The metaverse builds on blockchain's possibilities and the borderless world guaranteed by cryptocurrencies. It extends the physical, taking activities to the digital realm and into the interactive virtual world. In 2021, metaverses were fused with play-to-earn (P2E) blockchain games, introducing new and better experiences. Besides, it became normal for established corporations to participate, spending millions to purchase digital land. Although virtual real estate can't be visited physically, its provenance and security are the main allure. Digital land is sold as NFTs, secured by public ledgers such as Ethereum, existing as forgery-free digital certificates.
Bloomberg analysts predict the metaverse market to be worth over $800 billion by 2024, primarily driven by the technology industry's participation. As developers get to work, we shall receive expert insights from Temerlan Kai, Co-founder & CEO of iDOS GAMES.
What a year 2021 has been. From NFTs to GameFi, we now have metaverses and play-to-earn blockchain games. Was this expected?
Answer: I don't think the emergence of metaverse and blockchain games that people can play to generate income was anything unpredictable. After all, humanity has always strived to go beyond the boundaries of the world we are used to, which drove scientific progress. So with the emergence of metaverses, we have been striving for them for a long time, because even in the second half of the last century, many sci-fi writers and directors described the existence of virtual worlds and dimensions, in which people also live as in the real one. It's just a matter of technological capabilities, and technological capabilities are a matter of time, sooner or later the virtual world and the real world will be one, and this is actually not as bad as many people think.
As for the creation of blockchain games with the possibility of crypto, it is even more obvious here. Gamers have always sought to somehow monetize their time spent in the game, selling advanced accounts, selling rare equipment or skins, and so on. Everyone wants the time spent playing the game not to be wasted and to bring some benefit, in addition to emotional relief. And thanks to blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies, this has become possible. Therefore, yes, I believe that all this was expected and for a long time.
How would you define the metaverse and its link to blockchain gaming?
Answer: It just so happened that the concept of meta-universes got its start precisely thanks to video games, where virtual reality was observed or the real life of a person was simulated. Therefore, I think it is quite logical that games are now the closest thing to understanding the metaverse. After all, they allow you to do what traditional games cannot do, namely, to provide decentralization and transparency. And this is what I believe will be one of the main components not only of the metaverse, but also of web 3.
Some experts say the metaverse and P2E heavily disrupt the internet. Are they right?
Answer: I believe so. These are quite disruptive technologies, and I am quite sure that the growing popularity of the metaverse and p2E projects on the blockchain directly contributes to digital decentralization and the approach of the emergence of Web 3.0.
Bloomberg analysts predict the metaverse will be worth $800 billion by 2024. A parallel study says the metaverse will grow at a 41.7% CAGR from 2021 to 2030. Are these figures realistic, or are they being too optimistic?
Answer: I am not sure how optimistic these numbers are, but doing some kind of fundamental analysis of the industry, I see that the topic of metaverses is now at the very beginning of its journey and is waiting for steady growth. I can't talk about exact numbers, but I think the very fact that such large market giants as Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon, Ubisoft, Nike, Adidas etc. have turned their gaze in this direction says a lot about the metaverse industry in near future. Of course, I would only be glad if these numbers from analysts turned out to be true.
Was the world waiting for Facebook to rebrand to Meta and declare their mission of building a metaverse?
Answer: It seems to me that the last thing people expected such a step was from Facebook. Still, the reputation of the company, like that of Mark Zuckerberg himself, has been shaded over the past few years by problems with the sale and use of user personal data, the takeover of any smaller tech companies, and a focus solely on revenue growth.
Of course, we must admit that it was the rebranding of FB in Meta that gave a strong impact on the popularization of the technology of the metaverse, however, for me personally, FB is not a company that I would like to see as the flagship of the industry.
In your opinion, would you say Ethereum, being the home of DeFi and NFTs, is ready for the metaverse? Minting fees are prohibitive.
Answer: Yes, high transaction fees are Ethereum's biggest problem. And I sincerely believe that the developers will be able to solve this problem with the transition to protocol 2.0. Otherwise, in my opinion, Ethereum will slowly but surely lose the bulk of projects not only in the metaverse segment but also in the DeFi.
Do you think scaling concerns and code stability advised Ubisoft's decision to launch its metaverse on Tezos alongside Ghost Recon: Breakpoint?
Answer: I think yes, definitely. Although the lion's share of current defy and gamefi projects are still on the Ethereum network, this does not mean that other networks are worse. The Tezos blockchain, in my opinion, is an excellent option for deploying new projects in the field of NTF and GameFay when compared with the current version of Ethereum, but if, as the development team says, Ethereum 2.0 really solves the network scalability problems, then I think it will be very difficult to surpass Buterin's blockchain.
Talking of Ubisoft and pivoting to NFTs, what will you say about the cold criticism of Ubisoft's decision? Are gamers and developers not ready for a P2E model?
Answer: As you have noticed, traditional gamers today often express dissatisfaction and criticism when one or another high-profile brand in the gaming industry announces the introduction of NFT or p2e components. I fully understand their feelings, since I am a gamer myself and I have titles and franchises that I have a special love for.
And when such companies as Ubisoft or EA, for example, which are known for their thirst for more profit, at the cost of stamping low-quality games, declare that now they will implement and sell NFTs, then I will also be unhappy because these guys are not using blockchain technologies for the purpose of to make the industry more decentralized or to give players the opportunity to generate income from games, but solely for their own purposes of further enrichment. And I think this is the wrong approach and contradicts the very idea of blockchain.
How is iDOS Games' approach to the metaverse and P2E?
Answer: You know, many people understand the word metaverse as something related to virtual reality, where we put on VR glasses and live, work, sleep, rest online, in general, we replace our life with virtual one. However, in iDos Games, we understand the word metaverse differently. For us, the metaverse is a single decentralized ecosystem linked by a common community and common values. It is this idea of the metaverse that we are trying to implement in iDos Games.
We create 5 mobile games in which people can not only have fun playing and communicating with their friends or random people, but also have the opportunity to receive income from this, winning crypto tokens and NFTs. All our games will be linked by a single iDos Games Token (IGT) and one common economy of this token. Metaverse participants and IGT holders can decide for themselves how to develop the project and in which direction to move. In addition, we give our community the opportunity to create NFTs themselves and receive income from them when selling and reselling on our in-game marketplace, thus even not avid gamers can become part of our community.
ShootGun; how is it different from other blockchain games?
Answer: Indeed, the ShootGun differs from current p2e games. Firstly, it is free-to-play, as well as all our games. This means that you do not need to buy our token, buy the game itself or a gaming character to start playing. It's simple - download it to your mobile, start playing and earn tokens. That's all it takes.
Secondly, our game is very simple, and at the start, it does not require any crypto wallet, or character minting and other things that are known only to a person with experience in crypto. For an ordinary gamer, these are unnecessary difficulties on the way to the gaming process, so we remove these difficulties at the start of the game so that the player can first enjoy the game itself, and only then, after earning something, he began to study all the crypto components necessary for him to participate in the metaverse.
And thirdly, we focus on mobile gaming, while most of the existing crypto games are available only in the browser version and require a laptop or PC. But today everyone has a mobile phone and it allows you to play absolutely everywhere, your metaverse is always with you in your pocket. And besides, mobile gaming today accounts for the largest share of gamers than other platforms.
Disclaimer:
The author does not have any vested interest in the projects mentioned above.
The opinions in this article belong to the author alone. Nothing in this article constitutes investment advice. Please conduct your own thorough research before making any investment decisions.