Can you have a digital world without NFTs and cryptocurrency? Yes, you can, it’s been proven for decades, but ex-Amazon exec Matthew Ball believes one can not exist without the other.
Ex-Amazon exec Matthew Ball on Metaverses
In an interview with Decrypt for his upcoming book, The Metaverse: And How It Will Revolutionize Everything, Ball claimed that metaverses need crypto and NFTs. In the interview, the ex-Amazon exec claimed that is unattainable to have one without the other.
Ball explains that the nature of Metaverse comes from gaming, and that gamers want true ownership over their virtual assets. He says, “Gamers have long wanted some form of interoperability, of true ownership of their virtual goods. The challenge has been no one can figure out the systems they will use.”
However, in the real world, gamers have fought against NFTs in gaming experiences. For example, French publisher Ubisoft has introduced NFTs to no success, and games like Stalker 2 have removed plans for the technology after heavy backlash.
Nevertheless, Ball believes that NFTs are the most “viable a solution for virtual goods [as] we’ve seen.” This is despite the fact that virtual playing cards, weapon and character skins and more have existed, and succeeded, long before NFTs were even conceived.
Ball does acknowledge gamers’ ire towards NFTs, mostly due to other predatory business practices in games. He says: “[Gamers] feel marginalized, they feel disrespected, and they’re used to micro-transactions proliferating and ruining their games.”
Read More: Minecraft bans NFTs after multiple schemes take advantage of the survival game
The Metaverse can’t survive with corporations
One idea that the ex-Amazon exec discussed that we agree with us the idea that The Metaverse can’t exist as a corporation-run idea. Similar to The Internet, the Metaverse has to be an open-source, free platform that isn’t governed by one corporation… we’re talking about you, Meta.
Ball explained that even smaller projects like Sandbox and Decentraland will not be part of the eventual Metaverse. Instead, they’re just prototypes for what will eventually occur.
Ball explained that the virtual world should let users “fight against trillion-dollar balance sheets” instead of being dependant on them. But would trillion dollar companies let that happen? Judging from the last year, no.