The Busy Person’s Guide to the Metaverse

Meta: after, beyond, transcending

- Merriam-Webster dictionary

 

Hype. Future. Gobbledygook. Revolutionary.

As things stand, the “Metaverse” is all of it and none of it.

The concept of the metaverse is almost as old the internet itself. Way back in 1992, author Neal Stephenson coined the term “metaverse” in his novel Snow Crash to describe a virtual world in which people, represented as avatars, interacted with each other and artificially intelligent software agents.

But was he right to refer to it as the metaverse? And what is driving the current frenzy around metaverse? Let’s explore all about the metaverse down this merry rabbit hole...  

Tell me again - what is the metaverse?

At the most fundamental level – the Metaverse is the bigger, better, and more advanced upgrade of the Internet itself. In the year 2042 (yes, it will be that far out), a new user will get online in the Metaverse – not the internet.

It is important to note that currently, the metaverse is in a very early conceptual stage. There is a good chance that all the grandiose visions will never materialize once the hype fizzles out. But there is also a pretty good chance that in the long term the hype will manifest itself into reality. That's the reality we will delve into.

The metaverse will be a hyper connected blend of virtual and physical reality. It will record, transact, recommend and drive every aspect of your digital existence. To enable this, it will combine social media, remote working, healthcare, entertainment, gaming, technology and regulatory interfaces all provided for by virtual and real economic transactions.

To understand it better, try to consider what the metaverse isn’t…

• It is NOT ONLY a game – Fortnite or other massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) are not metaverses. They are fictional, commercial, singular UNIVERSES designed for a single purpose (i.e. playing a specific game).
• It is NOT ONLY virtual reality – Powered by next-gen mobile phones and advanced wearables like VR headsets – these are not metaverses but enhanced virtual avatar-based business and social environments for 1:1 and group interactions. Think the next generation of Zoom meetings, online birthday parties or “virtual watch parties” on Netflix.
• It is NOT ONLY a digital and virtual economy – This exists today too. Online worlds such as World of Warcraft have digital transactions where people trade virtual goods for real money or perform virtual tasks in exchange for real money.

 

How will all this work?

The continued improvements in telecom networks – scaling up to 7G or 8G from 5G standards will be a significant enabler of the metaverse. This will allow not only for the very high network speeds but also provide the bandwidth capacity to process peta or even exabytes of data across platforms in real-time.

Another factor will be the anticipated advances in Machine Learning. It is already being used in everyday applications such as facial recognition, voice search, and all sorts of other under-the-hood processes. It has the potential to manage the huge magnitudes of information and applications for seamless interactions envisioned in the metaverse.

For actual users, depending on the type of interaction and applications, the metaverse will be enabled through augmented reality (AR) and / or virtual reality (VR) - think advanced mobile devices, smart glasses, VR headsets or even futuristic implants.

Finally, the piping and foundations of the metaverse will likely be based on the next generation of blockchains especially for smart identities, smart contracts, AI bots and cryptocurrencies. These will replace the internet’s current protocols such as HTTP, FTP, DNS servers, etc.

Are we there yet? Can I have my metaverse now?

The metaverse owes its current fame to Facebook renaming itself to Meta. This was followed by Microsoft other tech firms stating the metaverse as their El Dorado.

However, the metaverse currently doesn’t exist. What we have today are early iterations of some components of the metaverse in the form of online gaming universes, current versions of blockchain and machine learning developments.

Blockchains in particular have significant challenges to overcome. Among other things, the current versions are too slow, lack privacy (by design) and are wrecking the environment. So as things stand, it is not a sure thing.

 

If it does become reality, the metaverse in all likelihood will be more than 3D VR games with digital avatars on Teams and Zoom calls. 

While the current hype creates the headlines, the real metaverse will take shape under the hype radar over several years in invisible tectonic technology shifts.

To rephrase Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz “…we are a long way from Kansas!” 

A curated list of niche resources on the metaverse and related topics

The Metaverse: What It Is, Where to Find it, and Who Will Build It

Towards Data Science

Molly White 

FT Alphaville

Line Goes Up – The Problem With NFTs (and all things blockchain)

2008 Metaverse Roadmap by W3C

My Year in Books

Despite 2021 being a very busy year all around - I managed to read a good number of some very good books! Read on for my verdict on the books I read this year...

Favourite books of the year

• Midnight in Chernobyl by Adam Higginbotham

An amazing book about a jaw dropping catastrophe. Does an excellent job of simultaneously explaining complex nuclear energy concepts; the history of Soviet nuclear ambitions and the details of the disaster itself with its multi generational fallout.

• The Expanse series (books 5 to 8) by James S. A. Corey

The Expanse is a Hugo Award winner for the best series and is easily one of the best science fiction / fantasy series out there. Stunning vision and execution by the author(s) rooted in a believable future of interstellar adventures.

• This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends by Nicole Perlroth

The 2021 Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year. Every system; be it computers, phones, networks - whether online or offline; is vulnerable. Nothing is secure. It is the wild west and no one has the tools to tame it. A very sobering read. The chapter detailing the unravelling of the 2016 US election itself is worth the price of the entire book! My only grouse - despite all the accolades, I would definitely change the title! 

• Remnants of a Separation by Aanchal Malhotra

The Indian Partition is a difficult topic to discuss at the best of times. This book offers er a unique visual approach of recounting the full spectrum of Partition memoirs. It use objects - both mundane and exquisite, which belong to the last surviving generation that witnessed the tragedy first hand providing a subdued, meditative reading experience. 

Underwhelming books

• A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles - very pretentious writing style resulting in a long, boring read with a final twist that was too little too late to salvage interest.

• Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann - promised a great deal but frequent digressions into America's political history made it a plodding read. Hopefully, Martin Scorcese will be able to channel his Gangs of New York spirit for an exciting movie adaptation.

• The Midnight Library by Matt Haig - a simplistic little story about the homilies of living well and positive thinking. Would have worked better as a non-fiction, self help book. 

Classics reread

• Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain
• Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
• Being Mortal by Dr. Atul Gawande

Final read of the year

• Leviathan Falls (the Expanse series) by James S. A. Corey

This is the 9th and final novel of one my favourite science fiction series. Will hope to read slowly and drag it out at least for a couple of weeks - to make it a long goodbye!

Be sure to share your thoughts on the books you read this year and those that you are looking forward to in 2022 - Happy reading!!!

 

Facebook's Libra currency: Not coming soon to a wallet near you - Updated

Update as on 16 Oct 2019

It’s been a very bad week for Facebook’s planned stable coin – Libra. Throughout the initial push Facebook has asserted that Libra is a part of a larger group beyond itself and that Facebook is nothing more than a founding member among 28. Well events over the last 10 days have completely derailed that argument.

Libra's vanishing partners

Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, Paypal, Mercado Pago, Ebay and Booking Holdings all announced their departure from the Libra alliance. While there were no official reasons, media reporting on these indicate that it was the threat of increased regulatory scrutiny issued by American Senators – not just for Libra but on various other operational aspects of these financial services and ecommerce behemoths. This direct threat from the US Senators in addition to the various public pronouncements by multiple European regulators proved too much for these Libra coin partners.

These departures are body blows for Libra as they have essentially taken away the entire payments expertise at one go. All plans regarding the structure, rollout and uses for the currency will need to be completely redrawn.

This also impairs Facebook’s regulatory positioning for Libra. Without the payment partners, this will be treated even more as a “Facebook” currency. In that scenario, it is extremely unlikely to get a green light from any of the major to launch in any of the major markets – either in the US or in the EU.

The best bet is for a watered-down basic version to be launched, launch pilots across the developing world to prove it can actually help the underbanked. Achieving some success in that may convince regulators especially in emerging markets of it’s positive intentions.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Earlier this year, Facebook announced the details of its Libra cryptocurrency venture, including details of the founder members of the Libra Association. 

Team of Rivals
It is a truly impressive cast. Besides the big daddy Facebook itself, fierce industry rivals – both new and old have pledged to work together. Uber – Lyft, Visa – Mastercard and Ebay / Paypal – Stripe. In addition to these, the consortium also includes industry leaders such as Booking.com, Spotify and Vodafone. It is notable that Apple, Amazon, Google and any of the banks – large or small are not involved at this stage. While there must surely be significant political and financial considerations for this, we will leave the speculation of their non-particiaption for another time.

The Libra Association

So why has Facebook assembled this all-star cast? 

To conquer the global currency market and replace it with their shiny new currency – Libra. Financial networks are information networks, just as social networks are. Libra’s (read - Facebook’s) vision is that the financial network will be modeled on the social network. Eventually the two will merge, creating a single network to transfer money, cat photos and political diatribes.

Lack of Trust

However, unless you have been living in an off the grid cave in the Galapagos Islands, you will know that Facebook is deeply disliked and distrusted. This has been fuelled primarily by Facebook’s role in recent political scandals around the world, rumour mongering on Whatsapp and unabated privacy breaches of user data.

It is a question of trust and integrity. If you don’t trust Facebook to manage your News Feed, why would you trust it to construct a financial system? 

The strong warnings from regulators from both sides of the Atlantic, only confirmed that the Libra launch planned in the second half of 2020 will face stiff challenges.

Grand Designs

Along with it’s partners such as Mastercard and Visa, Libra ATMs will spring up all over the world. Merchant ecosystems will be created where people will initially trade cash for Libra – and eventually only Libra! And, it will have its own programming language and smart contracts. It will be an end-to-end social-commercial-social loop along the lines of WeChat with some major twists. It will be cross-border, multi-currency and multi-platform. No wonder regulators around the world are deeply suspicious of their intentions. 

Facebook's stated motto of “moving fast and breaking things” will certainly be met by strong regulatory resistance in the payments arena. 

With all the headwinds both in the marketplace and regulatory, it is highly unlikely that you will get a Libra payment request on your phone anytime soon!

We are the Champions!

I've paid my dues

Time after time

I've done my sentence

But committed no crime

And bad mistakes 

I've made a few

I've had my share of sand kicked in my face

But I've come through

- Queen, We are the Champions

"...play is called off! India win the Test series 2-1! Finally, it's official. After 72 years, India have beaten Australia down under." - ESPNCricinfo ball-by-ball commentary

I first saw India playing in Aus in 1991 - almost 3 decades ago. We lost 4-0 and had never came close to winning the series ever since. That is why this series victory is different. It is not an in-your-face, adrenaline fuelled, edge of the seat feeling. It is much more satisfying.  

Results of India v Aus test series' in played in Aus
source: Cricbuzz

We started this series as favourites - or joint favourites. Throughout the series at almost all the key moments, we performed as the favourites. And finally, in Sydney, we won the series as the favourites. 

Over the years, even when India got close or won a game, it was as the underdogs punching up. In this series, when Australia won in Perth, they were the underdogs punching up. 

That is what has made this win so much more satisfying. Knowing that we were better than them. Playing better than them. Throughout the series.

We are the (satisfied) champions.

American President: Chronicles of a Disaster

Donald Trump's candidacy for the most powerful job in the world and subsequent presidency deserves its own movie franchise. A combination of reality TV, sitcom, thriller, satire, parody, R-rated comedy and more! Think Dr. Strangelove - but presidential.

The Tweeter-in-Chief has already provided us with enough material for at least a trilogy and with his current rate, we may have a Harry Potter style 8 part series of mega blockbusters on our hands.

Here's the crew that I think will be best suited for this magnum opus...

Working title: American President: Chronicles of a Disaster

Director : David Fincher
Written by : Aaron Sorkin

Starring

• Will Ferrell as Donald Trump
• Monica Bellucci as Melania Trump
• Margot Robbie as Ivanka Trump
• Ryan Reynolds as Jared Kushner
• Meryl Streep as Hillary Clinton
• Kevin Spacey as Bill Clinton
• Alec Baldwin as Steve Bannon
• Paul Giamatti as Reince Preibus
• Idris Elba as Barrack Obama
• Zoe Saldana as Michelle Obama
• Liam Neeson as Robert Mueller
• George Clooney as General Flynn
• Steve Carell as Sean Spicer
• Peter Capaldi as The Mooch

Feel free to pitch in with your suggestions. My Writer-Director duo will be happy to hear your thoughts.

@Hollywood movie moguls - over to you.

Please Sir, I Want Some More!

I first got to know Nawang during his final year in school. Until then, I only knew him as a senior from the Nehru house. It was a distant acquaintance. He wasn't unapproachable, but I never had any reason to approach him.

That changed with Mrs. Saldanha, our school principal’s announcement during assembly one morning.

“... and finally, I am happy to announce that this year, our school’s annual play will be performed in new format. Instead of multiple plays in Hindi and English like in previous years, we will present a single play. This year, the students of the St. Xavier’s Boys’ Academy will perform a play based on the book Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens.”

The announcement was a disappointment to most students. By eliminating the competition round, the rivalry to score points between our four great houses of Tagore, Tilak, Nehru and Kabir had been taken away. Conspiracy theories swirled almost immediately.

“She hates Mr. Singh / Mrs. Srivastava / Mr. Rai (our Hindi teachers) and doesn’t want them to win the award for the best play!”

“Saldi (the principal’s nickname) doesn’t want Kabir / Tagore / Nehru / Tilak house to win the championship.”

In hindsight, my guess is the real reason may simply have been that the teachers were struggling with the effort needed to present three different plays while simultaneously managing their classes and the curriculum.

Savio, a talented, hardworking and patient Director was hired to prepare the students for the grand event.

While many of us hadn’t read Oliver Twist, it was easy enough to see that the key parts were Oliver, Fagin, Nancy and Bill Sikes.

Oliver, was to be played by a talented junior, whom we’ll call Zubin (for the life of me, I can’t remember his name! Sorry Oliver). Nawang, Hrishikesh (Hrishi) and I were selected as the main supporting acts.

I was to play the villain Fagin, Nawang played Bill the thuggish bully and Hrishi drew the short straw (in our opinion) by being cast as Nancy. Naturally, he was ragged by most of us. Did I mention this was an all boys’ school?

Hrishi, though, was a good sport about it all and I don’t remember him ever losing his cool. Underneath however, I’m sure he was seething with the double frustration of being made fun of all the time and also for being selected to play the female lead!

The initial weeks of rehearsals were not promising. Lines and cues were constantly being missed or misspoken. Our singing was terribly off-key – especially by Oliver and me. There was no tone or tempo to any of the acts and scenes. Most importantly, there was zero chemistry among the main characters.

Much to the frustration of our director, Nawang and I acted like we were playing Bollywod villains from the 70s. Hrishi, meanwhile, was doing his best to prove that Nancy didn’t have a single feminine trait in her personality.

It was promising to be an absolute shambles. Secretly, I hoped that the teachers would recognize the disaster and go back to the original format. It was not to be. After the rocky start, things slowly started getting better.

It started with Nawang.

He took the lead by not teasing Hrishi anymore. I don’t know why he stopped – he certainly seemed to enjoy it as much as everyone else. Maybe one of the teachers had a word with him or maybe he himself thought that the joke wasn’t funny anymore. Whatever his reasons, being the most senior student in the play, his gesture didn’t go unnoticed by the rest of us and we fell in line quickly. No one teased Hrishi about playing a girl after that.

At another time, I was clowning around by singing Fagin’s lines to the tune of our Marathi morning prayer. Something really seemed to tick Nawang off as he berated me in front of everyone. While I can’t recall everything he said to me, the message was pretty clear, “If you aren’t serious, get out of here because you are ruining this for the rest of us who are trying!”

I don’t think I cried but I must have pretty close to it. It was the first time ever during my entire school life, that a student had scolded me! It was unlike anything I had experienced.

Having a senior student buying into the play had given a large fillip to the entire crew. Hrishi and Nawang got on well from then onwards and prepared earnestly for their roles. Nancy actually started displaying feminine traits!

Savio (the Director), who until then, seemed to have lost the will to live, sensed the change in mood and suddenly sprang to life. Forgotten lines and missed notes were no longer tolerated. We practiced harder than ever on getting it right.

As the play’s villainous trio, Hrishi, Nawang and I used to hang out together during rehearsal and after the initial awkwardness, the three of us got along well.

During one of the breaks in practice, he shared why he had gotten so agitated at me. “I’m sorry I shouted at you that day. But this is my final year in school. I don’t want my memories to be spoilt because of one lousy play. Even if this won’t be the best play in the school’s history, I absolutely don’t want it to be the worst. We’ll be mocked forever and never hear the end of it from everyone we know about how rotten we were!”

For the first time I imagined a disgruntled audience walking out midway through our performance. It wasn’t a happy feeling. Since I didn’t have a choice of backing out of the play, I decided to get serious and give it my best shot.

The regular practice sessions started to bear some results. So did the equal parts of encouragement and ear lashings, by Ms. Frank and Ms. Monteiro our resident music directors!

As things began to turnaround, Nawang’s potentially life-long embarrassment was turning into something good and noteworthy.

Towards the end of particularly good rehearsal, the three of us turned to each other and almost simultaneously said “Guys, that was pretty good!”

The day of the grand show arrived. While I was excited about performing before the entire school in a grand auditorium, I was also very nervous about flopping in my role as the lead villain.

I sheepishly confessed to Nawang and Savio that try as I might, I couldn’t remember the opening words to any of my dialogues. Nawang just laughed and said something along the lines of “Don’t worry. Say whatever you can remember. We’ve rehearsed so many times that we all remember each other’s lines. You won’t forget anything. Once it begins, you’ll be fine. Tension mat le!”

He was right. We received standing ovations for our performances. 

They loved us. We loved us!

Zubin (Tilak house), Hrishikesh (Tagore house), Nawang (Nehru house) and I (Kabir house) had excelled at our roles and forged a life-long friendship.

Or so we thought...

Almost twenty-five years since we performed Oliver Twist, we couldn’t be more distant from each other.

I can barely remember Zubin (if that was his name!). Hrishi and I drifted into different circles and careers. We didn’t keep in touch and haven’t met or spoken for over twenty years.

Then there’s Nawang.

We kept in touch briefly during college and even went hiking once with a few friends and his dad. Only then did I find out that his dad is a super cool dude and (along with his mom) is a famous mountaineer!

Unfortunately, our paths didn’t cross again.

The next time I heard about him was six years later. Nawang's elder brother, Sonam, taught a course in Bond Financing at my business school. It was through him that I found out, that Nawang was training to join the Indian Army.

Nawang soon became Lieutenant Nawang Harish Kapadia.

On September 2 2000, he was commissioned in the Fourth Battalion the Third Gorkha Rifles.

On November 11 2000, less than 3 months later, Nawang died while gallantly fighting Pakistan based terrorists in the jungles of Rajwar in Kupwara district of Srinagar.  

Just like that, he was gone.

--------------------------------------- *** ----------------------------------------

I did not get to know him as well as I could, but I am thankful that I got to know Nawang at all.

During our 8-week stint as co-villians in Oliver Twist, he had been my friend and guide.

When I found out that he had followed his dreams and taken the less beaten path of joining the army, he was my inspiration.

For living life on his terms, for showing true courage and bravery as he made the ultimate sacrifice for his battalion and country, Lieutenant Nawang Harish Kapadia will always be my hero.

Quantitative Easing facilitates Unicorn valuations

Startups are risky. One way to consider them is a high stakes gamble for a better (in most cases) tomorrow. Because most of the bets fail, the success stories look even more compelling.

In recent years, the traditional definition of success for startups though has transformed into something very different. Public listing on a prestigious stock exchange such as NASDAQ or NYSE was the ultimate end game for startups particularly those funded by venture capital (VC) funds. The onerous amount of paperwork along with the pressure and scrutiny of quarterly reporting cycles were an irritant rather than a deterrent. At a time when a public listing was the only true measure of the company’s worth and the most acceptable path to exit investments, the startup companies – sometimes under pressure from the VCs, embraced the hardships of a public listing.

Following the financial crisis of 2008, the advent of quantitative easing (QE) has turned into a game changer for startup funding. Thanks to the prolonged low interest rate regime in the developed world, investor funds now have a much longer threshold for generating returns. This has coincided with an emerging generation of entrepreneurs with a strong contempt for the public markets and its attendant regulations. Many of these with billion dollar valuation tags have been dubbed as “Unicorns” by the media. The most successful of these startups such as Uber have really put their investors between a rock and a hard place.

It is reported that Uber lost close to $1 billion in the first half of 2015, despite its (net) revenue tripling to more than $1.5 billion. The scale of their ambitions and operations may differ, but the story is being mirrored in successful startups across the board.

Grand investment plans are launched to realize their global ambitions but with no access to public capital, the gap is filled by private venture funds, which require ever increasing valuations. It’s a vicious cycle, as each investor either needs to double down on their bets or find another believer at ever-larger valuations for the expanding grand visions of the Unicorns – hoping that everyone keeps dancing until the music stops.

Investors, though, have no one but themselves to blame for this situation. Between their enthusiastic support for entrepreneurs with grand visions and not wanting to miss out on the next multi-bagger story, they have failed to rein in the ambitions of the current set of Unicorns’ leaders. A more demanding financial environment not driven by easy QE fueled easy money may have seen these behemoths either go public at a much earlier stage. If not, they would have sunk into obscurity, being unable to find a willing and patient investor base for their grand world domination schemes.

Things may be taking a realistic note though. Since the US Fed’s signal to end their QE program in December 2015 by increasing rates for the first time since 2006, the Titanic of the soaring valuations game has hit the iceberg of rationality.

Investors funded fewer U.S. startups in Q4 2015 than any period in more than four years. Since November 2015, at least a dozen tech companies, which combined raised well over $2 billion in venture funding, have announced layoffs, letting go hundreds of people. Other companies are closing money-losing projects and raising debt to tide them over. Some companies are raising funding by selling shares at lower prices than they had in earlier rounds. Others are turning to debt, which lets them raise money without setting a lower price for their equity.

Eric Setton, co-founder and chief executive of messaging app maker TangoMe, said he was cutting 20% of its staff to “createa sustainable business.” Less than two years earlier, the Mountain View, Calif., company raised $280 million in financing led by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. at a $1 billion valuation.

Global spread of unicorn startups

The launch of the European Central Bank’s 1.1 trillion Euro quantitative easing program in January this year will draw investors around the globe into riskier assets in Europe. Eurozone stock markets have already outperformed the U.S., U.K. and Japan since the ECB confirmed it would go through with the bond-buying program. As the stock market investment options get saturated, the excess capital will inevitably find its way into higher risk private investments such as venture funds for startups.

The party may be ending in Silicon Valley, but may just be starting in Europe.