Are you a metaverse cow?

The Turkish cows arrived in the metaverse, but when they were in the bullpen, they thought they were already in heaven. This person's thought is even more amazing if you think you are in heaven and don't care about the troubles that will follow.

The news of the past few days has become a hot topic among friends. On a farm in Turkey, cows are put on VR goggles and read images of summer meadows in the mirror. This way the cows in the cage are happy to know that their fence has been removed, their food tastes better and their milk is more abundant.

Historically, it was the news of agriculture and technology, a situation that was no different from fat cows when listening to music in the past. However, when I was caught up by the metaverse, this news made people laugh. Therefore, each of the presentations was announced one after the other. A joker said, "I've been in the metaverse for a long time, so I didn't know cows could enter the metaverse before humans." What do pigs see in pigs? But among the many happy answers there are the passionate ones, one is, "How do you know you're not a cow by the metaverse?"

Because it starts, people are always the best world of Utopia, they used to connect its performance and new technology. Every time the new technology or element, some people have brought this new hope we will help us build utopiaias. For example, after the discovery of "areas occur, people think they will provide new conditions to new places for new places for new size. So a mandarin new in the new world to set up utopia. After the manufacturer's operation has been removed, many people think that people create the right thing as the same functions as God. As the result, it is 'punk', much of the internet, and the internet blocks are shown, and Utopia's opinion is in the community.. Now, I was in Yuan edge.

The question is, will it be different this time around?

Will anyone in the metaverse get rich?

In many publications now, the metaverse has become a concept of collecting almost anything beautiful. People have said that in this new virtual world, people can be better, more honest, and more independent than they actually are. But in fact, this optimism is almost "impossible" for the metaverse.

Think first about the question of wealth. A friend complained about the current mortgage on Moment some time ago, and he figured that if he couldn't afford to buy a house in real life, he wouldn't. would have no choice, just go to the metaverse and buy a set. Unexpectedly, as soon as his message was sent, someone replied, "Do you think the price of a metaverse house will be cheaper? Check the news that JJ Lin is buying a house in Decentraland!"

Some people may be surprised. As a virtual world, the metaverse is just a set of numbers hidden behind it. These are just a few numbers, so would it be nice to have them all? But the problem is obviously not so simple. In practice, some of the lesser ones need to be created more often in the metaverse. For example, in several so-called metaverse projects, all land is allocated, so when a user buys land, the remaining land can be reduced by 1.

There are several reasons why these programs are set up as follows:

The main reason is that the development and operation of the metaverse investment needs, so for the project to be stable, the necessary investment must be managed. This determines that as a metaverse user you have to pay for what you get. And for that to happen, the deficiency must be addressed. Of course, that only explains some of the Metaverse's shortcomings. In fact, the space is not enough at many intersections if you want to start the project. The main reason they do it now is because they want consumers to spend more.

In fact, the main purpose of some products is to further expose the work. Consuming this product is what Veblen calls "conspicuously eating". The practice of "eating conspicuously" only reveals the differences between relationships and offers benefits of the differences between eating with others. Because of this, rich and talented people can be happy to see all kinds of expensive real estate or rare items on the metaverse (like Gucci recently developed virtual clothes, virtual bags, etc.). . On the other hand, it can be difficult for the average person to buy these products. Technically, it's actually just one line of code.

So it's not bad. After all, the wealthy like to spend their money, which in itself won't have a real impact on others. Alternatively, it can also have a "drip effect" that promotes project success, improving everyone's health. . The problem, however, is that not all rich people are willing to spend money on “approval”.

In the 19th century, European trains had three-class cars. Compared with the first and second passenger cars, the situation of the third passenger cars is very bad, some have no roof, and passengers have to earn money in the sun and rain. It's cheap to have a roof on a bus, so why are train drivers reluctant to spend small amounts of money to improve passenger quality? In fact, the reason the staff did this was to intimidate the more expensive riders who could afford to ride first and second class. The third party bus situation is amazing and they are ready to improve.

Similarly, in the duty-free, the Lord will make them rarely do in the same logic that creates a huge difference in dinner. For example, there is a beautiful movie called "Upload". In the game, the people die will be uploaded to the Rim Running to the eternal life. However, this treasurement edge has a service for many people. Someone who does not want to pay for a luxurious pool saw the hotel and pay more prices, is placed in a 2g area. In the 2G region, the user's answer is slow, as well as space, and many are short release to the car shop. When cars are consumed, the perception is to freeze until someone restarts. In essence, the story of the "new upload" this is not to improve life in the 2g region, not to improve life in the 2G region, but for Recharge in Lake Viewer Hotel to improve life to people in the 2G default pattern is required. In this order, it is very beautiful in the digital world, even in the digital world, and it is difficult to complete.

Is there an equal amount of wealth in the metaverse?

Next, let's look at other people's metaverse theories, where people can achieve equality in financial distribution.

Calvin Blackwell, professor of economics at the University of Charleston, has researched financial divisions. At the time, Blackwell was concerned about how financial allocations might improve in a community of "managed capital" with no distribution rights. Because each country has the right to redistribute in the real world, Blackwell and its partners can only see the virtual worlds for which they have studied Minecraft.

If you pay attention to the metaverse, know that "sandbox game" and "Minecraft" developed in 2009 are very popular metaverse blueprints. The gameplay of "Minecraft" is simple but rich. Players have the freedom to collect and trade items, craft according to their ingenuity, and even battle monsters. This free and creative space has been well received by many.

"Minecraft" allows other servers to define their own gameplay and code by "plugins". In this way, different "territories" are divided in the same "Empire" game. Blackwell and his colleagues often prefer servers focused on economic gameplay. The main role of the player on this server is to raise capital. You can get the capital by digging. After collecting tokens, you can earn in-game tokens by converting them into items and trading them in the "Market". Assault steals capital from other players. In other words, this type of server simulates two aspects of human potential: a fair exchange and a struggle for power (where coercion can really make a difference). More importantly, on this type of server, players start from scratch and don't have a government to distribute the game, so they can simulate a good trading environment.

So what would a financial division look like in a "purely capable" community? Blackwell and his colleagues counted the Gini coefficient of the Gini asset and found it to be as high as 0.96. It should be noted here that the Gini coefficient of wealth is usually higher than the Gini coefficient of income as we know it, because wealth is cumulative. At the time of the 2016 survey, the Gini coefficient of Japanese assets was 0.54 and that of the United States was 0.8.

Some would argue that using "Minecraft" as a means of financial research is unnecessary and is essentially just a game. Also, as the first metaverse product, it was not supported by any technologies such as blockchain and poor distribution. This suspicion seems justified. But would anything be better with the blessings of blockchain? We may need to look at this issue from a bigger perspective.

In blockchain-based metaverse campaigns, representatives of wealth are tokens. Tokens can be divided into homogeneous tokens (Fungible Token, FT) and non-fungible tokens (NFT) according to their type. Among them, FT is homogeneous and distributed, and in the real world, it is almost unimaginable as money, while NFT is not homogeneous and indivisible. For example, real estate in Metaverse is NFT. Of course, in most cases, there is no cost difference between the two tokens, because NFTs can be charged in FT of this project and therefore the two tokens can be switched to each other . In other words, as long as there are FTs, there can be NFTs.

So how does FT get into the metaverse? One is to trade energy accounts similar to Bitcoin system, for example that buys more energy accounts and gets more FT, and the other is to trade real money to invest more money . Who gets more FT? But at the same time, its purpose is to transform the wealth of the real world into the waters of the virtual world. In this case, the distribution in the metaverse is not equal from the start.

Of course, the inconsistencies at the beginning mean nothing. The fact is that at the beginning of the imbalance, all the productive differences of the real world are reproduced in the metaverse.

Take the currently popular Axie Infinity as an example. Focusing on the concept of "making money", this project is very popular now and is one of the most "value for money" projects in all of the metaverses. Especially in East Asia, many people cannot work due to transmission, which is gaining popularity, and Axi Infinity is their main source of income. If you think of Axie Infinity as a game, the gameplay is very simple. It's a bit rudimentary even for gamers used to playing all kinds of beautiful games. In the game, the player raises a type of elf called Axie and then uses the elf to attack other players. .

Unlike "Pokemon", Axi Infinity earns hard money. Meanwhile, all Axie Elves themselves are designed with NFTs and can be used directly for commercial purposes. On the other hand, players battle between their own Axie sprites and other user sprites and earn money by winning. Everything is done by blockchain, and adults are not fooled.

On the surface, if your training elf level is high enough or your combat is good enough, it can start with drawing and guarding beasts in the metaverse and reach the end of your life. . However, there is a cost to buy the sprite, a cost to feed the sprite, and a cost to upgrade the sprite (two characters in the game for sure). It takes a big investment to create a good elf, how can a mediocre player avoid it? And if you don't have good elves, how can you talk about reaching end of life in the metaverse?

Some see it as opportunities. We have the time and ability to raise elves, but we don't have the money to buy elves and raise them, so would it be better to buy elves and find those people to raise them? In the world of Axie Infinity, this concept is called "scholarships". In a nutshell, isn't it something like the "pay machine owner and service assistant" in the history books? Axie Infinity's scholarship program has become a model venture capital firm. Many teams today are a combination of players. In fact, there is a company behind it. People play games because they're just for work, not for fun.

It is important to note that this example does not mean that Axie Infinity type labels are bad. In fact, it provides an opportunity for employees and creates a way to earn income in the event of a contagion. What I mean is that after all of this, all real-world trading relationships have been restored in the metaverse. In other words, the metaverse does not create a paradise of equality in business relations, but only another fact.

Is this a metaverse decision?

Now, another vision of the metaverse is for people to have the freedom to make decisions in the metaverse. And the reason is in the metaverse, an organization in the form of a DAO can help people accomplish all of this.

So called the DAOs are "decentralized autonomous organizations". The concept of the DAO as a form of organization began with self-regulation. In the early 1990s, sociologist Walter Powell pointed out that self-participation was the key to our independence from hierarchy and economics. In theory, DAO has many advantages that other regulators do not have, for example, it can eliminate the differences of people in an organization, allowing everyone in the organization to facilitate communication and sharing, and ensure that everyone's needs are fully expressed. .. other. However, the long-term idea of ​​DAO was not captured. The reason is simple. Technically, such an organization is not possible. In other words, the cost of killing is very high.

Until the advent of blockchain technology, people knew that blockchain could realize the organizational form of DAOs. The smart contract on the blockchain can recognize the rules of the DAO, and the tokens are a real incentive to share the profits of the DAO. ; And since blockchain itself is meant to connect individuals and organizations around the world, the expansion of DAOs is breaking boundaries. For this reason, many blockchain-based metaverses have introduced DAOs as their first management model.

So can DAO management achieve the desired results? All I can say is that the ideal is plump, but the truth is that he is tough. In theory, blockchain works well to promote free education and free voting. However, the independence of the DAOs relies on governance. In the metaverse, the acquisition of tokens depends on the currency or the computing power, and the acquisition of the computing power also depends on the fund, so the final valuation also depends on the fund. In other words, only those who have enough money can express their opinions. Also, the cost of voting on the blockchain is very high, so in most cases, DAOs establish a dual voting system between on-chains and on-chains. First, vote on the off-channel forum to determine the voting content of the channel, then vote on the channel. Those who have neither power, nor authority, nor prestige will not let their aspirations pass through the ballot box, even less during elections.

Take Decentraland as an example. Founded in 2015, the project is a longtime pioneer of the blockchain-based metaverse. He also didn't know how long, and he suddenly rose to fame after the idea of ​​the metaverse became popular. For better performance management, Decentraland created the Decentraland DAO. The Decentraland DAO allows community users to participate in specific aspects of platform policy and development strategy to determine multiple issues, including product, content analysis, real estate, competition rules and procedures.

Decentraland currently has around 800,000 total users. In theory, the blockchain infrastructure would allow any user to participate in the administration of the DAO. In practice, however, the Decentraland DAO has established cooperation for management eligibility, and only the "owner" can participate in administration. As part of the governance process, each person's voting rights depend on the virtual resources they have (like the MANA project token and landowners), and the DAO distributes the voting rights (WMANA) accordingly to the revenue. virtual property users.

Obviously, in such an election, only those who have more assets or are willing to invest large amounts of MANA tokens in exchange for voting rights have a de facto voice. In a recent poll, only more than 40 users voted for the channel. Obviously, this is not an independent idea.

Is there something wrong with the metaverse?

When it comes to the metaverse, people also have significant emotions. In other words, "lawless judgments" can be made in this virtual world. In other words, all kinds of crimes and misconduct can be solved by the administration of the metaverse without compromising the laws of the real world.

However, it seems that these optimistic expectations are difficult to back up with reality. The metaverse is a mirror image of the real world, recreating both the beauty and the negation of the real world. Like in the real world, none of these ailments go away on their own without rules.

In 2016, a very controversial article appeared on Reddit. In the article, a netizen reported in detail various behaviors and profanity while using the Metaverse Altspace VR product. Over the years, metaverse technology has improved a lot, but is there a similar situation? The answer is no. Recently, a Horizon Worlds user reported to Facebook that he had been bullied on the Metaverse. He claimed that a stranger tried to "touch" his avatar in the square and felt that "this (annoyance) seems stronger than cyberbullying". It should be noted that this phenomenon is not only observed in the centralized realization of metaverse projects such as Decentraland or other metaverse projects under blockchain management, this phenomenon has been heard by time. This means that issues such as sexual harassment are very difficult to solve, even if they only depend on the platform or the management of the community.

In fact, phenomena such as pornography, gambling, drugs, and violence have thrived in the metaverse to some degree. And due to the nature of the metaverse, more problems occur in the metaverse than in reality. For example, in the early days of "Second Life", gambling passed, and even though they announced a ban on gambling, many private gambling sites sprang up. Also, how to control the order of the metaverse, whether it depends on platform or communities, or whether to share real-world rules is a question to consider.

epilogue

Anyway, some people think the purpose of writing this article is to counter the polemic, so I don't think you can fully understand my purpose. . In fact, as someone learning digital marketing, I have a connection for every new idea. Soon after the idea of ​​metaverse came up, I started reading a lot of metaverse texts, and first met on the famous metaverse marketing product. However, the more I learned, the more I think a lot of current publications seem very excited about the change.

It is undeniable that change is a good promise for us. In the future, the Internet will change everything about our lives as they are today. However, the metaverse, like the Internet, cannot eliminate all conflict in the world. At least from the perspective of some of the current changes, that shouldn't be the case, and some of the events we hate to see in reality will become more and more so.

Given this result, the behavior we choose next is crucial. If we can deal with the situation, see the many problems within, and frequently use various civil policies to resolve them, the betterment of the metaverse will be healthier and closer to the world we live in. If some theorists believe in mythology and ignore the many issues of the metaverse, the idea of ​​the metaverse will eventually "die".

The Turkish cows arrived in the metaverse, but when they were in the bullpen, they thought they were already in heaven. This person's thought is even more amazing if you think you are in heaven and don't care about the troubles that will follow.

I hope not everyone becomes a cow in the metaverse.