The metaverse is also expected to have a strong connection with the real-world economy – and eventually become an extension of it. In other words, the metaverse must have the ability for companies and individuals to participate in economic activity in the same way they do today. Simply put, this means being able to build, trade and invest in products, goods and services.
To a certain extent, this may rely on non-fungible tokens (NFTs) as the foundation for value creation. A NFT is a claim of ownership for a unique, non-interchangeable digital asset that is stored on a blockchain. If NFTs become a commonly adopted tool for trading such goods, they could help accelerate the use of XR ecosystems as places people go to combine elements of the digital economy with their offline lives.
One way to think of this process is how the App Store encouraged businesses to digitize their operations, so that consumers could experience (and pay for) their products and services from any location. This legitimized the idea that retail and digital need not be separate, paving the way for a whole host of use cases that might not initially have made sense.
For example, it is plausible that Peloton, a company producing exercise equipment and video-streamed fitness classes, would not exist without the App Store. Without a widely adopted medium for digital consumer experiences, a service literally grounded in physical activity would have a weak business case for going online.
A successful vision of the metaverse sees transformations like these taking place at an accelerated pace and universal scale.