse is in its infancy, which makes it a hard thing to define — much like the internet itself.” If a person asks if the metaverse is digital land, video games, crypto, or virtual space events, the answer to all of these suggestions is “yes” but that doesn’t mean that individually these technologies or concepts are the metaverse. Sargent says that the metaverse is a virtual concept around the idea of the unity of virtual lands and spaces.
Think of this: approach a big global brand in 2002 — Mcdonald's or Nike — and tell them that they need to invest heavily in profiles on other companies' platforms, they’d ask why because all of their online business is through their website. Approach the same brand in 2022 and ask them how much they’d sell their Instagram, Facebook, TikTok accounts for they’d tell you they’re priceless. The concept of the metaverse (and digital lands) is in a similar space and brands that adopt now and learn how to integrate with fans and grow with it will find that the metaverse is the next step from the Facebook page or Instagram profile.
But what does that mean for the average user that isn’t a multibillion-dollar international brand? Sargent suggests you think of the metaverse as a 3D version of a Myspace profile. Rather than a page, it’s an experience. If someone was to visit you in the metaverse, they’d find a room that integrates your video game trophies or LinkedIn recommendations, instead of the song that plays on your profile, people could watch your favourite film streaming in one room or a gallery of your NFTs in the other.
It’s a concept of navigable cyberspace and it’s almost here.
Who are the biggest players in the metaverse today?
The panel agreed that there had been no flawless adoption of metaverse space and technology and potential yet however, there are industries and brands that are leading the way in exploring different ways of interacting and adopting.
Hemilly Rodrigues believes that fashion is paving the way. Having attended multiple virtual fashion weeks and events within the metaverse space, Rodrigues said that New York Fashion Week in the metaverse was incredibly successful, and whilst many of the fashion brands aren’t within the tech space that seeks to define the metaverse, they’re just already in it. Decentraland’s Metaverse Fashion Week and Vogue’s oceanic metaverse are other examples of the fashion industry’s engagement with the metaverse for events.
Outside of events, fashion has also embraced virtual sales, such as Gucci Town within Roblox — where players can play minigames, hang out at the Gucci cafe and purchase Gucci items for their avatar, and of course Nikeland (also within Roblox) that saw over 7 million visitors in 2021.
Outside of fashion, other significant moments in the metaverse have come care of Snoop Dogg’s embracing of digital lands, with his ongoing use of his land in the Sandbox — which has not only grown in value itself but much like the real world market, has helped property values in proximity with one NFT collector spending $450,000 to be Snoop’s virtual neighbour. (Global financial giant HSBC have also purchased land in The Sandbox but it is unclear if they’re close to Snoop’s neighbourhood.) And of course, thanks to the COVID pandemic, most of us have heard about metaverse gigs making up for cancelled real-world gigs (Ariana Grande on Fortnite!) but spaces are emerging for metaverse gigs for bands of all sizes. The scope for events is massive — Mastercard even held a month long Pride celebration at Decentraland.
The panel also recommends checking out Yuga Labs, specifically Otherside, Spatial.io (which has a heavy fashion industry presence but can be used in more pragmatic ways — Sikkema has used it as a platform for metaverse meetings and presentations) and SportsMetaverse
Digital identity — A chance to reinvent yourself?
With a new mode, such as the metaverse, comes the opportunity to engage with identity in a different way. Avatars are key to the metaverse — a representation of you as a person in any space. Some metaverse platforms have localised avatars, however, Ready Player Me provides a cross-world/cross-app avatar program which makes interacting in the metaverse incredibly enjoyable because you can be consistent across different spaces.
Sikkema notes that previously, the motion capture technology required meant that it might cost up to $50K for a proper avatar, but now it’s much easier — you take a photo, create an avatar and you can stream within minutes. Sargent notes that avatars provide opportunities for individuals to identify in whatever manner they choose. Going beyond pronouns and assigned genders but even beyond the limitations of humanity — your avatar might have blue skin or fire for hair — which provides an incredibly interesting space for what identity means in a post-human context, such as a metaverse populated by avatars.
Additionally, Rodrigues noted that avatars provide a safe space — not only for people to test and try identities to see if they’re more comfortable than real life — but a genuinely safe space for people to talk about themselves openly and maintain anonymity and safety in political and personal contexts.
Josh Reiher believes there will be a rise in pseudo-anonymous identities helping people to become comfortable content creators, alongside a rise in AI content such as AI-powered virtual musicians (such as the controversial FN Meka) following in the footsteps of the Gorillaz. The metaverse has the potential to create an economy around the creators as brands with users owning AI-powered avatars that can do the tasks of interacting with fans (check out Luka Doncic’s Luk.ai) and offering the possibility to even sell the avatar/character they’ve created.
Listen to the full recording here: https://youtu.be/U9dSyBrVD3k
Interested in the world of Web3? Check out our other blogs for last week’s panel on DAOs and decentralisation.
ABOUT PIXEL BOSS
Pixel Boss Club is our next-gen private club space in Armadale, Victoria. Equipped with programmable digital screens, it will be used for a combination of traditional and NFT exhibitions and as a hub for the Melbourne blockchain community upon public launch.
Pixel Boss’s Club’s purpose is to be the hub and synergy between the worlds of Web 2.0 and Web 3.0. We see ourselves as Web 2.5.
