This is Part 3 - if you missed the previous parts, check out Part 1 and Part 2.
Barbados which is known all over the world for its pristine beaches and a major holiday destination is one of the first countries in the world to roll out its own Central Bank Digital Currency (aka CBDC). You will be surprised to learn how progressive and innovative this island nation is now. Recently, they recently announced that they are building an embassy inside the metaverse. It makes them the first country to establish an official virtual presence. How cool is that?
Smaller countries like Barbados have a limit to how many physical embassies or missions they can support in other countries. By establishing embassies in the metaverse, Barbados makes itself accessible to people in every country around the world.
Very soon visitors to the island, can enter a metaverse, visit the embassy, and go through the process of obtaining a travel visa. The process would be far cheaper and much convenient for both parties when done in the metaverse.
This will be taken up by smaller countries and eventually larger countries will follow suit as well.
Unity, a leading cross-platform gaming engine, recently announced its intent to acquire an early-stage company called Weta Digital. This is a pure metaverse play. The chairman/co-founder of Weta Digital is Sir Peter Jackson. Yes, the same Sir Peter Jackson who directed/produced blockbuster movies such as the Lord of the Rings trilogy and King Kong. As of 2017, Weta Digital has won six Academy Awards for Best Visual Effects: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002), The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003), King Kong (2005), Avatar (2009), and The Jungle Book (2016). Weta Digital’s platform specializes in digital visual effects and 3D animation.
At first look, it may seem like an odd fit for a gaming company like Unity. But Unity knows what they are doing. Weta Digital’s technology can be applied to the creation of new metaverses as well and that has been the key driver behind the acquisition.
Prager Metis is an international accounting and advisory firm with 24 offices worldwide including one in the metaverse. Prager Metis has opened a three-storey virtual property on a digital land it bought in metaverse world Decenterland for $35,000. It plans to advise clients on tax and accounting issues and find new clients all via its virtual avatar. CEO Glenn Friedman told the Wall Street Journal, “If the Metaverse is going to replace the Internet, then certainly business is going to use it.”
Prager Metis is not the only accounting firm planning to do business in the metaverse. Last December, PWC announced it had bought virtual real estate in another popular metaverse world called the Sandbox.
I think 2022 will be a banner year where we will continue to see an acceleration in the development of both augmented and virtual worlds. Companies like Sandbox, Decentraland, Axie Infinity, Ecomi, GreenPark Sports, Superworld, Meta Platforms (Facebook), and many more will be competing in the race to create completely virtual worlds for us to work, play, shop, gamble, and socialize in.
Even Zoom and similar platforms will further augment their services with graphic overlays. It won’t just be for collaboration but for the representation of participants as we want to be presented. This will happen in the form of avatars. Some will be completely natural representations of us derived from capturing video in a variety of settings and outfits. This will enable us to take zoom calls early in the morning, unshaven, in our pajamas, and our hair all in a mess.
With the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and computer vision (CV), our facial expressions, head movement, and speech will be captured in real-time. And these will be used as the input for our life-like avatar who will be dapper and ready for prime time.
In the metaverse, the likely default for our avatar will be some desired caricature of ourselves. Most will likely have a few, depending on the metaverse you are hanging out in.
This will lead to another business model. What will our Avatar’s be wearing? Fashion in the form of non-fungible tokens in the world of web 3 has become a big talking point in the last few months. It is a sub-sector of the NFT market that is exploding given all of the investment happening in metaverses and avatar-related technology.
Big brands like Nike, Gucci, and Dolce & Gabbana are piling on. Very interesting collaborations between hot designers and brands are happening left and right. There is much more to metaverse but think I have given you a quick glimpse and painted broad strokes of what life can be in the coming years.
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Abraham George is a seasoned investment manager with more than 40 years of experience in trading & investment and multi-billion dollar portfolio management spanning diverse environments like banks (HSBC, ADCB), sovereign wealth fund (ADIA), a royal family office and a hedge fund. Currently, he is setting up a hedge fund where foreign citizens can invest in Indian growth stocks like Tanla operating in hyper-growth markets like CPaaS.