The metaverse craze has passed, but use cases in healthcare, commerce and education should not be dominated by powerful private interests, a new BIS study argues.
Interoperable payment technologies supported by regulation will be needed to prevent the metaverse from becoming fragmented and dominated by powerful private interests, a study by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) said.
Interest in immersive computer-generated environments, otherwise known as the metaverse, peaked in early 2022, with Facebook’s name change to Meta. “It is not a foregone conclusion that the metaverse will achieve widespread adoption,” the BIS authors said. Some of its use cases were distinctly “gimmicky,” but even then, the connection to the real world was strong:
Some uses continue to develop, and big investors remain interested in the sector. Gaming, e-commerce, education and healthcare are growth field in the metaverse. Even conservative estimates put the value of the market on the metaverse in the trillions of dollars by the end of the decade.
