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I do not think it would shock anyone to say Mark Zuckerberg wants to not only become a player but be THE player in any and all endeavors he participates in. Facebook, now known as Meta, has a pretty iron-clad grasp on socialization over the internet through its various companies. Since he had successfully not only contoured but managed to beat back attempts to break up his company he needed a new area to branch out into. His options though were limited when it came to staying within the technology realm but it did seem like he had found a sweet space when he launched his crypto project the Libra Association which in December of 2020 changed its name to the Diem Association.
When Libra was initially launched it had some of the biggest corporate supporters behind it. Not only were big corporations behind it but it had gathered the support of those who otherwise would have been rivals! Some of these names included Paypal, Visa, Mastercard, and Stripe all who specialize in payment processing. After the intense and harsh reaction from not only government and regulators but also the general public overall the companies listed above ended up leaving the association.
Libra tried to no avail to march forward and for a while still was occasionally picking up a new association member here and there however their vision was rapidly crushed. The idea was to peg it to a basket of currencies to maintain its stability. This basket would have consisted of 50% USD, 18% Euro, 14% Japanse Yen, 11% Pound Sterling, and 7% Singapore dollar. Each member of the association was also going to inject $10 million USD so that the asset was fully backed. Regulators still continued to have issues with it and for a while, the project was not talked about much. In 2020 a new idea of a slimmer version with just USD pegging and was working with regulators in Switzerland to get approval for a payments license but by May of 2021, the work with Switzerland was halted.
A couple of days ago news broke that Meta was joining Block's (Paypal) Crypto Open Platform Alliance or COPA. This was big news because COPA operates under the promise of not enforcing their core cryptocurrency patients to keep regulatory pressure off of the companies that are part of this. Not long after this news came out it was leaked that the Diem Association was actually for sale to pay back the $200 million that companies had put into it initially. The remaining patients will be added then to COPA but some of them could still be sold off to other people or companies.
This announcement did not surprise me at all and the reason for that was because Zuckerberg had pivoted from his initial cryptocurrency dreams. He did not even hide it from the public either as Facebook the company that owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp was renamed Meta and he had done a whole release of the Metaverse and it was going to be the future of well if you listened to him everything.
When I heard this and saw it I could see how this really has been in the making for a while now. Years ago Meta bought AR company Oculus but not a ton had really ever been released with it. Before people ask yes they did release games and headsets but for what it was hyped up to be it really fell by the wayside or so people thought. To me, this was the first step in staying many steps ahead of everyone else when it comes to Meta and Zuckerbergs ability to control how people communicate.
Mark Zuckerberg is right the Metaverse is going to play a huge part in the world in the next few years especially with the COVID pandemic continuing to disrupt our lives. He thought way way ahead though and is now jumping into creating his own Metaverse which will have a very similar control on us as Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp have on us now. He is really trying to get in front of and ride the move into blockchain, web 3, the metaverse, anything he can sink himself into to maintain some sort of access to people's lives and more importantly their data. Seeing how the Libra/Diem situation was handled looking back on it also seemed like a dry run to see how the world would react. He then learned from this and when everything lined up he was able to launch his Metaverse idea and with how COVID is running wild still, it became much more palatable to both the general public and regulators.
Now his Metaverse is not a thing quite yet and even with all of the money that Meta has at its disposal, it will take time for everything to be developed to the point that it has a sizeable impact on our lives. It might seem that I am pretty locked in on Meta taking over in the Metaverse however I am not. The actions of Meta have driven huge investments and capital overall to these projects that already existed to developed their platforms like Sandbox, Decentraland, and even Roblox. People in crypto and blockchain are very protective of these spaces and so the profile boost is giving these DAO's, companies, etc. time to perfect their product before someone like Meta comes in with a finished project. I would even argue it could be seen as a blessing in disguise. It's also important to note that companies that otherwise probably wouldn't be in the Metaverse space have joined in including Microsoft which believes the future of business will be conducted in this space. Microsoft is a foe that Meta isn't going to be able to roll over so it prevents Meta from taking over the business side of the Metaverse forcing it to face the rest of the competition like the different companies, DAO's, and organizations listed above.
Zuckerberg is an extremely smart man and I can only assume he was aware that his company was going to face a huge issue in the future that we are moving towards with a hybrid workforce and people wanting to be immersed in a different world. However, at the end of the day, I do not think regulators will let him pull off his Metaverse like he would want to. I would expect them to let him build a ton of it out before handicapping it as it would benefit all participants.
Do not forget though that this will all take a few years and will not be done instantaneously. Huge developments have been made as different brands have gotten involved in Metaverse projects and there is even going to be a Metaverse fashion show but overall adoption by the masses will be years in the making. Basic things like infrastructure still need to be built for these worlds for people to experience but the future is so bright in these sectors!
Please know I am not a financial advisor I am just someone who picked up on a trend and wanted to express it! Makes sure you always do your own research and never invest money you cannot afford to lose! If you enjoyed this article and would like to further support me below are a couple of referral links that if you used when signing up I would appreciate it! Also, follow me on Twitter @Cje95_
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