There is a bigger picture we fail to notice.

The modern digital/virtual economy will skyrocket, and include every aspect of global economic activity.

The world economy is transitioning into its digital counterpart, the digital economy.

Visionaries are shaping and developing technologies that, within this decade, will host the Metaverse with various interconnected VR/AR platforms.

Clearly, a fully evolved Metaverse still needs time before all required technologies are ready.

There will be a “tech” war, though, starting right now.

In the next five to ten years, we will witness multiple interpretations of a Metaverse with 3D universes and millions of users.

The first necessity will be a monetary unit, as even gaming worlds will evolve into full-blown digital/virtual economies.

Every Entity (Person, Business, or Machine) Will Provably Own A Part Of The Metaverse

The ultimate battle will begin between decentralized cryptocurrencies (non-custodial, censorship-resistant, permissionless) and the digital version of fiat currencies, CBDCs.

In about a decade, most of the required infrastructure and technologies (except perhaps neuroscience) will be ready.

The advance of technology will herald the mass adoption phase of the actual Metaverse.

Although, a serious question arises at this point.

Will the Metaverse be controllable, or will it also include decentralization?

Perhaps this is the main battle, the battle for control of the flow of information and the flow of money in a VR digital world, a virtual economy parallel to the global one.

Some of us refer to a decentralized Metaverse, the one based on blockchain networks running on PoW or PoS, to validate transactions while governed by consensus mechanics.

“Systems inherently tamper-proof, censorship-resistant, and permissionless” (reference-quote).

The Metaverse, as a technological and financial breakthrough, will deliver absolute economic freedom, if we base it on decentralized models.

Do we want yet another centralized, censorable, controlled, and censorable Internet 3.0, with VR/AR capabilities (as Zuckerberg suggests)?

It will take ten to twenty years before we can experience a functional Metaverse similar to the one popular science fiction writers envision.

The Metaverse will be an economy equal to the size of the real one and perhaps even larger since opportunities will be infinite.

All current networks will require upgrading since speed, reliability, security, and cost-efficiency will be in demand.

From speed and low fees to total security and decentralization. There are no cutbacks. The vision for the digital economy is clear. Decentralized, secure, fast, and cost-efficient networks will become the standard.

There is no room for weak and over-hyped blockchains in the technology that will host the digital counterpart of the real world.

There is no room for $200 fees or 6 confirmations. Any financial transaction must be instant and virtually feeless.

There is no room for centralization and control, either. This will be the decisive battle for control or autonomy of the Metaverse and, to an extent, the remaining internet.

We are setting the standard today.

CBDCs with centralized digital currencies in control and decentralized cryptocurrencies that present robust and secure options will be our options.

There will be no BTC, though, since even with LN it cannot scale to meet demand on a global scale. Other options, better networks are available, though, without sacrificing the permissionless features.

Smart contracts will dominate the digital economy and most services will be available through the Metaverse. The “services” part of an economy can easily migrate to the digital space, reducing costs and increasing productivity.

The Metaverse (as the internet was) will be the next small step in progress. Ignoring it is similar to shunning the potential of the internet back in its beginnings.

Early Visionaries Don’t Listen To Noise

By 2005 or so, it will become clear that the Internet’s impact on the economy has been no greater than the fax machine’s.Paul Krugman — Nobelist

The above assumption by the world-renowned economist (Paul Krugman) should be an example to avoid.

Today, artists create content in NFT format and monetize their work within various NFT marketplaces.

The actual use case of NFTs will be noticeable when digital and physical objects require a digital signature as proof of ownership.

No, the smart contract protocols will not replicate the Mona Lisa and provide ownership rights to anyone else, besides the Museum of Louvre, where it currently belongs.

Some misjudge the use of NFTs and think it can counterfeit ownership, but this example is quite absurd, and a misrepresentation of the ownership rights NFTs illustrates.

Sadly, many don’t quite understand the concept of property either, but only try to create a negative impression of what is decentralized proof of private ownership rights.

It is not property enforced by any law, but by math and code instead.

Closing Thoughts

A new technological race is about to begin and, we will have to pick a side. This time, it will be the established financial system or decentralized cryptocurrencies fighting for dominance in the Metaverse Arena.

With the current state of BTC and ETH, though, cryptocurrencies stand no chance.

Some more recent alternatives as Solana, Avalance, Cardano, and Polkadot, (becoming popular in 2021), contain dubious decentralization procedures (PoS, mixed PoS, PoW), and they are still under development with no clear sign of their future potential.

It is all speculation today in the crypto field. Yet some blockchain networks offer more robust solutions than others.

We expect a full-blown and adopted Metaverse within 10–20 years.Some of us will be old then. Twenty years later, though, billions will be using and working (or even virtually living) in the Metaverse.

Working from home, providing services, performing surgeries, shopping for groceries, and visiting virtual gyms, all while wearing our VR set and communicating with people hundreds of miles away. All these while also living an experience similar better than the real world with VR/AR technology.

Some of us will be in our late 30s or early 40s, and some will be even older, in their 60s or 70s.

There’s a decision we have to make today, though. The Metaverse is just beginning and will find various stages in its development before it fully incorporates all the required technologies.

We, today, will approve the terms of the Metaverse, and we have to either accept Zuckerberg’s plans of acquiring control early on or promote control of the individual with self-ownership.