The Metaverse, the term coined to describe the convergence of virtual and physical worlds, has the potential to generate staggering revenue in the near future. But how can this value be created and monetised?
Robert Rice, CEO of Transmira, believes that the key lies in creating useful connections between the Metaverse and the real world, and utilising blockchain technology to assign real-world value to virtual objects.
Transmira’s approach, Omniscape, aims to provide a bridge between the two worlds by offering digital twins of real-world locations, virtual goods that can be exchanged for real-world benefits, and other interactive experiences that allow users to engage with the Metaverse in a meaningful way.
Creating useful interaction between the physical world and the Metaverse
For Rice, the discussion about what technologies should define the Metaverse – should it be AR, VR, IoT, AI, blockchain, MR or XR – is not target-oriented.
In Omniscape it can be all of this, but the primary concern is whether the Metaverse is relevant to the user or not. Omniscape is not an isolated virtual world, but connects the virtual world with the real world. Omniscape, therefore, tries to provide connections between the Metaverse and the real world by being a useful link between both worlds.
As example, he mentions that during an event like the Southern California Blockchain Summit, people should be able to get information about the people they are meeting or about the speakers on stage. This would especially be useful for people who are not physically able to attend an event. Instead of following a mere live stream of an event, they could experience it through a digital twin of the environment and witnessing all talks and presentations. Omniscape is about creating useful interactions between the physical and virtual worlds.
Where the value lies for Metaverse applications
Rice moves on to speak about monetary projections many market observers make. He says that estimates range from $8 to $13 trillion in revenue in less than a decade.
But how would one be able to create this value in the Metaverse? According to Rice, the key is utility, monetisation, and transfer of value, which can be achieved through the use of blockchain.
Transmira is focused on bridging the gap between the real world and the Metaverse in order to create value for businesses, brands, and content creators. An example given is the use of virtual goods, where a physical item in the real world, such as a cup of coffee, is connected to a corresponding item in the virtual world through tokenisation on blockchain.
This allows for a transfer of value, where the virtual item can be exchanged for a real-world benefit, such as a free coffee. In the style of the popular application Pokémon Go, this could lead to people actively engaging with a brand or a product – and not just passively as with likes or impressions.
The appeal of the Metaverse
The question then remained what would be the appeal for users to get on the Metaverse. Rice references the attractiveness of creating 3D digital twins before for locations and venues. But 3D digital twins with photo realistic quality could be made for entire cities, which would allow users to explore the locations and even to engage with other avatars as if they were in the actual location. This way it would allow users to interact in very specific ways. Rice points out that this could be for example a good use case for people that would like to learn a new language or that would like to visit a specific city without having the possibility of physically going there.
Ensuring the uniqueness of digital objects – how does that work?
A problem that Transmira was facing when creating digital objects that could be redeemed in real life was the issue of copying digital objects in a cybercriminal context. Rice gives the example of a virtual Tesla that a finder in the Metaverse could redeem for a real car. In this scenario, enabling hackers to create digital copies could lead to financial disaster for the organiser. So Transmira set out to find a good technical solution to this problem:
‘We realised that blockchain is the way to do this. It’s not so much about cryptocurrency, but more about blockchain technology. And in this particular context, it solves a lot of problems that I was talking about in terms of being able to store that value, transfer it and keep things where we know that it really can’t be copied. But then the next question came up, which blockchain do we prefer? There’s a lot out there. Anybody paying attention to this knows there’s a new one every day and they all compete against each other. So we spent a good bit of time doing the technical business evaluation, and we realised that BSV blockchain is the only one that actually met all of our criteria.’
Rice adds that they chose BSV due to its speed, scalability, cost, security, and ease of use. He’s found the community of developers around the Bitcoin ecosystem to be outstanding, and he encourages others to evaluate the technical details and fundamentals themselves before making a decision. He also mentions that this technology is fundamental for the future of commerce in the Metaverse.
Transmira is currently in a funding phase and is looking for fundraising as well as strategic partners and customers. If you want to find out more about the company, visit their websites Transmira.com and Omniscape.com.
Want to gain more in-depth knowledge? Get our eBooks about the Metaverse or the Fallacy of private, permissioned blockchains
Both topics addressed here are also the subject of more in-depth eBooks from BSV blockchain. If you are interested in the Metaverse, you should check out the book ‘Your introduction to the Metaverse’.
This eBook investigates the opportunities of the Metaverse:
- The potential of an immersive world for big tech, multimedia software, gaming, art, entertainment, communications, advertising and (insert your industry + vertical)
- What enterprise leaders should know and do about the Metaverse
- What government officials should know and do about the Metaverse?
- What developers should know and do about the Metaverse
If, similar to Transmira, you are faced with the decision of which blockchain is right for you and are considering a private, permissioned blockchain, we strongly recommend reading the book ‘The fallacy of private, permissioned blockchains’.
This eBook discusses misconceptions and pitfalls when choosing a private and permissioned blockchain for business use cases and a better alternative:
- The complex problem of the Internet’s walled gardens
- A simple solution: a native digital cash system for the Internet
- Lost in translation: public blockchain
- Bitcoin’s security depends on its ledger being public
- The reality of permissioned blockchain for enterprise and government
- Finding the truth via public blockchain