It’s Thursday, and I genuinely don’t know where the week has gone. I’ve been playing some Little Cities VR on my Quest, and it’s a nice little escape. When I think of VR, I think of more first-person type experiences, so the God’s-eye-view of Little Cities is a bit of a different perspective. It honestly doesn’t add much to the gameplay element compared to a PC or console game, but it is kinda nice to be immersed.
Anyway, first up today is a fundraiser for Habitat for Humanity in the metaverse, and I’m pretty sure it’s the first such event I’ve heard about. The article’s actually a bit light on the details of how they raised money, but it sounds like there were some NFT/digital land sales, which sounds about right.
For all of the reasons that the metaverse is good for events, it should be good for fundraising - you can gather a lot more people a lot more easily without worrying about geographic or other constraints. You don’t have to worry about finding a space for it. If you want to bring in a celebrity guest as a highlight, it’s going to be easier because popping on a VR headset and saying a few words is an order of magnitude less commitment than actually going to an event.
This kind of event also really highlights the value of crypto in my eyes - when you’ve got people engaged and feeling positive about your cause, you want them to be able to donate as easily as possible. Making sure the financial infrastructure is there so they can tap a virtual tip jar and leave money will be critical to maximizing the value of these events. Though to be fair, I suppose crypto’s not strictly necessary for that - PayPal could certainly build tools for the metaverse to make that sort of thing seamless. Still, particularly in the early days it certainly feels like the types of folks who are attending metaverse fundraisers would be partial to being able to donate cryptocurrency.
This particular event was held in a digital model of one of the homes that Habitat for Humanity is building, which is a really great way to give people a feel for where their money is going. Nonprofits that are doing work in remote and dangerous places can certainly benefit from being able to give people the sort of immersive experience of their work that would be extremely costly and difficult in the real world.
I expect to see the floodgates open to metaverse fundraisers, particularly since at this moment, doing them in the metaverse is bound to get publicity, and that’s critically important for nonprofits. You’re also inevitably going to draw a crowd of people who have at least a reasonable amount of disposable income, and making them feel like you’re embracing a future that they’re excited about is likely to get those wallets open.
Doing Good in the Metaverse
Charity in virtual reality: Habitat for Humanity, law firm raise money in the metaverse: It’s good to see the metaverse really helping people.
Security in the Metaverse
Cybercriminals target metaverse investors with phishing scams: As always, where there are people doing stuff there will be criminals attempting to steal stuff.
Fashion in the Metaverse
Miami Swim Week Enters The Metaverse: The metaverse is the perfect place, because these are inevitably going to be a bunch of high-fashion swimsuits that you can’t actually get wet.
Africa’s virtual designers are already preparing for metaverse fashion: The metaverse is opening up new avenues for these designers.
Law in the Metaverse
Will Metaverse Platforms Establish Intellectual Property Enforcement Protocols?: The more complex our digital world gets, the more complex it will be to find and enforce copyright infringement.
Software for the Metaverse
8th Wall is offering AR/VR developers new features and tools: The Niantic-owned company is selling the equivalent of picks and shovels for the metaverse age… I suspect that will go well for them.
The Sandbox Founders Talk Breaking Into the Metaverse: A good interview with a couple of important metaverse folks.
Investing in the Metaverse
Chinese Indexes Company Launches Hang Seng Metaverse Index: As with a other critical industries, China is establishing a significant degree of control over the industry while also ensuring that citizens can invest in it.