In case you just reached this article, just take only one minute to read this small introduction before you leave and skip the rest if time is of the essence. It will be valuable to know all this, I assure you.
I wrote an article about Metaverse previously (Understanding the Metaverse), but probably nobody read it fully. Otherwise, readers would have noticed the part on what Facebook exactly thinks of its users and how much it values our privacy or specifically us as human beings.
I'm going to republish this conversation since it contains all the information every internet user needs to know about Facebook:
Mark: I have over 4,000 emails, pictures, addresses, SNS
-What? How’d you manage that one?
Mark: People just submitted it. I don’t know why.
Mark: They “trust me”
Mark: Dumb f*cks.
Source: Business Insider
Anyway, be my guest, or be Zuckerberg's guest and proceed with handing out all your thoughts and private information to Mark Zuckerberg. He loves to peek into our personal affairs and enjoys trading our vulnerabilities to advertisers, so they can sell us personalized ads. Not to include the fact this private information is usually reaching the hands of scammers.
Moreover, Zuck always enjoys putting Facebook users in behavioral tests, attempting to emotionally control us, treating people like lab rats, and aiming to influence general mood and behavior.
One test reduced users' exposure to their friends' "positive emotional content", resulting in fewer positive posts of their own. Another test reduced exposure to "negative emotional content" and the opposite happened.
Source: The Guardian
Facebook has been violating core principles, human rights, and individual freedoms for more than a decade. Do we need a reminder?
Manipulation of Social Media Users
Not that Twitter or other social media are not susceptible to similar behavior, although, nobody cares for Twitter, I don't see this platform lasting. One day we will wake up finding it irrelevant and remember it as the next MySpace. Facebook is the real threat. This pile of debris website (Facebook) survived more than it should have and sticks with the intense manipulation of its user base.
The first thing I've learned back in (about) 2005, was to set up an extension on Firefox that had one basic task. Find and remove any Facebook invasive cookies and block Facebook completely. You know, Facebook doesn't require us to log in or have an account to keep spying. It has a permanent cookie tracking your every movement while online. It just takes one visit to this website to download the tracking cookie and begin collecting personal information.
Of course, the same invasion of privacy became dominant and legal and was later performed by almost every website, so Facebook was just a pioneer in this invasive technique.
And you know what, Zuckerberg is right on the last part, calling everyone trusting him with such information a "dumb f..k".
What happened was Facebook rapidly expanded and reached billions in userbase, as oblivious internet users felt content to allow a private company to violate their privacy. This rise of Facebook’s online dominance was also close to the tipping point of the most irresponsible and euphoric moment in financial history, right before the greatest economic collapse of the 21st century.
And now, we have Meta.
A Trustless Environment is a Requirement for any Metaverse
Source: Pixabay
When transacting via the traditional banking establishment, trust is always required. We put our money in the bank and expect the bank to hold their part of this deal. In return, the bank will offer part of our deposits (~90% and more) for lending purposes.
We can trust our bank until the bank goes bankrupt. Or until we are left stranded at an airport since the transaction gets rejected by the centralized authorization system. The bank is in control of our funds. We trust them they will keep them safe and available upon request. But this is not always the case. Trust in banks has collapsed, especially since 2008.
Secondly, we have to trust the government and Central Bank that issues this money. We trust the system and have expectations that there won't be excessive printing that will devalue our money in the bank. We trust the government that it will support the economy at times of need by printing more money.
Cryptocurrencies are a way out of this mess. With fixed supply and inflation limitations at strict or zero inflation levels, they provide an alternative to the failures of the traditional banking system.
With the internet, we also trust websites like social media with our information. We trust Zuckerberg will not sell our private data. Yet this is exactly the opposite of what is happening.
Moreover, these platforms are subject to government intervention and restriction. There is simply no freedom of expression. Anything a powerful government doesn't approve will be susceptible to censorship.
Gaming is not different but is never discussed seriously under this scope. However, the Metaverse is not just about gaming. The gaming factor is there, but there will be a lot more that will apply. Daily life could change for humanity, and gaming will only be a small part of any Metaverse.
A 3D world, like a Metaverse, should be free from interventions and government control.
A trustless environment would mean the user of this Metaverse will be in control and free to roam without the need to trust the host of this environment. Applying a trustless environment requires decentralized networks.
Any Metaverse will be a digital economy. Even if there will be just one Metaverse, it will require a secure database and transactions system without trust requirements.
A trustless environment is required, and we already have many available.
Importance of Cryptocurrencies and NFTs in a Metaverse
Cryptocurrencies mostly contain features of decentralized, permissionless, and trustless networks. The Metaverse could run on centralized servers since there is no blockchain efficient enough to sustain a whole 3D VR/AR world. Let alone a single blockchain game for the time being.
Each action of an avatar does not need to be recorded on a blockchain, however, the financial transactions will require decentralized blockchain networks to proceed.
Each digital item should belong to the user, otherwise, the 3D worlds are confined and would serve no purpose. NFTs are the top technology that provides proof of ownership for digital assets and could soon expand into real-life assets as well.
The world is changing rapidly and the individual rights to digital assets under smart contracts open up a whole new world of endless possibilities. There is no individual company that can compete against a Free Metaverse.
In Conclusion
Yet, cryptocurrencies have a few disadvantages to the banking sector, with the demand for personal security being something many find to require so many steps that make it inefficient.
For those understanding and researching cryptocurrencies, it is clear the pros outweigh the cons when it comes to using them in a suggested Metaverse.
The real question is what the public wants. A Metaverse under the control of one company, with no rights at all or one that gives absolute freedom of choice and economic rights?
Facebook today offers zero value in any field I can think of and has no other purpose than selling private data and performing mass behavioral tests on its users. Facebook brings zero value (perhaps even negative) to societies, and "Meta" won't be different.
Completely ignoring the privacy issues, though, is a Metaverse with no individual ownership rights the best approach? Do we want to use a digital economy without any access to digital rights? I guess nobody wants that.
Ready Player One is a possible Metaverse we will definitely find in the future. It has been 20 years since the Internet expanded and reached billions. It is still undeveloped and in a crude form, though. And still, some forces just shape it according to their whims, not allowing it to materialize to its full potential.
Cryptocurrencies are an antidote to the corrupt banking system and aim to eradicate its wrongdoings.
Instead of a MetaVerse, we should be aiming for a CryptoVerse.
A 3D universe combining all available technologies and resources, running on economic freedom standards and decentralized, censorship-resistant, and permissionless principles, most blockchain networks represent today.
It feels like greed as a human flaw often defeats reason.
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I really enjoyed reading this one.. Great job I also have a few articles around metaverse.. If its regulated by the government then the metaverse will be even more dirty than Facebook