Eoin Treacy's view

Here is a link to the full report and here is a section from it: 

The rise of blockchain and cryptocurrencies is also paving the way for virtual economies to expand beyond gaming and evolve into the Metaverse Mall. Non[1]fungible tokens (NFTs) are making it easier to buy and sell digital products because they can certify that items including images, video, audio, collectibles, digital art and fashion, and virtual real estate are one-of-a-kind — leading to the creation of brand[1]new markets in the Metaverse.33 NFT sales reached $2.5 billion in the first half of 2021, compared to $13.7 million in all of 2020.

In Decentraland, a digital world built on the Ethereum blockchain, investors can buy virtual property with MANA, a cryptocurrency that can be purchased on trading apps.35 Sotheby’s has a gallery there, and blockchain protocol Boson paid $704,000 to establish retail space where people buy digital assets that can be exchanged for physical goods and services.

Clearly, we are in the early days of the Metaverse and its potential and disruptive power are, as yet, unclear. This has not, however, stopped private industry from experimenting, innovating, and investing trillions of dollars to be part of it.

The metaverse has become the new buzz word for the tech sector so it is worth considering what it in fact means for commerce and social interactions. The lure of the sector is it creates a middle ground where the world of the physical interacts with the online world. Therefore, you can have a digital avatar like one would have in a game but you can also make purchases of both physical and digital items.

In order to interact with the metaverse you will need additional pieces of technology such as a virtual reality headset. Facebook has invested more in this space than any other company and has multiple generations of its headset in the market. There is significant room for these items to get smaller and lighter. Personally, I find it is easy to get very sweaty while using the Quest headsets. If this sneak peek is any guide, that would appear to be the direction they are going in. 

I found it interesting that Facebook gave up on its tweens’ version of Instagram last week. Perhaps they believe the VR route is the next iteration of social and that the race to capture the youngest demographic has run its course?
The share is currently bouncing from the region of the trend mean and remains in a reasonably consistent uptrend.