Mini Essay - Metaverses (plural) and Freedom

Article

What it means to own your stuff.

We read an article/ad yesterday morning for a kids show debuting exclusively on a platform that needs a crypto wallet to access. Alongside things that do not generally make for a good story [1], one of the quotes from one of the finance bros behind it was something along the lines of "we don't expect kids to trade, but we want them to be able to buy digital assets on our metaverse platform".

Which, uh, kind of underscores the point that a regular database would be significantly better for the target audience than anything involving a blockchain. A blockchain was not needed for kids to earn achievement badges on the old Cartoon Network website before the forces of late stage capitalism replaced it with an empty shell of a streaming service ad. And similarly, you do not need that if you are just buying a thing for a singular platform.

But that ad did get us thinking about all of this stuff again. About "the metaverse", but also the nature of what digital ownership can mean in terms of user freedom and control, all without ever involving any sort of blockchain.

The Metaverse (singular)

"The Metaverse" is a term of art originating in