Virtual Worlds and Virtual Economies

Of course, not everyone has the financial foundation to become a “time millionaire” or to start earning their living in the metaverse. Digital economies are nascent and not yet robust enough to support billions of digital workers. These same trends are powering the creator economy, remote work, freelancing; they are broader than Axie and its counte... See more

The virtual economy is the newest example of many technoogies converging to facilitate the emergence of a new labor market. Young people, unable or nwilling to access the upper echelons of traditional careers, are finding ways to earn income and build a reputation through novel activities unique to virtual spaces.

The Virtual Economy will provide an opportunity for people to smooth or augment their real-world income through a non-native economic system. This has profound implications for global wealth and income inequality.

The Virtual Economy is an opportunity to short-circuit that system failure. It is an environment where entrepreneurs, prospectors and skilled agents can generate significant wealth very quickly without the need for startup capital. Esports players, streamers, skin designers, level boosters are just some examples of the creative new ways that people... See more

Something similar is currently happening in the virtual world. Online scarcity is possible. Virtual land can be valuable if it provides exclusive access to a unique flow of economic opportunities — in the same way that a domain name can be valuable. As such, virtual land can indeed be scarce. But the fundamentals are tough to read, the number of ne... See more

But in truth, the “rails” of the “virtual economy” today are much worse than those of the “real world.” They’re more expensive, cumbersome, and slow to change.

More people, increasingly dissatisfied by these corporate offerings, are compelled into creating their own virtual worlds. The future of the internet, as some have theorized, might consist of micro-communities, enclosed worlds with fewer but more engaged members. Through video games like Minecraft and collaborative worldbuilding projects, which are... See more