Virtual Worlds and Virtual Economies

Social networking as we know it relies on content consumed in the past tense. Photos, videos, tweets, are all a part of our lives that are captured first and then shared or consumed by others afterwards. Gaming, on the other hand, is inherently a real-time social experience, whether it is with friends playing together online or streamers broadcasti... See more

In theory, the virtual world should have “better” payment rails than the “real world.” After all, its economy primarily involves goods that only exist virtually, which are bought via purely digital (and thus low marginal cost) transactions, and are, for the most part, $5–100 each. This economy is also large. Roughly $54B was spent on virtual goods,... See more

Now that digital ownership is exploding by way of NFTs, people are seeing bigger financial and status opportunities online than offline. This is the biggest catalyst for living online we’ve seen to date. Individuals are building status and identity in the virtual world the way that they do in the physical world. Why own a Gucci bag to impress a few... See more

Consider today’s most popular Metaverse-like experiences, such as Fortnite or Roblox. While these platforms succeed through incredible creative achievements, it’s important to recognize that their underlying ideas are far from new — they’re just newly possible.