The personal notebook of @AlexDunmow. Personal musings in the form of long-form content and manifestos.

Manifesto

In 2021 it became public knowledge that there are commercial forces moving to be the authority on what the Metaverse is, and what it means to current and future digital citizens. By defining the Metaverse, they desire to set the rules of play and establish standards that benefit only themselves.

They are compelled by the commercial opportunity that tracking people across the new online world presents. They love nothing more than farming all of your data, and they’ve proven they’ll sell it to anyone and for any reason. No purpose too sinister. No advertising client too evil.

They have demonstrated without any doubt that these organizations and their leaders do not have the best interests of the internet and humanity at heart.

The future promises a true David vs Goliath battle. Where David represents the independent builders of the Web3 Metaverse, pitted squarely against the trillion dollar Goliaths of Facebook, Microsoft, Apple and others.

The free builders of tomorrow must work together to create a better world than that promised by the mega-corporations of today.

The Metaverse

As we enter into the post-information age, we discover what the metaverse means and how we can live within it.

Whether people like it or not, what we know as the Metaverse will eventually be inhabited by everyone and will be where new economies and whole new digital nation states are born.

The Metaverse will be where the knowledge workers of the future will participate in extraordinary digital value exchanges that will define the work of the future. As work and play move into the metaverse it is paramount that our future is not owned by a single person, company or entity. The Metaverse must be decentralized and tamper proof.

In the Metaverse, anyone can build new services, products, platforms, games and entirely novel economic systems. These new worlds will improve the lives of billions of people and with the right foundations in place we can gurantee that the barrier to entry is minimal, meaning anyone with a computer and an internet connection can participate. No unnecessary red tape. No needless bureaucracy.

For the Metaverse to be anything more than just a buzzword co-opted by a large social media company struggling with its own identity it is beholden on all early world builders to guarantee that The Metaverse improves upon and strengthens society; Rather than exploit and diminish it.

We believe strongly that The Metaverse™ is more than just shared 3D spaces. It’s more than just using your credit card to buy virtual designer clothes for your avatar. It’s more than just uncanny valley avatars holographically projected on to your couch while you’re forced to watch adverts beamed to your VR headset.

As builders, we have an obligation to humanity to ensure the Metaverse is a new home for current and future digital natives by improving the quality of life for everyone. In a new world that transcends the archaic borders of the physical world.

Principles of the metaverse


The Metaverse is about creation

In Metaverse you will come together with other metaverse citizens to create worlds together. These virtual worlds will give you the ability to create real value.

It’s not enough to be able to buy premade items from a corporate store. In these worlds you must have the power to create without breaking out the credit card.

The Metaverse is about ownership

In the Metaverse, the ownership of the assets you’ve earned are guaranteed to you.

You must be able to take them with you, give them to your friends, and even sell them on secondary marketplaces. All without interference by the property creators.

Even in the unfortunate event of a World provider going out of business, the assets you have created must continue to be held by you. Free for other worlds to support and carry on their story.

The Metaverse is social

There will be lots of people in the Metaverse, often represented as their metaverse avatars, in these worlds. These avatars will often be human, and sometimes manifestations of artificial intelligence.

Metaverse Worlds must be shared. It’s in these shared experiences that we shape the future.

You can be whoever and whatever you want to be in The Metaverse

Contrary to the ideals of current social media networks, you can be whoever you want in The Metaverse. You have ownership of your identity and share as much or as little of it as you wish.

Your “real world” identity is unimportant. There’s no such thing as a “fake name” in The Metaverse. You must always have the power to hide your true identity and retain all the privacy you could ever ask for.

Be whoever, or whatever, you want to be, across many worlds.

The Metaverse is a new global economy

Every Metaversal Property is akin to a nation state in the real world. Metaverse Worlds will have their own currencies, their own exports and will even be indexed by their GDP.

The Metaverse will create enormous wealth opportunities for some and bring billions of others out of poverty. As AI takes jobs from people in the real world, the Metaverse will provide new opportunities in the digital world.

VR is not The Metaverse

While virtual reality will play a big part in interfacing with The Metaverse, it is only one way to do so. There is no single or correct way to interact with The Metaverse.

The Metaverse must be open for business for everyone. From those that can afford expensive face tracking VR headsets to inexpensive mobile devices.

The Metaverse is decentralized

The Metaverse is not possible without decentralization. Our metaversal identities, histories and payments must exist separate from the metaverse worlds they engage in.

Assets must be able to be passed around worlds without interference. New worlds must be able to support assets created in other worlds without their permission or manipulation.

It’s integral to well being of all Metaverse participants that no one group can own and control the Metaverse.

The Metaverse is persistent

Much like the real world, history is important in the Metaverse. Without history, how can we learn from our mistakes?

Whole Wikipedia articles will be written about events that will take place entirely within virtual worlds, potentially spanning over numerous Metaverse worlds.

Future Universities will offer units to study Metaverse History. Future Netflix documentaries will be set entirely within the Metaverse.

The Metaverse must respect your privacy

We can’t carry across the bad habits of marketers and SaaS providers into the new internet. You should always have the power to share or withhold whatever information you see fit. You should own your data.

The Metaverse can not be another space created to hoover up user data to push targeted advertising. This new world must be able to support itself without the proven corruption of advertisers and often sinister motives of big data.

If the Metaverse can’t create enough value in people’s lives to pay for itself, then it has no right to exist.

Proof of Metaverse

For a world to be considered as part of the Metaverse it must have the following attributes:

As long as we, the builders, follow these principles then the future of the metaverse will be protected.

This Manifesto is a working document. Thank for consuming it. Want to help the cause? Tweet us: @MetaverseProof

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