Metaverse scenarios, applications, business models

On October 26, the 7th Blockchain Global Summit 2021 hosted by Wanxiang Blockchain Labs was held in Shanghai. Wu Xiankun (host), co-founder and president of rct AI, COO and co-founder of The Sandbox Sebastien Borget and Zhang Zhongnan, CEO and co-founder of Alchemy NFT, started a dialogue around "Metaverse Scenarios, Applications, and Business Models".

The following is the full text of the speech:

Wu Xiankun: Please greet the audience first, and briefly introduce yourself and your respective projects.

Sebastien Borget: Hi everyone! My name is Sebastien Borget, and I'm the COO and co-founder of The Sandbox. The Chinese name of The Sandbox is "Sandbox". It is a game tool and game platform that allows users and gamers to obtain NFT, and use or realize the scene on the virtual land.

At the same time, I am also the chairman of the blockchain game joint name. Now the blockchain game alliance has a total of 250 members, mainly to promote the application of blockchain game technology and blockchain technology, such as NFT, DAO, etc. It is mainly a push for technology in the game industry.

Zhang Zhongnan: My name is Zhang Zhongnan. Alchemy NFT is one of our projects. It was mainly developed at the beginning of this year and has been working on NFT for the past few years. A total of more than 30 projects related to NFT were released.

In addition, there is Ethereum, the project of the foundation at the next developer conference, and some NFT projects of Token and membership points. My goal is to give more functionality to NFT, and achieve this through smart contracts and non-smart contracts.

Wu Xiankun: I am the co-founder and president of rct AI, mainly doing intelligent AI, so as to realize a truly dynamic and personalized Metaverse experience.

Just like a movie, we have the world's first Nuwa NFT collection, and soon we will launch an encrypted native 3A game masterpiece. Today's round table has a total of 40 minutes, and the time is limited, so we don't have much to say, just go straight to the topic.

Please give the definition of metaverse, your own definition of metaverse. In other words, how to introduce the concept of metaverse to ten-year-olds, please answer first by Sebastien Borget.

Sebastien Borget: For us, the metaverse represents a concept that comes from science fiction and movies. The essential concept is that one day human beings will be able to realize various current experiences through avatars in the digital parallel universe, and avatars represent personal identities in the digital world.

I believe in an open metaverse, which means that there will be hundreds of virtual worlds. In the virtual world, users have digital identities and digital assets, and digital identities and digital assets can be migrated and carried in various virtual worlds. In addition, there are various activities in the virtual world, including work and playing games, which are realized through the ownership of NFT and avatars.

The Sandbox's contribution to the metaverse is to provide a variety of different entertainment experiences, including virtual performances, virtual museums, and game experiences. We also hope that users can own the metaverse by owning part of the virtual land, and they can also monetize the content they create!

Zhang Zhongnan: I share my understanding of the Metaverse from another angle. I think the metaverse represents the digital world, which is now accessed through computers, browsers, different applications, and different technical elements, but for the metaverse and other digital worlds, or other parts of the digital world, the fundamental relationship between the two The difference is in the way of access, the experience that can be obtained, and the openness.

For example, just now Sebastien Borget has explained the openness, I believe you can also understand the meaning of the open world. That is, your digital assets can be transferred across platforms on different platforms. In the Metaverse, virtual assets can be transferred across worlds in different virtual worlds.

Most metaverses will provide VR experiences, and through these devices, interactive and immersive experiences can be obtained. This is different from the general mobile phone and web applications. From the perspective of user experience, since VR can provide users with a completely new and deeply immersive experience, this is a way to understand the metaverse.

In addition, there is another way of understanding. Metaverse is equivalent to being in a new place, in a new world, people can create and consume content. In addition, people can also interact with each other.

Content will become the fastest-spreading asset class, including games, music, pictures, and articles. These contents will be the fastest-spreading asset class in the Metaverse, and will achieve positive development.

Wu Xiankun: Looking forward to ten years, what kind of development will the Metaverse have in the future? For everyone, the metaverse is the best way to try the next generation. At least my daughter can quickly understand the concept of the metaverse. Everyone mentioned the openness of access. To further discuss this issue, the metaverse and the district What is the relationship between the blockchains? Everyone thinks that there is no difference between the two. Is it just that the blockchain is the infrastructure for realizing the Metaverse?

Sebastien Borget: Blockchain represents technology and infrastructure, provides transparency, and provides shared data. That is to say, there is no single company or entity that can control assets and user data.

NFT represents the next step of development. NFT defines how digital assets are popularized in the virtual world and how they are stored in the blockchain. For example, there are some source data, including links, which can link to other content and videos. Two points are very important: one is the record, the record of ownership; the other is the creation, the record of creation, who created this content and who currently owns it. In addition, due to the scarcity of NFT, you may consider how many copies of NFT there will be, and will there be additional issuance in the future? Develop the digital economy around digital assets.

In essence, it enables NFT to store value and provide functionality, allowing people to build additional content layers and application layers based on the existing blockchain infrastructure.

Zhang Zhongnan: Following Sebastien Borget's explanation, let's further expand and diverge the concept of openness raised in the first question.

What does it mean to use the blockchain to record the ownership in the Metaverse? Before the blockchain, it was possible to have different virtual worlds and different digital worlds, but the problem at that time was that if different virtual worlds wanted to interact with each other and needed to cooperate, they had to have an interactive platform, or they had to connect with each other .

Either connect through a third party, or connect with each other, and need a third party or platform as a trusted third party to realize the docking between platforms.

However, with the emergence of the blockchain, there are equally trusted third parties in the virtual world. The essence of the trusted third party is the blockchain. The blockchain can record the ownership of digital assets in the digital world in the same place, and then these Digital assets can be freely circulated and used in different virtual worlds, and can eventually form a large metaverse.

Wu Xiankun: Now let's discuss the next topic, which is about culture. With the development of the Metaverse, how do you think the relationship between the Metaverse and the real world will evolve? In other words, how to think about how to further explore the metaverse and increase investment in the metaverse will change people's lives in real life.

Sebastien Borget: It is true that some cultures, brands, and IPs are familiar from the real world. Now enter the new world of the Metaverse, and this world is completely constructed from UGC (User Generated Content), 99% of which are constructed by the user's own content, that is, constructed by imagination. In addition to this scope, ideas and creativity of many communities can be shared.

One thing that makes me very happy is the various ideas seen in the metaverse. For example, the tipping point of the metaverse I saw at the beginning was an NFT painting of Beeple that was auctioned for several million dollars, which inspired many creations. creators and artists, so now everyone is also creating different virtual avatars and avatars in the Metaverse, and building communities.

I think the culture of the new metaverse is different from the culture of the real world. It represents a culture native to encryption. And this brings about the creator economy, which means that people have ownership of the content and can share the content during the interaction process.

In fact, this happens to bring some new income opportunities and new job opportunities. For example, you can create content and sell the content you create, because you can become a participant in the Metaverse, and you can obtain additional sources of income by creating content and playing games.

The various possibilities provided by the metaverse are invisible to us in the traditional game and entertainment industry, especially the real world has caused various problems due to the epidemic.

Zhang Zhongnan: I think in the real world, it seems that the economy has developed to a certain stage, to a certain point. Either further grab resources, or create new things for people to consume. But things can go in another direction in the digital world, which is the development of the metaverse.

As Sebastien Borget mentioned just now, the metaverse can provide new job opportunities and new business opportunities.

I have some real examples here that I would like to share with you. A few months ago, I cooperated with the Ethereum Development Conference and did activities together to build a multi-purpose hall. In the process of building, we hired a professional designer team to help us design, and also hired a professional team to help us build a VR multi-function hall, which can be built in the virtual world and digital world.

Such examples represent new business opportunities, new job opportunities, for those talented people, if they can design and create.

Sebastien Borget: The growing trend is that many users are now entering the metaverse to experience the metaverse. These people will build and create different things in the metaverse and display themselves in the metaverse. As more and more people enter, they will also bring in more users, and more users will generate more content, and the ecology has flourished since then.

Metaverses like the "Sandbox" game have also brought in many game users.

Wu Xiankun: It takes a lot of time and energy for us to build a sustainable metaverse. In various scenarios of Web2.0, Web2.0 is abused and misused. For example, the protection of privacy is not enough. The ownership of digital data is actually abused by algorithms, and users are harmed. In the process of creating a sustainable metaverse, how to ensure that it becomes something that serves the public well-being instead of causing public harm, and how to judge whether the metaverse can bring more value to the public?

Sebastien Borget: In the past 25 years, I have seen various UGC user-generated content, and also seen various virtual world content creation and various activities.

Governance is very important and users should be the key decision makers. Like the new digital kingdom, the governance of the metaverse may also have political identities. You may see that political parties and related users will be elected to represent the interests of other users in the future.

We ensure that users own their own data from the core, and users can decide whether to share the data with others. And in the next three to five years, the correct direction should be open source. In the Metaverse "Sandbox", at the beginning, it is a centralized governance method and a centralized operation method. Free development and deployment, just like NFT represents a bound asset that can be associated with the Metaverse.

The business model is different from that of the centralized platform. As a user, the value of the centralized platform is realized by the platform, but in the metaverse, you have your own address, wallet, and NFT. By purchasing and conducting NFT transactions, the entire chain How about the transaction chain? In this model, there will be no hidden monetization elements that everyone cannot see. In the future, it will be more driven by the community, and it will change the familiar way of the past 25 years. This means that Giving more opportunities to users, giving users an additional source of income, I am very optimistic that the Metaverse will be built differently and will not face the previous problems.

Zhang Zhongnan: I try to interpret it from another angle. If the metaverse is like a world, such a world means that there may be good digital worlds and bad digital worlds. People may tend to be in good digital worlds. Interaction in the digital world, which means it is not controlled by one party, will be like the universe, in which there are different planets, all planets are not owned by any country, but for the digital world, Such a world will be more open and exist more like digital objects.

For example, if you have an NFT, its color may be displayed through the NFT in such a world, but in other worlds, the white features may turn yellow, and you need to display the object in the world you own. trade.

Wu Xiankun: The views on the metaverse just now are very interesting. I also know that both of you are working on related projects. What kind of native encrypted metaverse experience should we create?

Sebastien Borget: Now working on building and reshaping the product. Start switching from 2D games to 3D games by using blockchain. What we focus on is the content itself, not the so-called NFT.

What I want is how to create newer and more different types of content to create digital 3D experiences. Now there are thousands of IT technicians helping us create the customer experience, so some great content and animations will be created to create an immersive game environment.

For example, in a game, people can occupy the so-called territory to play the game. In addition, GameMaker is a tool for creating games, and now there are other software tools to help gamers get a better gaming experience. In this case, players can participate better and earn money while playing.

Introduced some blockchain-based applications to bring more fun things to gamers, and cooperated with some related brands. There will be consumption of tokens on all chains. The first thing to focus on is the product itself, and then guide the community to better use the tokens.

Now that we are cooperating with other partners, of course it will take time to make substantial progress. The most important thing is to create more content and more IP so that players can get better and better gaming experience.

Zhang Zhongnan: For me. First, it is very important to use any metaverse service freely, and at the same time prove service ownership and digital identity, which is very important for cryptographic native. Second, just now Sebastien Borget also mentioned that for any metaverse, if you want to register and enter, there should be no controls or restrictions, and it should be completely open.

Wu Xiankun: I know that everyone here is very familiar with blockchain and Bitcoin. Some people may not understand how to use this concept. For product developers, how to lower the threshold for users to use Metaverse?

Sebastien Borget: Why do people use the Metaverse? What is their motivation? First of all, it is a very interesting experience. Now people play various games through mobile phones and computers, and they want entertainment experience. So it's going to take time to build a really great, very engaging Metaverse.

I believe that in time users will turn into butterflies, they may fly to the metaverse to play for a few hours, and then return to the real world. It is necessary to combine all related Internet in the Metaverse to attract more users.

If users don't have a very big, very good motivation to accept Metaverse, then they may feel that it doesn't matter whether they use it or not. Users will be more motivated if they feel they can interact and transact more in the game this way.

The content we create is also very critical. For some crypto players, they may be more easily persuaded by the creation of the metaverse.

Zhang Zhongnan: We have another product, which is the largest Kaiyuan EVM network. We understand the pain points of new users and their hesitation when entering the metaverse.

I very much agree with Sebastien Borget that encryption itself is a means, but it is not an end. The metaverse to be built will be based on encryption technology, but at the same time ensure customer experience.

Our purpose is to create the best experience for users, not just encrypt for encryption's sake. That said, it is important to keep in mind when thinking about the Metaverse from the very beginning, who will be the UX Metaverse.

Another product was released. In fact, it is another smart contract on Ethereum. Smart contracts can not only identify stored value, but also have other functions. So for ordinary users, every time they want to execute the contract, they can use the one-time wallet to execute the smart contract. After the contract is executed, the wallet can be deleted. If they want to use the smart contract next time, they can also do the same operation.

For users, the user experience is very easy. We also have other projects working in this direction to help new users have a lower barrier to entry when entering the encryption space and the encryption industry. Now you can see that there are more and more good projects.

Wu Xiankun: I believe that products always come first. When we discuss the metaverse, we inevitably talk about the economic model and economic system of the metaverse. We don’t know what will happen to the so-called Metaverse economic model and business model, but we might as well discuss the commercialization of the Metaverse, or what existing business models can be used for reference in the Metaverse?

Sebastien Borget: There are many business models for reference, and all possibilities can be explored. For example, community managers, game designers, etc., they can all become part of the business model.

As well as content creators and builders, they can also establish economic relationships with buyers and sellers. There are other models, for example, token income can be obtained through broadcasting and selling content. The metaverse will be a brand new world, but it will eventually be driven by user patterns, use cases.

For example, the existing platform can be replaced by the metaverse. The idea of the metaverse is very exciting, and we can continue to explore more application scenarios under the topic of the metaverse.

Zhang Zhongnan: Sebastien Borget just explained to us the business opportunities in the digital world. I can give some examples. As creators and builders of the digital world, what can they do? First of all, you can use the business opportunities just mentioned by Sebastien Borget to create a digital world. On the other hand, as a creator, you are also creating a new country. You can sell some virtual things and items to obtain related currencies. It's kind of like a tax system.

For creators and users of the digital world, there may not be a sufficiently mature business model to refer to.

Wu Xiankun: I am very sorry that I may only be able to ask the last question due to time constraints. All the audience present would like you to share with us what are your future plans? What are some of your more exciting projects?

Sebastien Borget: Next week we will announce the roadmap for value creation, all of which are designed to help users understand how the platform will create a very rich experience.

In addition, we will also cooperate with some big IPs, celebrities, and sports events, and will continue to reshape the vision in the game industry and create a more global ecosystem.

Zhang Zhongnan: For us, the Metaverse is the end point of our discussion. On the one hand, we will continue to develop smart contracts, such as linking different features. On the other hand, a token framework is being developed to provide a token interface. Through the interface, digital items can be used between different platforms, and such a framework can ensure that all digital products are safe and will not be tampered with.

Typically, new trust protocols are introduced to help people understand how to use logic better. The new framework I mentioned will bring us a new layout of tokens. At the same time, it will also bring us a multiple digital world.