By Jesse Robitaille
This column originally appeared in Canadian Stamp News (Vol. 46 #19) in January 2022.
The future of the Internet has arrived, and the implications for philately – much like everything else – are massive.
The groundbreaking concept, which made international headlines this fall, will set the stage for the hobby’s next major revolution as we enter the third decade since the Internet’s uptake among the philatelic community.
And like the past couple of years, it will happen fast.
In December 2019, when I sat to write my final Philatelic Commentary of that year, I was looking ahead to a future about which we knew very little. Fast forward a few months, and we had a pandemic on our hands. With an ever-increasing trend towards digital experiences, including cryptocurrencies, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and other blockchain applications, the pandemic has forever changed the way we do business, socialize and enjoy our hobbies.
Welcome to the metaverse.
It’s still early in the grand scheme of things, but the metaverse – a centralized virtual world existing alongside the physical world – is almost certainly here to stay. But like the discussions surrounding the Internet in the 1970s and ’80s, when that technology’s building blocks first came to form, no one is sure exactly what the metaverse will look like.
Perhaps an easier approach to understanding the vague and complex term is to replace the word “metaverse” with “cyberspace” as suggested in a recent Wired magazine report.
“That’s because the term doesn’t really refer to any one specific type of technology, but rather a broad shift in how we interact with technology. And it’s entirely possible that the term itself will eventually become just as antiquated, even as the specific technology it once described becomes commonplace.”
The metaverse can include virtual reality (also known as VR), which is “characterized by persistent virtual worlds that continue to exist even when you’re not playing,” according to the Wired report. But it also includes augmented reality (or AR), which combines digital and physical worlds. Proponents are expecting VR headsets and AR glasses – backbone technologies still in relatively early stages of development – to facilitate the metaverse at first; however, other more intuitive tools will almost certainly follow in their footsteps.
Tying into collectibles and the digital economy, metaverse visitors can already create, buy, sell and trade virtual items that can be uniquely confirmed via blockchain applications such as NFTs, which rose to fame during the pandemic. The availability and security of these virtual experiences have continued to make international headlines since Facebook rebranded as Meta – a nod to the metaverse – in October.
The more “idealistic” visions of the metaverse, according to Wired, are “interoperable,” meaning users can take their virtual items – from clothes and cars to stamps and coins – across various virtual worlds, where you and others can interact with them.
“Right now, most platforms have virtual identities, avatars, and inventories that are tied to just one platform, but a metaverse might allow you to create a persona that you can take everywhere as easily as you can copy your profile picture from one social network to another.”
Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg believes the concept is a billion-dollar idea. Between virtual spaces and interactive items, Zuckerberg hopes the metaverse will “reach a billion people and hundreds of billions of dollars of digital commerce this decade,” he said in the company’s third-quarter earnings call this October. He called it the “holy grail of online social experiences,” something he wanted to build “even before I started Facebook,” which launched in 2004 for Harvard College students before opening to the public two years later.
But it’s not just Meta; Microsoft also plans to unveil new ways to collaborate through hybrid offices in the metaverse (like Zoom, but more extensive), and Nike is preparing to offer its first digital sneakers, which users can buy and then flaunt around virtual worlds, many of which already exist.
This November, Barbados announced plans to open a “metaverse embassy” in Decentraland, one of several virtual world platforms, where people can live fully virtual lives, including attending social events such as concerts (and theoretically, stamp club meetings and shows).
A few days later, Canadian crypto company Tokens.com paid $2.4 million to purchase “land” on Decentraland, where it can now host events, sell advertising or lease the space to other companies.
In December, the New York-based company Republic Realm spent a record-breaking $4.3 million US to acquire digital land through the Sandbox, another virtual world platform.
“A single metaverse could be more than a decade away, but as it evolves, it has the potential to disrupt almost everything in human life,” wrote analysts with Jefferies, a multinational independent investment bank and financial services company, in a Dec. 6 note.
There’s no reason to think philately won’t be caught up in the shift to the metaverse, and much like with the Internet, it promises to be a boon for the hobby.
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