HI FINTECHTALKERS,

I sat down with Ram Subramaniam (CEO of Guardianlink.io), Prakash Somosundram (CEO of Enjinstarter.com), and Matthew Gunnin (CEO of eSports.one) to talk about all things Metaverse, the rise of the immersive web, NFTs, Digital Assets and more. We covered a lot of ground and in order to make it easy to navigate the podcast, I have included a table of timestamps.

Metaverse represents the evolution of the Web, where you are in the Web not just connected to it through a device like a mobile phone - the convergence of digital and physical realities. It will become part and parcel of our lifestyle becoming the experience portal for entertainment, education, and more. With technologies like AR/VR and upcoming tech like Elon Musk’s Neurallink which is aiming to connect the human neocortex (the decision-making center of our brain) directly to computing devices (thereby to the metaverse and AI), our lives and even what is an experience are in for a profound change.

The current web is built on websites, mobile apps, and APIs and gave us e-commerce, search, social media, digital advertisement, and the sharing economy as applications. The foundation of the Metaverse is being built on Crypto, NFTs (the framework for new digital asset class), DAOs (how firms, people, and even governments may organize in the future) giving us hyper-personalized convergent and immersive experiences, convergent commerce (commerce initiated in physical and fulfilled in digital and vice-versa), and experiences APIs that drive interoperability across the Metaverse. Fasten your seat straps as belts are not going to cut it this time.

0.10-9.10 Introduction - what led them to their current focus

9.10-22.10 What is Metaverse, Web3.0 and why are NFT and Blockchain important?

22.10-29.15 How big is this? The TAM for Metaverse, NFT, eSports, and Gaming

29.15-31.30 Which geographies around the world are most active?

31.30-48.00 What are you building and how do you fit into the ecosystem?

48.00 -54.40 Why should Enterprise care about Metaverse and when /how should you build your metaverse strategy?

54.40-1.01 The projects you are excited about - DAO, Inter-operability, and more

1.01-1.04 - What are your priorities and who are you looking to connect with?

To connect with my guests and their companies go to https://enjinstarter.com/, https://www.guardianlink.io/, and https://esportsone.com/ and use any of the social media like their Discord channel.

Included in this edition is the fintech elder recap below.

Enjoy and always Be in the Know!

Paddy Ramanathan
Founder of iValley (www.ivalley.co) and
Host of the FINTECHTALK™ Show (www.fintechtalk.co)

(Violin piece in podcast courtesy of my daughter Ilina)

The Beginning of the Beginning–Metaverse’s Promise of Infinite Possibilities

By the Fintech Elder

“Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”

You know where that came from. The pen of the great science-fiction novelist Lewis Carroll.

Oh, he wasn’t a science fiction writer, did you just say? Indulge me for a minute. Maybe he was a kind of prophet. Maybe he thought that one day we would have these virtual experiences and drift in and out of digital worlds.

I sat quietly in a corner of the digital world and listened to a fascinating podcast steered beautifully by Paddy Ramanathan, CEO of iValley, who’s made quite a name for himself as a great networker and influencer in the Fintech world. He weaved together a fascinating tapestry involving guests Ramkumar Subramaniam, Prakash Somosundram, and Matthew Gunnin who are extremely knowledgeable about NFT, e-sports and Metaverse respectively. As it turns out Metaverse was the ultimate glue that made NFT and e-sports so much more intense. So, I’ll just talk about that.

This article isn’t intended to be a primer on Metaverse. In any case, the definition is evolving constantly. We could perhaps get away by calling it a growing convergence between the real world and a virtual one. One day, perhaps the two will be indistinguishable.

To begin with, you can live a digital life on various Metaverse platforms. This is not quite the same as a game. In Metaverse, we exist (digitally) and actually buy assets and conduct ourselves as we might in the real world. We may buy digital NFT assets with the currency in that particular metaverse, we may play games, and we can do practically everything. Some may require us to use special devices for an enhanced experience, which I believe will become commodities very soon.

With the metaverse nudging forcefully into our lives, we may soon have to rethink … well, everything.

Is there a philosophical objection to the Metaverse? Could one say that it confuses reality and fantasy and could cause an identity crisis at the very least?

Well, it doesn’t matter at this point. For a generation that has grown up consuming information and living lives on social media, the Metaverse represents a natural progression. While many of us struggled to understand NFTs, the digital generation had no problem comprehending it and leveraging it. Buying, selling, renting – and even scamming – NFTs seem perfectly reasonable.

At this time, there are quite a number of Metaverse platforms and a struggle for dominance is underway. In anticipation, the panelists foresaw interoperability and the pervasive influence of DAO to reduce the dependence on platform-specific digital currency.

While we jump back and forth between Metaverse, the more obvious attraction of the virtual-physical diffusion continues to throw up exciting possibilities.

Imagine going to a Pizza store in the Metaverse and ordering a pizza and having it delivered to you in the real world. And in the other direction, imagine going to a Starbucks and getting a loyalty NFT pass to get premium access to Metaverse locations.

The Metaverse will be in a constant state of churn and turmoil. Perhaps experiences could be bundled and dropped into the Metaverse or even removed.

There are perfectly plausible and practical reasons why organizations are investing in the Metaverse. For one, it needs to do so to keep its brand relevant for the “metaverse generation”. For another, this is the place for converged commerce in the manner I just wrote about. This is where commerce, customer engagement, entertainment, sports, and education will “exist”; yes, the irony of that word has not escaped me.

NFTs in the Metaverse, buying land in the Metaverse, renting, watching a game in a stadium – all of this has quickly become “normal”. We are talking about billions of dollars of economic activity, not just a passing fad. The Metaverse will be included in the Annual Reports of all enterprises. There is no doubt about that in my mind.

The portable experience the Metaverse offers, slipping into any available virtual world at will, is a mind-bending notion that will soon become commonplace.

Are you ready for it?

Where do I exist? In the real world or in a Metaverse? You tell me.

The Fintech Elder

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iValley Innovation Center
11040 Bollinger Canyon Rd, E-909
San Ramon, CA 94582,
The United States.

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