Facebook Goes Meta
Dear Bankless Nation,
This week was the beginning of the end. Web2 peaked…we’re in the crypto era now.
What on earth are you talking about Ryan?
You’ve probably already know Facebook changed its name to Meta this week. Guys this is big. This is so much more than a rebrand. It’s a pivot. A re-tooling.
This is Zuckerberg gearing up his $900 billion social network to completely refocus on the next wave of the internet—the Metaverse.
I’ve already seen a few views on this:
- The political world thinks he just trying to divert attention from his PR crises
- Silicon Valley thinks he’s doing it to go after the younger demographic
- Crypto sees this as a direct assault on the decentralized metaverse
There’s truth in each of these perspectives. But let me add my own.
I think this is Facebook bending the knee to Ethereum.
Zuck may not know it yet, but he just capitulated to crypto.
Let’s unpack this.
Mark Zuckerberg is smart. He sees the future and he’s playing to win. As Chris Dixon pointed out in the podcast we just recorded with him (early access here), Mark is the only major tech founder still running his company—everyone else in The Valley is asleep at the wheel.
And Mark’s dead right about the importance of the metaverse.
But when I watched Mark’s keynote I noticed something,
He gets the social element of the Metaverse. He gets the importance of digital immersion—virtual reality and augmented reality. He even understands the value of interoperability—he talks about the ability to move objects from one world to another (pay particular attention to this clip).
Do you know what he didn’t mention at all?
Property rights.
No mention of how a person can truly own something in Mark’s virtual universe.
But digital property rights are the foundation of the metaverse.
The metaverse isn’t even possible without property rights.
In the Dixon podcast, we used the analogy of Disneyland vs New York City. In Disneyland, there are services, shops, and streets—but there’s no emergence. Everything’s planned. Everything’s sterile. Everything’s plastic.
In a healthy New York City neighborhood, you get something different. Apartments to build, coffee shops to open, art studios to exhibit. There are public parks and sidewalks and private property to be developed. People can own businesses. They can take pride in their communities.
Organic. Emergent. There’s culture in New York City.
The metaverse could never grow in a Disneyland.
This is why Facebook needs Ethereum.
If you’re going to build a metaverse you need to build it on a digital private rights system. You can’t compete otherwise.
So Zuck will build Meta on crypto.
Meta is the biggest validation I’ve seen from the tech giants yet. This is a step-level improvement from NFTs on Twitter.
Web 2 has peaked.
We’re in the crypto era now.
Here’s what’s planned for this week:
- Podcast with Chris Dixon on 5 mental models for Web3 (early access!)
- A guide on how to use abracadabra.money, the project behind MIM and SPELL
- 🧠 piece on fiduciaries and their entrance into the world of crypto
Have a 👊 weekend,
- RSA