Well before CEO Mark Zuckerburg announced the name change of Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) to Meta, some of the largest and most innovative tech companies in the world already saw that the metaverse was the next big thing coming.
When the iPhone was invented by Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) in 2007, it began a movement that brought most of the world onto the internet. Or more specifically, it brought the internet to most of the world. It wasn’t the first smartphone – in fact, the very first mobile phone with internet capability was produced by Nokia (NYSE:NOK) in 1996.
However, after it was invented, a dynamic worldwide shift occurred. For starters, it was such an advancement over similar products on the market that three massive legacy mobile phone manufacturers saw their market share destroyed – Blackberry (TSX:BB), Nokia, and Motorola (NYSE:MSI). Apple’s first foray into mobile internet created such a massive first-mover advantage that within less than a decade all three conglomerates either closed down or sold off their mobile phone divisions.
Now just 14 years later, the mobile phone has replaced the computer as the primary means of logging onto the internet. As reported by Perficient (NASDAQ:PRFT), in the United States in 2020, 61% of website visits were done on a mobile device, as compared to 57% in 2019. Globally the trend is even stronger, with 68.1% of visits to websites in 2020 being done on mobile phones versus 63.3%. In entire swaths of the developing world, desktop computers are a rarity but owning a cell phone is very common.
All signs point to the fact that the metaverse will, in fact, lead the next global transformation
The Metaverse
First of all, what the heck is a or the metaverse? The Oxford Dictionary defines a metaverse as a virtual-reality space in which users can interact with a computer-generated environment and other users.
“Metaverse” combines the words meta, meaning beyond, more comprehensive or transcending, and the word universe. A metaverse is generally considered to be a virtual 3D world using the technologies of virtual reality and augmented reality.
Hollywood portrayals of a metaverse have included a very dark portrayal in the Matrix, where mankind is enslaved in it. And in a chilling and potentially realistic metaverse called “the Oasis” in Ready Player One, one sees a renewed hope because of the metaverse.
While such technologies have been around since the early 1990s, and in some form have existed in video games such as Second Life launched in 2003, the idea of the metaverse has taken on a whole new meaning with the advent of blockchain technology.
With the rise of massive centralized social media companies and tech giants like Facebook, Twitter (NYSE:TWTR), Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL), Apple and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), along with the rapid adoption of cryptocurrency and the advent of decentralized Web 3.0 networks, the environment is a perfect storm for the creation of many metaverses which have the potential to be connected together.
We’ve seen that Facebook changed its name to Meta with CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s video announcing their massive investment. Microsoft, Google, and Sony (NYSE:SONY) have only made some serious investments into the space.
But where does this leave you, a regular person? How is this going to change your life? In this article, we feature one company that is entering the blockchain and metaverse space at a level almost everyone can agree on. Pizza – one of the most popular foods in the world and gaming.
PizzaBucks
Yes, you heard correctly. Pizza and gaming. It does not require research to determine that pizza is a very popular food across the world. The exploding gaming space with 3.24 billion users is ripe for blockchain disruption. So why not combine them in the metaverse?
PizzaBucks is a new blockchain ecosystem that consists of a metaverse gaming experience, which is set for launch in Q1 2022. Central to this metaverse will be a high-graphics race car game, where you pay with cryptocurrency to get your own race car – which you actually own because it is a Non-Fungible Token. You can also customize your avatar and level up.
Still, thinking about Ready Player One? Well, imagine land, buildings, and even your own garage to repair and upgrade your race car so that you increase your earnings racing your car in this gamified metaverse. It’s all coming in Q2 to PizzaBucks.
The PizzaBucks ecosystem is powered by a cryptocurrency token built on the Binance Smart Chain so that all users could enjoy low transaction fees while participating. The PizzaBucks token, $PIZZAB is deflationary, with 200 billion tokens created during the pre-sale, with 50% locked to be burned. This means that the circulating supply will never exceed 100 billion tokens, creating buying pressure on the token price.
Holders will be rewarded with passive income. 1% of every transaction of either token will be set aside for a buyback or burn of $PIZZAB. Holders are rewarded because 4% of all transaction fees are paid as rewards to $PIZZAB holders.
Additionally, 1% of transaction fees goes to the PizzaBucks teams’ chosen charity – Mission for Charity. Safe Pizza, which administers the project’s charity actions, has already held 13 charity events.
PizzaBucks will be entering the metaverse with a Play-to-Earn experience capable of eating into the worldwide gamer economy of 3.4 billion. How big can it get? Only time can tell!