Facebook announced the change of its name to Meta on October 28 in a clear sign that it is going to focus on building a metaverse in the coming months where everything in that world would be virtual.
For Facebook, this would prove to be advantageous in many ways. First of all, it could help it to become a leader in an emerging trend which, by all signs so far, seems to be here to stay. This would help it to continue to engage with users and keep them on board rather than losing them to other platforms that build on the metaverse. But what would enthuse Facebook the most is the fact that such a metaverse and an alternative universe would open up the possibility of financial transactions happening with it. This is where cryptocurrencies would come into play and with Facebook already working on Diem and with its crypto wallet Novi also about to be released, all of this seems to be tied up with a single plan of building out a metaverse, getting users to come in and socialize and then make them go one step further to make them do purchases from within the virtual world.
This would also keep the purchases and transactions outside the purview of the regulators who would then be faced with a new challenge as Facebook, with its enormous user base that is distributed all around the world would then be able to build a parallel and virtual financial ecosystem governed by Diem and other such cryptos where millions of transactions could happen without the regulators having any information about any of it. This could also spawn several similar and associated businesses as well, especially in the gaming industry, all of which would be reliant on cryptocurrencies and this could place the regulators in a big quandary.
The full effect of all these changes would be known only in the coming months and it is unlikely that the regulators would be ready when this hits them but what can be said for sure is the fact that the metaverse is here to stay and the financial ecosystem all around the world is going to suffer a big change as the digital currencies begin to take over and bring in disruption.
