Understanding the Metaverse

Phil Chen (Managing Partner Emeritus, Presence Capital/Founding Partner, Race Capital/Chief Decentralized Officer, HTC) joined Ronit Ghose to discuss how the metaverse is not a destination, it’s a point in time. Just like the singularity is the point in time where artificial intelligence surpasses human intelligence, the metaverse is a point in time where people value digital assets more than physical assets. While current internet infrastructure is siloed with Web2 giants, metaverse goes beyond just AR/VR to experiencing internet in a more immersive way interconnecting with Web3 fundamentals i.e. permissionless, sovereign ownership, decentralization etc. Phil believes, Web3 could be potentially bigger than Web2 driven by creator-led economy. Private key encryption is critical in achieving true decentralization despite the user data being stored on public cloud infrastructure. While initial use-cases and TAM of metaverse is limited to gaming, social media, e-commerce; it could spread across other industries e.g. education, banking,