While many of us focus on the vast social media applications of the metaverse, this new technological landscape extends far beyond communication and entertainment and into more traditional sectors. The rise of virtual and augmented reality has made it possible to buy and sell goods in virtual environments, revolutionizing the way consumers transact online. This, combined with many other innovations in spending and fintech services, is already instilling renewed optimism about the advent of open banking.
As virtual space proliferates, fintech firms and more traditional institutions alike have quickly embraced the metaverse and the technologies that drive it. JP Morgan (NYSE: JPM ), for example, was in a hurry
create your own digital lobby in the Decentraland metaverse, and HSBC recently decided to build its own space in The Sandbox,
stating that “The agreement opens up the opportunity for other global institutions to continue to innovate in Web3 as consumer adoption demands more robust experiences in the metaverse through decentralized and gamified offerings.”
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Asset management company Grayscale highlights the potential that the meta-universe can bring to businesses in a variety of industries. Across the entire addressable market for the meta universe, we can see huge potential for more comprehensive payment solutions and financial structures. With the metaverse emerging as a $1.4 trillion market opportunity, fintechs should be quick to turn their attention to the Web 3.0 era.
Although the meta universe is still many years away from reaching its full potential, we can already see it starting to build on the potential of open banking solutions. We may not be able to virtually walk through investment performance charts or digitally transport ourselves to a trading floor to view our cryptocurrency investments in the coming years, but the advent of Web 3.0 is set to fundamentally change our relationship with our money. Let’s take a deeper look at how the next generation of the Internet will make this possible:
The future of data visualization
A key aspect is the ability to explore the vast levels of data that users generate about their spending habits, investment options and various assets in an era of big data and unprecedented levels of insight.
open banking.
The financial industry is becoming more complex as new technologies such as blockchain and cryptocurrency are introduced, and users’ wealth can be distributed in more diverse ways than ever before.
As the metaverse grows, AR and VR solutions will be able to generate experiences that can help users decipher complex information about their accounts. With this in mind, Vivek Dubey, author of the 2020 FinTech Book of the Year, suggests we turn to a model that Salesforce implemented using the Oculus Rift as a means to create a 3D space in which information can be broken down.
“Constancy Labs, part of Fidelity Investments, has also leveraged Oculus Rift innovations,” adds Dubey. “They’ve created a virtual world called ‘Stock City’ where stock portfolios are transformed into a virtual 3D city where financial professionals can flood with information.”
Such a move could pave the way for much greater levels of financial literacy and much more control over financial management among users.
In the era of Web 3.0, we are likely to generate more Big Data than ever before. The onus will be on fintech companies to develop more comprehensive ways to transform the data we create
guided visualizations which can offer actionable information.
Today, users can still access information about spending patterns through platforms such as Revolut, which pioneered the
the age of open banking.
The path to accessibility
The metauniverse will be the biggest tool in the development of open banking. This is because it can lay the foundations for a true democratization of finance.
By embracing this new digital frontier, financial technology can help move away from a one-dimensional market to
more voluminous virtual landscape with different sizes and creative economies.
By leveraging a global interconnected landscape, the metaverse can pave the way for digital financial access, ultimately for billions of users, which in turn will help the Internet economy flourish.
In its commitment to open banking, fintechs like it RevolutionStarling and Nubank (NYSE: NU ) have already gone some way to increasing the number of channels available to users, making financial services, capital and assets more accessible to users around the world.
We can already see the effect of democratization in the acceleration of the growth of the industry, which was initially slow to modernize. This is especially true given Nubank’s success in providing banking solutions to the unbanked in Latin America.
As the meta-universe continues to grow, we will see more and more users doing their banking virtually. In a borderless digital ecosystem, fintech companies have an unprecedented opportunity to grow on a global scale. Harnessing the insights of big data and promoting financial literacy is likely to be just the beginning of the open banking revolution.
