The current narrative of blockchain beyond Defi is the Metaverse. It’s easy to see we are in the midst of a “Metaverse Space Race” for supremacy 👾
But when you think of your normal waking hours it’s safe to assume the average person is likely not spending the majority of their day wrapped up in video games. We work, eat, spend time with family, travel, socialize, play sports, enjoy entertainment, volunteer, endlessly scroll, relax; all these activities take up a substantial slice of our time. All these realms are already digitized in one form or another through apps, but what’s the next step?
Almost everything people do is for the purpose of achievements. We go to school to earn degrees. We put in hard work to earn a higher status amongst our colleagues. We learn a new recipe to expand our culinary craft. In more recent years we have been trained within the digital realm to “Unlock Achievements”. Maybe it’s the video game level you pass with zero damage or the fitness app that gives you badges for your ironman (woman) streak. We are groomed for achievements whether programmed in the software we use, or engrained in the society we live.
Snapchat Trophies was a massive gamification of social media. Even unusual suspects like your typical soccer mom who had spent zero time playing video games soon obsessed over earning badges. Among other objectives individuals were incentivized to continue chatting streaks with friends, and despite the reward systems having no intrinsic value, it was consumed by millions of people daily for the equivalent of a pat on the back.
So what about the people who won’t Metaverse in the near future?
As an aging millennial with more daily responsibilities to my wife and child I find myself in a period of life where video games for me are actually on the decline. My current goals align with being more physical and less digital. So what if communities I’m already a part of incentivize action through tokenization?
A peak into the future 🔭
A city backed community needs volunteers to help cleanup the area in order to create a better environment for us all to live & do business. By contributing X amount of hours you receive tokens that can be cashed in for city led programs like yoga or cooking classes. Now let’s say a café in the neighborhood also offers coffee or food in exchange for those tokens, and then later gifts them to their staff as a wellness initiative. That barista now chooses to swap those city tokens for a few Nike Sneaker Coins because if enough are accumulated she gets a pair of Air Force 1’s. This is a social economy in motion without FIAT Currency.
I WAS THERE!
A token doesn’t need to have an intrinsic value beyond the original receiver. Live Nation could offer a token for an event you attended to commemorate your presence at a concert of your favorite artist. The ticket stub is all but dead 😥 TicketMaster prefers the app, or a home printed version, but innovation is coming! Digital tokens that commemorate your experience of being at that moment in time will become reality soon… it could even include a live footage NFT, so now you can put your fucking phone down and just live in the moment!← Achievement Unlocked — “Went to a concert and was present”
Trip Advisor could use already established worldwide agents to provide you with a token signifying your visit to each country. Leaderboards will be created and challenges started in order to incentivize traveling. Amazing Race anyone?!?!
Fanzone X Ticketmaster: Your player card starts out as “common", but every game you attend upgrades the points/rarity of the players you hold. This increases the fans desire to attend games, which is the ultimate business model of the club. Take it a step further; key attributes like highlights are added from the game you attended. A person who can only afford one game a year might luck out with the “highlight of the year goal” added to their player card. All of a sudden that common card would get a big boost in valuation because of that one key moment. The great economic equalizer 😎
Businesses/Governments/People will create endless use cases to support engagement with their platforms and products. In the process the world will be hooked on “unlocking achievements”.
This is the gamification of life!
We will build reputation in the communities we associate with, participate in a new style of economy that creates goals to achieve rewards, and create business models not even perceived by 99% of the population.
Death to Air Miles? Why would companies pay centralized entities with high margins and a closed ecosystem when they could provide a better user experience with a decentralized token economy giving consumers freedom of P2P flow with Social Tokens.
So think Omniverse and not just the Metaverse 🧐
BTW Lukso will play a massive role in the Metaverse too, and these worlds are guaranteed to overlap as they will share many of the same standards. Just don’t overlook social tokenization and the impact it will have over the next decade.
I hope to write more articles that will shed light on the nuances you may be missing with the MASSIVE project called Lukso. Social Tokenization and the Gamification of Life is just one aspect of the New Creative Economy that’s coming. All these activities will drive network traffic creating additional demand on $LYX.
Why not Ethereum?
Current Ethereum standards are too clunky and not suited to build like this. Proper Identity Standards are required, and this would be too gas heavy on the Ethereum Blockchain. All of this will be possible with the new core standards that Fabian Vogelsteller & team are creating. We need Universal Profiles, new NFT standards, and white label apps to create these new interactions between B2B, B2C, and P2P with as little friction as possible.
Want to learn more?
The Lukso Community is amazing, and will help with any questions you may have. Link up on their Community Telegram group to speak with like minded individuals excited about where the New Creative Economy will take us.
Cheers,
LuksoCat 🥃