Last year, the World Economic Forum (WEF) decided to support the Metaverse project of the Meta corporation. Ultimately, many, if not most, human activities are to be transferred to the virtual world. With such strong support from politicians, the medical and financial industries, this plan will be moving forward vigorously.
At first glance, migration to VR seems incredible, but after a deeper analysis, it does not seem that difficult to implement. The last pandemic showed societies that they can take care of many things without leaving home. Automation of work thanks to robotics will eliminate many physical jobs, which will require an increase in the number of vacancies that can be done remotely, interpersonal communication is already taking place primarily through internet connections, online shopping is also a daily routine. AI in our own home will soon be able to deal with health diagnostics issues, and CBDCs will replace cash as a means of payment in the coming years.
For now, Mark Zuckerberg would like the Metaverse to be a place for social or business meetings, which should help people get used to living in this type of world. The current interfaces that allow you to connect to the virtual world are not the most pleasant, computers, smartphones, or even VR glasses will not allow us to experience comparable to reality. However, there is a technology that could enable such experiences, and that is Neuralink. Allowing electronics to affect the hormonal and nervous system is a very controversial topic, solving many problems, especially for people with disabilities, but also causing concern in terms of the impact on the subjective perception of reality of chip holders.
An image of the future is beginning to emerge, in which, in a certain sense, we are becoming slaves to convenience and virtual experiences. But if we add artificial intelligence supervising the Metaverse, we can really become them.
What role will cryptocurrencies play in this world? Will the creators of CBDCs allow for the existence of competition for their payment systems, or will cryptocurrencies even have any reason to exist then?
It seems that at least a few specially designated cryptocurrencies will find their niche, i.e. a group of cryptocurrencies enabling anonymous payments with Monero and ZCash at the forefront. However, will the development of quantum computers not break this group as well?
The coming future arouses in me two feelings, excitement and fear.
