The metaverse is everywhere, and it’s only getting more popular.
From virtual reality to augmented reality, and from cryptocurrencies to the explosion of NFTs, here are a few of the new meta trends we’re tracking this year (and you should be, too).
New Meta Trend #1: Growth and Development of NFTs
You’ll have heard about NFTs in the news, but how much do you know?
With artists in the metaverse (or just in the online marketplace) creating a growing amount of digital art, and with the ease of others copying and using that art, a solution was needed to ensure that artists and other digital creators were able to monetize their work.
This was, at least in theory, the origin story of the NFT (non-fungible token). Think of an NFT as a certificate of ownership for a digital thing.
We believe that NFTs will become the standard mark of ownership and will permeate more industries as 2022 goes on. For more information on NFTs, check out our webinar series. NFTs are definitely a major meta trend this year that we are happy to help you learn more about.
New Meta Trend #2: Complex Trends in Crypto
2021 was, in the words of Time Magazine, “A big year for cryptocurrency.” It was also a volatile year for crypto.
Trends indicate that the volatility may continue.
Time points out that: “We’ve seen Bitcoin hit multiple new all-time high prices over the past year – followed by big drops – and more institutional buy-in from major companies. Ethereum, the second-biggest cryptocurrency, notched its own new all-time high late last year as well.”
With increasing talk of cryptocurrency regulation, both in the USA and internationally, the market’s stability is uncertain. Regulation may be a legitimizing force, helping encourage more people and industries to adopt crypto, or it may cause the bottom to drop out.
One way or the other, crypto figures into this year’s meta trends to watch closely.
New Meta Trend #3: New Metaverse Expansion
It seems very clear that the metaverse is on everyone’s mind.
Facebook’s parent company even changed its name to Meta, for heaven’s sake. So watching the expansion of the metaverse, as more and more companies and thinkers try to imagine all of the ways that it might work, is definitely a meta trend for this year.
From growth in the popularity of virtual reality games, events, and systems, to an increase in the use and utility of augmented reality solutions, the metaverse is set to explode.
Forbes calls the metaverse “the next big thing in marketing,” and explains that, in addition to myriad games, “new non-gaming metaverses are starting to appear more regularly. Virtual conventions are now taking place in the metaverse.”
If you haven’t put it together yet, all of these trends are connected by the metaverse itself.
As Wired says, “It’s no wonder, then, that people promoting things like NFTs – cryptographic tokens that can serve as certificates of ownership of a digital item, sort of – are also latching onto the idea of the metaverse.”
Remember too, that NFTs are a part of the blockchain technology that drives cryptocurrencies. So as interest in one of these meta trends expands, they are likely to trend together.
You can get in on the ground floor of all of these meta trends, and SeekXR can help.