Metaverse – does it work for both online and offline environments?


Our biggest clients thus far are Tesco, Bupa and ASOS, so we’re already working with groceries and digital fashion in cyberspace. We are also incorporating loyalty, so that anyone using the wallet will be able to use it as a passport into the games environment, since it is an API plug- in. You can buy something in one space and sell it in another. You can take your digital assets and sell them instantly, while checking your loyalty points, crypto and FIAT balance. It is no different to Google Pay, but it’s blockchain driven.


You’re making moving between ‘real’ spaces and virtual spaces seamless for transactions. Does this work for other assets too?


I mint paintings. I take people’s art collections and I turn them into fractional ownership NFTs, so they become a digital asset that can be monetised. One of the issues we have in creating these NFTs is that we have to adhere to the patriarchy of each country. For example, if I create a Picasso NFT, then I must adhere to the Spanish government’s rules when I mint that painting – ie. it must be minted in Spain.


I think that’s a similar situation with the casinos, wherein you’d need to stick to the rules of the patriarchal country as regards ownership of the brands etc., not where the owner lives – but in regards to the ownership by country of the objects. If I sell something on Opensea (the largest NFT marketplace), I can sell to anybody.


I recently had a relationship with the Swiss Stock Exchange and JP Morgan, and one of the things they suggested was that we shouldn’t worry about decentralised NFTs, until we off- ramp the finances from selling the painting or if the painting went to auction.


So fractional ownership is only relevant once the painting goes for auction, and this must be done within five years of the painting being minted as an NFT. Tis is done to increase the value of the auction and the painting itself.


At first I thought this was a problem, as the time to money is long – but thinking more about this I understood that it’s actually short – because with digital assets and fractional ownership, when it’s decentralised there is no fiscal regulation. We don’t have to report to the SCC, or the Swiss fintech organisations, so it is literally an open playing field and I see that casinos and gambling are in a similar situation.


I think everyone has to take a deep breath and take a leap of faith to enter the Metaverse. We have to build the bridge and get over this as it’s not like the 1970s, 80s or 90s, this is the future. We are not building for today, we are building for tomorrow – for the next decade. So we have to think about things entirely differently.


NFTs by their nature are a gamble, are they not?


Yes, and the end user is happy to take that


“Don’t help ICE Poker become better. Build your own offering, bring brands into the space like PokerStars, and raise the value of that brand. Brands want to be in the same space as their audience. The interest is there, but right now no one wants to step up to the plate. The Metaverse needs the


experience of this industry to refine what’s being offered to players presently, as the existing offer is already


becoming stale. They need to stop worrying about the spectre of regulation and embrace the fact it’s an unregulated space.”


“I think everyone has to take a deep breath and take a leap of faith to enter the Metaverse. We have to build the bridge and get over this as it’s not like the 1970s, 80s or 90s, this is the future. We are not building for today, we are building for tomorrow – for the next decade. So we have to think about things entirely differently.”


gamble to purchase something on Opensea, either buying as soon as it has released, or make a further down the line purchase when the price has snowballed. However, I think the risk is much more spread. Tey spread their risk over cryptocurrency and NFTs, with different values within their portfolio. It’s a bit like they are collecting chips instead of money, because they can spend those chips anywhere in the Metaverse.


So you’re trying to convince this audience not that the Metaverse is coming, but it’s already here, you’re just not looking directly at it yet? Otherwise there are two economies running…


Yes, and that’s why you don’t need to be first. You just need to be there. By the time the land- based casino industry is ready to enter the Metaverse, something else will have come along. You just become familiar with digital humans when AI moves things forward.


How do you keep out the bad actors from the Metaverse?


Decentralised Autonomous Organisations (DAU) are great ways of doing this because it is the players that will eject the bad actors. Tey will vote people out of the Metaverse, just as they do in current games such as League of Legends, whereby they report people and remove them from the game.


Games such as FIFA have been castigated for their ‘gamification’ of players, drawing them in to spend millions on FIFA Ultimate Team packs. Tat’s not a bad actor per se, but you could argue that incentivising players in such ways is pretty close to gambling.


FIFA has been castigated by the parents and by the regulatory bodies, not the players. Players want the loot boxes.


Should the land-based industry recreate their casino within the Metaverse? Would this work?


If you visit Vegas, you don’t spend every minute at the craps table. It can be very restrictive if you only want to create a gambling experience and limit other activities. We need to lower the barrier to entry and make people loyal to something other than just making or losing money. You have to think about the long-tail experience for the player.


Would something like ICE Poker benefit from the expertise from the offline side?


Yes, but don’t help ICE Poker become better. Build your own offering, bring brands into the space like PokerStars, and raise the value of that brand. Brands want to be in the same space as their audience. Te interest is there, but right now no one wants to step up to the plate.


Te Metaverse needs the experience of this industry to refine what’s being offered to players presently, as the existing offer is already becoming stale. Tey need to stop worrying about the spectre of regulation and embrace the fact it’s an unregulated space.


WIRE / PULSE / INSIGHT / REPORTS P53


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