Metaverse, Mixed Reality and the Future of Commerce

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Coinmonks

6 min readApr 8, 2022

It’s hard to avoid chatter, not just within crypto circles, but even mainstream media, about NFT mania (which may be waning) and the metaverse. Yet what I hear from many people, especially amongst non-gamers, is that the future is not in the metaverse because the majority of the population don’t plan to buy VR headsets and spend their days shooting aliens in the virtual world.

This binary thinking is rational given that the only image most people see of the metaverse is something that mostly resembles Roblox and other pure gaming services. Yet this “lazy” interpretation of what the metaverse is, or could be, is missing the bigger picture. Technology has become an increasing part of our society for decades. While tools like augmented and virtually reality have been around for a long time, they are only now starting to cross the chasm.

Of course Covid accelerated more remote work and an explosion in use of video conferencing tools.

What seems increasingly obvious to many is that the future of work and commerce will migrate to hybrid models of virtual and physical worlds.

I love this answer from Kate Mitselmakher, a GP at Bloccelerate VC out of Seattle when asked to describe the future of the metaverse:

In its immediate form, metaverse will be mostly limited to digitally native objects — gaming assets or digital art. In the long term, metaverse will resemble the digital twin of the real world, whereby most physical objects — from real estate to commodities — will have a digital representation and unique self-sovereign identity in the metaverse, most likely residing on the blockchain. Eventually, the digital and the physical worlds will merge into one interoperable ecosystem powered by AI, VR/AR, smart contracts, NFTs, DeFi, DAOs, and other innovations.
As most economic activity will migrate to the metaverse, the old economy — as we know it today — will cease to exist. The old economy will transform into the new metaverse economy — with its own rules, its own currency, and its own governance.

From metaverse gaming to entertainment

Look no further then what is happening in the Sandbox, one of the top leading metaverse platforms. As True Global Ventures led our recent funding round, and has been an early investor the Sandbox, I was lucky enough to recently gain access to the alpha version of their newest season. While I am not a gamer, The Sandbox is one of the major players in the metaverse and is starting to tap into the non-gamer community.

Snoop Dogg has made The Sandbox his new virtual home. He bought virtual land, sold adjacent land to the highest bidder and has started to promote his real music inside, and outside of The Sandbox. He even just released a new song and music video, House I built, designed within The Sandbox.

While this is entertainment which can largely be consumed within the metaverse, it is a real world artist leveraging the metaverse to extend his brand and reach inside the metaverse. This can then come back to improve his IRL (in real life) revenues but also attract people to buy more real world merchandise or grow demand for tickets to physical concerts (which could be simultaneously streamed in the metaverse).

From the metaverse to mixed reality

Shoe companies have been early to the metaverse looking to focus more on a mixed reality business model. Nike setup its own Metaverse store and claims to have received more than 7 million visitors since launching it at the end of 2021. Nike acquired a design studio RTFKT to enable people in the metaverse to acquire digital versions of real Nike shoes for their avatars. People can then see someone else’s avatar with a shoe design they like, click on it to learn more and even by an NFT for their avatar that also confers the benefit of receiving a real physical version of the same shoe to their house for their real life.

Many more traditional bricks and mortar and web 2 companies are setting up virtual shop in the metaverse. In February of this year JP Morgan Chase became the first major bank to enter the metaverse within Decentraland. More than $500 million was spent buying virtual real estate in the metaverse in 2021. This has obviously not gone un-noticed by real life real estate agencies seeking to cash in, not just on virtual land buyers but to buyers in the metaverse for real world properties.

Next Earth: A metaverse built for mixed reality?

So far I have named the two largest current metaverse projects, the Sandbox and Decentraland. But many more challengers have emerged and one that seems ripe for enabling the mixed reality vision of the future is Next Earth. As opposed to selling land in virtual worlds disconnected from planet earth, Next Earth sells virtual land over satellite images of Planet Earth.

Buying virtual land in The Next Earth (Barcelona)

By being the primary current metaverse based on the actual Earth, I believe they are positioned to play an important role in enabling mixed reality business models. Want to buy the virtual version of your house, your hotel or your favorite tourist spot? That’s the place to go. The hotel operator could offer an immersive experience of their real hotel, allow users to view rooms, etc. and book them in the metaverse for later use IRL.

Check out the view of the tickets you wish to buy to an IRL concert or game? You could do that too. Or of course perhaps only view virtually in real time. Or both. Get an NFT purchased in the metaverse as a proof of ownership of the ticket and seat and get benefits of both physical attendance and private access to a recorded back stage view of the show viewable in the metaverse.

The Next Earth is not shy about its ambition to become a platform for such business activity. In their “Platform as a Service” section of their website they state:

Whatever you hope to build in the Metaverse — a lifestyle, an investment vehicle, a business, or even an industry — Next Earth is the all in one platform you need.

I believe this seamless blending of IRL and the metaverse is going to go mainstream this decade and most established brands will look for ways to tap into the metaverse to acquire new customers and to offer unique hybrid user experiences. For example, I recently spoke to Phocuswire about how a digital twin of the world’s transportation ecosystem could be brought to the metaverse allowing people to immersively explore their journey before booking it in the metaverse but to experience IRL.

The future of the metaverse is bright. JP Morgan recently projected revenues in the metaverse to reach $1 trillion annually.

About the Author

Boyd Cohen is the CEO and Co-founder of Iomob, a global mobility on demand platform for enterprise. Since obtaining his Ph.D. in strategy and entrepreneurship at the University of Colorado in 2001, he spent the past two decades focused on accelerating the path to a low-carbon sustainable economy. This included publishing 3 books, multiple peer reviewed articles, frequently contributing to Fast Company and starting a handful of ventures in the smart cities and sustainability arena. At Iomob, Boyd leads a growing team of mobility and technology experts to deploy the world’s first decentralized Mobility on Demand platform for enterprise. Early clients have spanned multiple continents including Europe, Asia and North America.

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Metaverse, Mixed Reality and the Future of Commerce

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Written by Boyd Cohen, Ph.D. CEO IoMob