By Alicia Maher
The growth of the Metaverse has been unprecedented; with a handful of businesses, entities, and clients moving their products and services there, the digital ecosystem is expected to grow beyond what it is now.
In a recent forecast for the growth of the Metaverse carried out by global banking conglomerate Citi, the Metaverse is expected to grow to a whopping $8 trillion, or $13 trillion by 2030. In addition, Citi further estimates that the number of Metaverse users will grow by 5 billion.
The potential of the Metaverse is enormous; the digit space economy can triple many countries’ revenue generation.
Metaverse, A Trillion Dollars Opportunity
The newly released Global Perspectives and Solutions (GPS), designed by the banking behemoth, has a special section dedicated to analyzing the Metaverse and its potential.
In the 184-page report, there is a comprehensive exploration of the Metaverse and what it is all about. The assessment includes what a Metaverse is, its infrastructures, digital assets in the Metaverse (NFT), decentralized finance (money), and other regulatory frameworks for the space.
Talking about the size of the Metaverse economy, Citi describes it as the next generation of the web – one that links the physical and digital worlds together in an immersive pattern and is not limited to just virtual reality.
The Metaverse economy is a large ecosystem with easy accessibility via devices like game consoles, PCs, and smartphones. The monetary value of the Metaverse could grow from $8 trillion to $13 trillion in the coming years.
The report also revealed that Citi believed the combined total number of users on the Metaverse would surge to 5 billion during the period under consideration. The user base depends on whether the definition is broad because users can be categorized as mobile, PC user base and V/R and other device user base.
The report also addressed how users can access the Metaverse, with consumer hardware makers designated as the gate-keepers to the Metaverse and the medium through which individuals can explore the space.
As for the nature of currency to be used on the Metaverse, the report disclosed that digital native tokens would dominate the space, with room for fiat currencies also likely to be integrated.
Regulations
The report explores the Metaverse laws and predicts that global internet regular would beam their searchlight on the Metaverse if it is seen as the next evolution of the web.
However, caution should be exercised because the challenges inherent in the Web2 internet would manifest themselves in the Metaverse, which are free speech, content moderation, and privacy.
The Metaverse will likely run up against yet to be approved cryptocurrency and decentralized finance (DeFi) laws in many legal jurisdictions worldwide as a blockchain-based digital ecosystem.
Despite the enormous potential the Metaverse comes with, there are foundational issues involving cryptos, DeFi, NFT, and other blockchain-based services that need to be ironed out before the actual value of the Metaverse is realized.