In the past few months, a lot has been written about the metaverse. The promise of the Metaverse is that it will provide users an augmented reality experience that – in many ways – might exceed the experiences and opportunities in the physical reality. What is often missing in the discussions around the Metaverse is how all of its participants will exchange value. Therefore, in this article we will take a look at the role that payments and other forms of value exchange play in a thriving Metaverse economy!

The Metaverse is often considered as a successor state to the mobile internet, as well as a platform for human leisure, labor, and existence. However, the success of the Metaverse also depends on a thriving economy, which is not easy to create. We know that a thriving economy depends on competition and a constant cycle of disruption/displacement, a large number of profitable enterprises, capital mobility and strong consumer spending. And one of the most important facilitators for all of that is good payment rails and service.

Good payment services enable and manage the flow of money throughout the economy and define the basic “cost of doing business” for every enterprise, worker, and consumer. The ability to buy, sell and own things in the Metaverse could be the most transformative part of this new era. And at Quantoz we believe that this is a tremendous opportunity for blockchain and digital assets to move to the mainstream. The metaverse needs blockchain and digital currencies in order to operate as advertised, so let’s take a look at why that is.

Read more: Shopping in the metaverse

The Metaverse will require transactions to be completed on an on-demand and almost instantaneous basis. More specifically, individuals that are a part of the Metaverse will 1) need to be able to transact and interact as easily as if they were in person, and 2) have the confidence that these transactions will be settled. Blockchain and digitised money transactions provide a viable and proven method for individuals and institutions to conduct transactions in a virtual, traceable, cost-efficient and real-time manner. The instant element of blockchain and digital payments means instant processing and settlement of digital assets like NFTs, cryptocurrencies, stablecoins and other digital assets that are yet to be conceived. These assets could be traded, sold, and marketed through the Metaverse marketplace tied to an individual’s blockchain based payment wallet or equivalent. That means that blockchain could provide an instant and cheap way of engaging in commerce.

However, easily settling transactions is only one part of the solution. If an individual or group of individuals are going to engage and exchange value with other people in a virtual environment, there needs to be some form of assurance that these transactions are secure. Luckily, blockchain and blockchain platforms have proven, to this point, to be unhackable and immutable. Blockchain enables not only instantaneously confirmed transactions, but also enables these transactions to be cryptographically secured and protected. This is critically important if any virtual reality platform is to achieve mainstream adoption. Immutability and security are, in other words, another necessary and integral part of a good payment service for the Metaverse.

With that said, we’re closer to a fully digital payment landscape than we’ve ever been before. However, we are not there yet. There needs to be a payment gateway to the Metaverse, as individuals would need to access ‘real world’ currency. And this is were Quantoz can play a role. For more than five years, our NEXUS technology bridges between the traditional financial world and the tokenised, blockchain enabled, world. It is therefore that we say: NEXUS is the gateway to the token economy!

To create value in the Metaverse, it needs to be connected with the existing real-world economy. We can help you with the financial part of your Metaverse project. Get in touch with us today to find out what we can do for your business!

For this article we have made use of the following sources:

• https://www.matthewball.vc/all/metaversepayments

• https://thepaypers.com/expert-opinion/payments-in-a-metaverse–1253104

• https://www.forbes.com/sites/seansteinsmith/2021/11/08/crypto-is-the-key-to-the-metaverse/