China News Service, Beijing, September 20th (Liu Huan) The metaverse is an emerging concept in the past two years. Virtual social networking, digital collections, VR games... It is considered to be the metaverse of the next generation of Internet. Is it a vent or a tiger's mouth?

What issues in this emerging field deserve attention?

Entry: "Do nothing for 3 days and earn 3000"

　　Wang Wancai has been out of work for almost a year.

　　In December 2021, he accidentally learned about a social game with the concept of the metaverse, Rainbow Universe, while watching a short video.

This is a game product launched by Tianxiaxiu, a domestic metaverse concept company.

Here you can have a virtual home and socialize.

At that time, Rainbow Universe issued several sets of rare virtual properties, and users could participate in the lottery by logging in for three consecutive days and completing small tasks.

　　Wang Wancai was very lucky, and he won an S-class house for the first time.

At that time, he didn't understand the value of this game that looked like an evolved version of dressing up a house.

Until netizens reminded him that he could be cashed on the second-hand trading platform.

　　3 days later, he sold the account and the house to a buyer at the price of 3,000 yuan. "I just made 3,000 yuan by doing nothing for the past 3 days." Wang Wancai was amazed. With such a big profit, "I didn't expect to sell for so much money!"

(Photo courtesy of Wang Wancai’s resale of real estate on the second-hand trading platform)

　　He simply quit his job and began to focus on virtual products such as digital collections, investing in multiple metaverse platforms such as Xiyang and Whale Scout.

　　At present, there is no clear concept of the Metaverse. The research department of CITIC Securities wrote in the report "Future Conjectures and Investment Opportunities of the Metaverse" released in November 2021 that the Metaverse is a series of technologies that "connect the dots and form a line". , can bring potential drive beyond imagination, product innovation and business model innovation.

　　"We believe that the metaverse is the next-generation Internet in the next 20 years and the future digital existence of mankind," the report said.

　　It is understood that Metaverse is built on the basis of blockchain technology to build an economic system, which closely integrates the virtual world and the real world in the economic system, social system, and identity system, and allows each user to produce content and edit the world.

　　Under the premise of network consensus, individuals on the blockchain can use blockchain technology to create an immutable ledger to track transactions such as orders and accounts.

　　Hu Jiye, founder and director of the Blockchain Financial Rule of Law Research Center of China University of Political Science and Law, told Chinanews that now we have entered the era of blockchain, “The blockchain is like the Great Wall in the digital space, and every data is like Like the bricks built up, it is clear and difficult to fake."

Siege: Some people go out, some people come in

　　He Min is eager to list several sea-view villas he owns on social platforms, each priced at 2,000 yuan.

　　"Previously, houses with half sea views all started from 8,000, while houses around the sea cost tens of thousands. At that time, I regretted it if they didn't come out." He Min said, watching the price of virtual real estate getting higher and higher, thinking about rising more Sold at one point, but did not expect the price to plummet.

　　She decided to clear out a few properties in her hands, "It's all the result of being too greedy, so be willing to admit defeat."

　　There are many such examples in Wang Wancai's digital collection trading group.

He told Chinanews.com that a college student once saw that a certain collection was priced at 69 yuan at the beginning, but it rose to 3,000 yuan a piece, so he borrowed hundreds of thousands to buy a large amount, and finally watched the price drop to 30 yuan.

　　Wang Wancai said that many young people and mothers have invested heavily after seeing the rise of the concept of the Metaverse. "The profit is so high, who can't be tempted? But it's just drumming and passing flowers, and whoever gets it will be unlucky."

　　Chen Mo, who is engaged in the design of the Metaverse, said that the current atmosphere is very bad. "Some people take a few pictures and a hot new concept to sell for money, which is easy to fall into."

　　With just one concept and one picture, why does it attract so much temptation?

Li Chao, a senior player in digital collections, told Chinanews.com that many people don’t know what the Metaverse is. They just feel that the profits are huge and they enter the game blindly. It became "leek".

　　"It's crazy. Some small platforms have less than a month's release, and they say that they will reward the first place in the list with Land Rover and helicopters."

(Photo courtesy of a platform’s reward respondents for pulling people’s heads)

　　Li Chao said that many domestic platforms that sell virtual products do not have technical support, but they just target the "leeks" who follow the trend of investment and encourage users to attract people. It's a rat barn. Once they go out of business, it's hard to get the money back."

　　He Chao, secretary general of China Mobile's Joint Metaverse Industry Committee, said in an interview with Chinanews that although the uniqueness and "scarcity" of the Metaverse's "real estate" sounds attractive, it is all built on the Metaverse platform. Growing ideally.

　　"If a metaverse platform loses traffic and attention, and no new players enter the market, the value of virtual products in the hands of investors may become worthless."

The Metaverse is not a place outside the law, real laws can still govern the digital space

　　Baidu, Tencent, Alibaba... While more and more investments have entered the Metaverse, many companies have also lost money and closed down.

Recently, platforms such as Huayu Yishu and Huanhai Art have successively suspended the digital collection business.

(Photo courtesy of Huayu Yishu’s bankruptcy interviewee)

　　He Chao said that the current metaverse is still in its early stage, and various applications and ecology have not yet been established.

"If it weren't for the metaverse virtual space platform developed and established by a particularly strong company team, the operation of its virtual platform would not be stable, and it might even be eliminated. During this period, the virtual products purchased by users cannot be effectively guaranteed."

　　Hu Jiye believes that although the metaverse exists in the digital space, the laws in reality can still regulate it, "because all the activities of the metaverse are not carried out in a vacuum, and the digital space must also abide by laws and regulations."

　　Although the popularity of the Metaverse is cooling down, Chen Mo is still optimistic about its prospects. "The Metaverse is neither a vent nor a beast. Its core spirit of decentralization can help us export our value on a relatively transparent and secure platform." He believes that , the development of the Metaverse focuses on the entity rights behind it, rather than the concept itself.

　　"Just hyping up a virtual plot and collection, no matter how high the price is, it will be a bubble. It should drive the rights and interests of entities, so as to revitalize the business form that combines online and offline." Chen Mo said.

(At the request of the interviewee, some characters in the text are pseudonyms) (End)