1. What is it about?
2. Benefits
3. Blockchain 🤝 Meta
Interoperability is a huge topic in technology. It is not only about metaverse either. For example, you are able to use Google Drive on your macOS, Windows, Android, and iOS devices. This makes Google Drive highly interoperable. In the metaverse context, two metaverses are interoperable if you are able to transfer and use your assets and information such as avatars, NFT art, and tokens, on both platforms and when you are able to switch back and forth between two worlds seamlessly. For example, if Sandbox and Decentrand were interoperable, I would be able to log in to Sandbox with my Decentraland sneakers. If we go one step further, you could go to a teleporter in Decentraland and teleport to Sandbox without logging out, taking off your VR headset, logging into another account, and so on. Without interoperability, metaverses are like islands.
The benefits are obvious. First, it becomes much more convenient. It is like signing up for websites with your Google account, clicking on share on Youtube, and sending it directly as an Instagram DM to your friends.
Second, the value of each platform that is connected to others increases. If your assets in metaverse aka NFTs have several use cases instead of one, they will be worth more. Let’s say I bought some generative art on Opensea. And I have a nice mansion next to Snoop Dogg’s in Sandbox, I may want to decorate my mansion with the art I bought. If this NFT is interoperable with the Sandbox, then I will be able to show it in my house.
So let’s say I am done with Decentraland now, and I want to sell my sneakers. If they are only a pair of sneakers available in Decentraland, my customer pool will be much smaller compared to if these sneakers are compatible also in Somnium Space. This will not only boost the prices of assets, but also make them more liquid.
The same goes for NFTs. People criticize NFTs as overpriced jpegs, which is true for now. Since most of them do not serve any purpose other than having subjective value. But what if the creators of some of the famous profile picture (PFP)NFT sets were to deploy avatar version of these NFTs in Metaverse?
I’ll tell you, this would be huge. You can already see people using NFTs as their PFP on social media platforms. They would have an even higher value if one could use them in the metaverse.
Microsoft and Meta announced a partnership to integrate Teams and Workplace. Think of it this way, your company uses Zoom for video calls. Your younger brother calls you for a discord call and you do not even know how it operates because it has just so many functions and the interface is for gamers really. Would not it be great if you could integrate these two? So, if you were able to respond to a Discord call on your Zoom.
Another big question is whether Meta’s Horizon metaverse will be connected to blockchain metaverse projects, such as Decentraland or Sandbox. On a fundamental level, they have quite opposing philosophies. Meta is a Web2 company where the platform owner has all the power, whereas blockchain technology empowers Web3, on which users decide on the direction of the protocol. Meta is a for-profit company, and most blockchains are public. Such partnerships might cause mass adoption of blockchain and onboard millions of users to Web3 services and the decentralized metaverse