An Incisive Dive Into the Metaverse: 3 Key Insights With Yat Siu

The metaverse recently caught public attention and plenty of hype with the recent surge of investors and companies delving into the platform. Here are three key takeaways from Yat Siu’s incisive and inspiring deep dive into the metaverse at Goldman Sachs’ recent Asia Investor Conference 2022.

1. The Metaverse Is Here and Growing

Think of the metaverse as a virtual shared space where people own, interact, and access the internet. In Yat’s point of view, the metaverse started in the ’80s and will continue to become mainstream as it evolves into a critical component of our lives. 

Societies began to digitize with the advent of the first Internet, Web 1.0, which publicly displayed basic information and sites. Then, Web 2.0 provided user-to-user communication capabilities, as well as networks and communities, stimulating rapid adoption growth in the 2000s.* 

Now, Yat explained, we’re in the dawn of Web 3.0, a decentralized internet that enables users to own their data, content, and experiences, in part by leveraging blockchain technology. Blockchain is a permanent public ledger of every transaction. Blockchain transactions assign irrefutable property rights to purchases of crypto and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), enabling digital ownership of these items in the metaverse ecosystem.

2. Valuing Digital as Much as Our Physical Worlds

Today, society is digitally dependent, and the line between our digital and physical worlds grows ever blurrier. Yat pointed out that despite this blurry line, we don’t possess the same ownership over our digital property as we do over our physical. 

“Data is one of the world’s most valuable resources, but we don’t always treat it that way,” Yat said. “If you owned a piece of land with oil in it, you wouldn’t give it away for free. Yet, we’re constantly giving away our data, our insights, our knowledge, to these big companies that wouldn’t be worth anything if it weren’t for our data.” 

As Web 3.0 continues to evolve, Yat believes the metaverse ecosystem will be an integral part of not only helping people understand the value in their data, but also enabling them to own it and use it too. 

He likened the metaverse to the birth of a new country, comparing an open and decentralized metaverse to a nation that places high value on individuals’ property rights. In a democratic metaverse system, the governing entity is not large corporations controlling servers and user data, but a coordinated system of decentralized autonomous organizations (DAO). Yat predicted the most accommodative and open metaverse will attract the largest amount of users and beat the competition.

3. The Metaverse Future Is Bright and Bustling

Yat believes the metaverse will expand far beyond gaming into thousands of cultural and business hubs with diverse art, governance, populations, and interests. In the physical world, people have different tastes and may choose a certain neighborhood or region based on their preferred lifestyle. The same happens in the digital world, where people congregate based on their interests and form emotional relationships with their communities. Metaverse spaces offer opportunities for people to expand their digital space, and to collect and create assets to express their unique social identities. 

As these spaces and concepts grow, metaverse builders like Yat believe an abundance of businesses within the metaverse ecosystem will emerge, thanks to the ability of users to own and leverage their digital properties. It’s similar to how the app ecosystem expanded to accommodate Web 2.0-based smartphones. 

To be involved with the metaverse, Yat suggested doing your own research and exploring so you can form your own conclusions. 

“It’s personal and emotional,” he said, “because living in the metaverse projects social status and expresses who you are.”