Delving Into the Metaverse: Interview with Elena Obukhova

Elena Obukhova, CEO of Fintech Advisory Services, delves into the Metaverse in this brief interview to Jack Morton, FAS.

Q: What things can people experience in the metaverse?

A: Metaverse is designed to replicate most of real life’s activities and experiences. You can now meet with your friends, work colleagues, attend events, visit an art show, drive a car, go to a bar, and many other things. I remember the other day I joined some random music festival in Decentraland and was dancing there. My friend, for example, spent NYE in the metaverse hopping between different time zones locations to celebrate it with people from all over the world. Metaverse experiences are endless, you’re only limited to your (and of course digital creators’) imagination. 

Q: How does the metaverse benefit creators like artists?

A: Metaverse helps to bring communities together. For example, music artists now can host concerts for millions of their fans at once. That would be nearly impossible to do in real life. Galleries started hosting receptions in metaverses as well. Imagine joining an art show of a famous artist from your home somewhere in Europe. Artists in general have an opportunity to get global exposure with a larger audience compared to live events. This is especially beneficial for upcoming artists.      

Q: Emerging technology companies are set to benefit the most from the metaverse, with things like metaverse gaming, why is that?

A: Metaverse isn’t a new concept. Remember World of Warcraft? That’s also a metaverse where you can meet people and trade different artefacts. Now the metaverse industry is doing its next step by bringing business, art, entertainment, and other fields into the future. Emerging technology companies add enormous value to the metaverse as they make it easier for people “to connect, transact and communicate”. Thus, NFTs, cryptocurrencies, AR/VR, wearables, and other technologies will be benefiting the most as many metaverse activities would be impossible without them.    

Q: How is metaverse linked to AR, and why does this matter?

A: I would call AR a connector between the real world and the metaverse. You can project certain digital exhibitions or concerts from the metaverse into real life. Imagine you’re hosting a small in-person gallery reception in NYC. How many people can join? Most likely only people living in the city will come for this event. Now imagine hosting a virtual gallery reception at the same time in the metaverse enabling all your attendees (in-person and virtual) to interact and enjoy the show. AR also makes it simpler to access certain things compared to VR as we have more people with smartphones than with VR glasses. 

Q: Ordinary people have invested in the metaverse as an innovation with real estate, can the metaverse create a healthy alternative economy for ordinary people?

A: We can already see jobs appearing in the metaverse. Companies are moving their offices to the space, hosting team building sessions and team meetings. Event industry-related companies are also exploring metaverses and are starting to host different shows, events, and festivals. It’s hard to say what a “healthy economy” actually is as everyone will probably have their own vision, however, metaverse definitely creates an alternative with some new opportunities to explore. It’s still too early to make a conclusion as we’re only at the beginning of metaverse market establishment.  

Q: Will the metaverse ecosystem be controlled by decentralised blockchain, or big tech?

A: That’s a good question! Being a large crypto believer, I would like to think that decentralization is the only way to go. However, the reality might be very different. Meta definitely made a large contribution into metaverse awareness bringing the concept to the masses (considering Facebook’s enormous userbase), however the solution will be centralized and powered by the big tech. Meta might get better graphics, faster connection speed and popularity especially considering the funds that the company can spare on marketing. 

At the same time we have such fast-runners like Decentraland and Sandbox that are trying to build metaverse in a more decentralized way. They are also getting a growing popularity in space however “the battle for an average user” might be tougher than it seems. People in the crypto space care about decentralization but it’s not yet the case for the rest of the society. Thus, the way to decentralized metaverse for most people might still be through centralized big tech-powered metaverses.