The Metaverse Isn’t Coming

Reading time: 3 min

“You gotta check out this game.”

My homie fired up his computer and pulled up a website. "It's called RuneScape," he said with excitement.

He showed off his character and explained the gameplay while he walked around the virtual world chatting with other players. I was blown away that you could talk with people from around the world in real-time.

As soon as I got home, I rushed over to the computer and signed up for a RuneScape account. I was completely hooked from that day on.

I spent countless hours playing. RuneScape became more than just a game for me—it became my ultimate escape.

In the real world, I was just a little kid. But in this world, I transformed into a strong knight.

I made friends, started a guild, fought dragons, and learned how to trade in the virtual market. I even had my own digital wood-cutting business. With all the gold I made, I balled out on fancy armor and weapons to digitally flex on others.

Little did I know, this was my first taste of the Metaverse.

We've been hearing a lot about the Metaverse lately. It's been the buzzword over the past couple of years. The future of the Internet.

Facebook rebranded to Meta. Companies left and right launched ambitious Metaverse campaigns. Digital land was being sold for millions of dollars. But then, reality hit.

Facebook showcased their Metaverse platform and got roasted by the Internet. On top of that, they reported a loss of almost $14 billion from their Metaverse division. Articles started coming out saying Decentraland only had 38 daily users (which is false btw).

“This Metaverse isn’t coming.” the skeptics yelled.

They’re right. The Metaverse isn’t coming—it's already here.

When you hear "Metaverse," you might imagine strapping on a VR headset and diving into a virtual world like Ready Player One, right?

But the Metaverse is more than just a VR game. It’s not a place, it's a state of existence. It’s when we prioritize our digital lives over our physical lives. And it’s already happening right before our very eyes.

Think about it for a sec.

We spend most of our waking hours online. We're grinding away at work, scrolling through our favorite social media feeds, video-calling our homies, binge-watching shows, and shopping on virtual marketplaces.

Video games like Fortnite and Roblox aren't just games anymore—they've evolved to social spaces where you can chill with your friends, attend concerts, and buy and sell virtual goods. Digital skins have boomed to a $50 billion industry. Sheesh!

The line between our online lives and our physical lives is blurring by the day. And our digital identities are becoming as important, if not already more, than our physical ones.

Real talk, raise your hand if you've ever done something just for the ‘gram 🙋‍♂️

We curate our Instagram profiles with attention to detail like a museum curator. We worry about our online image, our likes, shares, and followers. We carefully choose which photos to share, which filters to use, which captions to write.

We've created online personas that showcase who we are—or at least, who we want to be seen as.

We're already living a good chunk of our lives in the Metaverse. We just haven't labeled it as such.

The introduction of blockchain and crypto takes this to a whole new level, allowing us to own digital assets in a way that was impossible before. We’ll dive deeper into this next week.

For now, if you'll excuse me, I gotta hop to a concert in Decentraland.

Peace,

Fifty Sat

P.S.

Did you also play RuneScape? Reply to this email or DM me on Twitter and let me know 🙂

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