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The Dream of Digital Ownership, Powered by the Metaverse | TED

Technologist Yat Siu believes the “open metaverse” — a decentralized version of the internet also known as web3 — is laying the foundation for a freer, fairer, more prosperous society. In a future-focused talk, he explores the transformative possibilities of web3, from enabling digital ownership and the creator economy to providing a much-needed update to…

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Technologist Yat Siu believes the “open metaverse” — a decentralized version of the internet also known as web3 — is laying the foundation for a freer, fairer, more prosperous society. In a future-focused talk, he explores the transformative possibilities of web3, from enabling digital ownership and the creator economy to providing a much-needed update to capitalism.

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53 Comments

53 Comments

  1. Fizzishin

    August 29, 2023 at 9:23 am

    The metaverse is mediocre at best.

  2. Miyu

    August 29, 2023 at 9:24 am

    ted talk is a joke nowadays

  3. st1llbleed1ng

    August 29, 2023 at 9:29 am

    মিছা কথা, কোন প্রমান ছাড়া যা ইচ্ছা তাই বলছে। হা হা দিতে পারলে ভাল হইত

  4. Mario Torrecilla

    August 29, 2023 at 9:30 am

    I get a feeling that metaverse mostly interests the companies, and not the regular Joes

    • Me MyselfandI

      August 29, 2023 at 12:00 pm

      It’s a distraction. Like gladiators back in Rome. Meanwhile the rich steal the actual property. Nothing changes. Just the names and places.

  5. Mk7r_STI

    August 29, 2023 at 9:35 am

    World economic Forum ( you will own nothing and be happy ) let that sink in ….

  6. ChristianC

    August 29, 2023 at 9:49 am

    It’s a dream because it’s fake

  7. Marie Swan

    August 29, 2023 at 9:52 am

    It’s an incredible view of the future. Definitely. Places like the Middle East, France, Southeast Asia, and Latin America are already getting on that train. Surprisingly, there are a lot of people that still don’t understand the capabilities, and where this is all going in a couple of years. I think this man is way ahead of his time, hence why this is not very easy to understand for so many people.
    It’s exactly a mirror of what the real world is, but now it’s translating into the digital world, as many many people live their lives through their computers, and will start to protect their personal data, their creations online, and the stuff that they buy online as well.
    Fun times ahead.

    • Piri's clips

      August 29, 2023 at 1:22 pm

      The real capitalist world fucking sucks, if you “translate it into the digital world” all you do is make it somehow even more abusable. Wake up, you’re being used as fodder

    • Brian Peiris

      August 29, 2023 at 8:55 pm

      Bitcoin was invented 14 years ago, but I’m sure it’s going to take over the economy any minute now.

  8. J.C. Owens

    August 29, 2023 at 9:55 am

    The dream of “digital ownership” is a contradictory statement for cannot own what does not actually exist. You can own something that a digital stand in represents but the digital artifact itself cannot truly be owned.

    • Bhutan

      August 29, 2023 at 4:51 pm

      you think you own your house physically? Tell that to the people who live in Sudan where anyone with force can just take whatever they want? That is why blockchain is useful because a digital artifact can now truly be owned that’s the whole point.

    • Rufus

      August 29, 2023 at 5:02 pm

      @Bhutan what…?

  9. Rob de la Hunty

    August 29, 2023 at 9:57 am

    where two world’s clash , that of reality and insanity. The material and the Imaginary. Like a real Ice Cream and a cartoon Ice cream ,one that can never be eaten.

  10. Samuel Zev

    August 29, 2023 at 9:58 am

    The metaverse in my opinion is the old concept of 3D intermet experience renewed because of all the hype. However in reality we already have a metaverse, it’s called Grand Theft Auto Multiplayer 😅😂

  11. Erich Swafford

    August 29, 2023 at 10:03 am

    What a load of nonsense. Line goes up!

  12. SpiritWolve

    August 29, 2023 at 10:27 am

    I am pretty sure that to most people that’s a nightmare not a dream.

  13. Benjamin I Meszaros

    August 29, 2023 at 10:49 am

    No one needs or wants this, except people who have already dumped a bunch of money into it.

  14. Carlos Pardo

    August 29, 2023 at 11:16 am

    A new occasion for grifters to leverage millions for empty worlds and promises. All in a neat package ready for thirsty investors

    Ownership is what you can pass-on and transfer

    What is ownership when you don’t even own your dematerialised games, music, podcasts, digital currency, nfts. It’s all platform / project dependant
    What can you leverage when the service you invested in doesn’t not exist anymore or is deprecated ?

    Hard pass

    • Bhutan

      August 29, 2023 at 4:55 pm

      you are wrong about NFTs and anything on blockchain they are not platform dependent that is the whole point. Your music in web2 are deprecated yes but not in web3

  15. Afnan Iman

    August 29, 2023 at 11:17 am

    No.

  16. @vickirosey

    August 29, 2023 at 11:21 am

    666…a prison

  17. Urelasir

    August 29, 2023 at 12:42 pm

    Tedtalks, the scammer and grifters platform.

  18. Will Wunsche

    August 29, 2023 at 1:47 pm

    I have never disagreed with a Ted Talk more. There are much smarter software solutions and systems we already have available that are better for ownership. Web 3 and NFTs largely remains a massive scam and scummy way to exploit people for money

  19. Nessie

    August 29, 2023 at 2:10 pm

    Ted, we need to talk. Sounds like wordplay, but seriously. We have to talk.

  20. Vien LaCrose

    August 29, 2023 at 2:35 pm

    DRM, copyright, nfts…

    Imagine engaging in fantasy escapism while bringing the worst parts of the real world with you.

  21. Marcus Eli Ravage

    August 29, 2023 at 2:48 pm

    I digitally own the Talmud NFT

  22. Shitpostingsandwhich

    August 29, 2023 at 2:59 pm

    Digital ownership is my new favorite oxymoron.

  23. Joel Heath

    August 29, 2023 at 4:19 pm

    Scarcity/Ownership is a bug of physical systems not a feature. Attempting to replicate that bug into digital spaces where it doesn’t naturally exist is folly.

    • Bhutan

      August 29, 2023 at 4:52 pm

      you prefer the complete abolishment of property rights as Karl Marx has stated?

    • Joel Heath

      August 29, 2023 at 5:07 pm

      @Bhutan Prefer? sure, but implementing that in a world that’s hostile to it and with plenty of people who will readily exploit anything available to them makes it a non-starter. In the context of the digital world, we should take the opportunity to try different approaches if for no other reason than that the constraints are different. Robotically replicating the properties of the physical world into digital spaces is about as unimaginative and anti-innovation as you can get.

    • Bhutan

      August 29, 2023 at 11:00 pm

      @Joel Heath I don’t think that is what the talk is about if you mean replicating physical world into digital spaces. I understood it as having rights to our own data and whatever the data makes in other worlds digital property rights. Current world examples does not negate the idea of having rights on our data. The argument goes that blockchain can solve the provenance issues the industry had previously with DRM etc

    • Joel Heath

      August 30, 2023 at 11:12 am

      @Bhutan I remain skeptical of the value of digital ownership. 100% of the proposed uses and implementations have turned out to be unenforceable for any practical purpose and rife with opportunities for fraudsters to exploit. With the spectacular failure of anything and everything blockchain over the past few years, the burden of proof is squarely on the evangelists to show us the baby instead of telling us it will all be great just around the corner.

  24. Sam M.

    August 29, 2023 at 8:08 pm

    We are still talking about something like this? This is not the future, it is just a fetish that tech people love (and would not benefit anyone, made it real).

  25. Ash Long

    August 29, 2023 at 9:36 pm

    Boooooo

  26. Tiago Tex Pine

    August 29, 2023 at 10:24 pm

    Any serious researcher of web3 knows these “decentralized” blockchains are actually _highly_ centralized in a few actors, data centers, compute brokers and exchanges.

  27. Nothing Really Matters

    August 29, 2023 at 10:28 pm

    He did an excellent job explaining this. His comparison to serfs made me understand exactly what is going on. He is correct. They are the landowners and we are serfs on their land. They can banish us at any time.
    My ancestors were cleared from the land in Scotland. They had no use for them anymore and they were simply forced off the land they had lived on since the beginning of time. The man who would have once been their Clan chief owned all the land and they owned nothing. It is incredible to me that one man can claim ownership of massive areas of land which was there before humans existed. Who has to right to sell it to him? How does he claim the right to own it? Yet this is still the case today. A tiny number of people own nearly all the land in Scotland.
    It seems very bleak indeed to realise that this is again the case again. We can be banished from the town square of Twitter. I read about someone having their smart devices shut down by Amazon because they thought he had said something racist, which he had not.
    What a sad futile future we have ahead of us. Virtual wars in virtual worlds where human rights don’t matter against billionaires who own literally the entire world in which we are communicating with each other.
    I’m not on any social media, I don’t think YouTube counts as it is watching videos and I really don’t want to be. Hopefully, I will die and get away from this hellish bleak future he describes. There is nothin in that world for me. This virtual world is killing humanity and I see it in how everyone treats each other in the real world.
    I feel so depressed that humanity has come to this.

  28. banana

    August 29, 2023 at 11:13 pm

    “from enabling digital ownership and the creator economy to providing a much-needed update to capitalism”

    TED you’re a joke. This is capitalism on steroids, unchecked and uncontrolled.

  29. Philip Seymore

    August 30, 2023 at 2:32 am

    Im already done with Tech. I leave my phone off and at home every opportunity. VR was an interesting fad I havnt felt the need to revisit in over 3 years. Internet is not what it used to be and too much tracking and prying. As soon as the masses work out tails, linux and onion network its all over for big tech and “dream” of thought policing, censorship and mass surveillance and I predict will happen in this coming crash. Most people I speak to were already disillusioned with it all long ago. You tube is about the only thing worth giving time to on internet now and even that appears to be loosing its edge due to daft policies.

  30. NJ

    August 30, 2023 at 5:09 am

    Could anybody explain what is metaverse

    • Marie Swan

      August 30, 2023 at 9:34 am

      Hi. Yat Siu is talking about the Open Metaverse which is inextricably bound to Web3. Web3 is kind of like the next generation of the internet, let’s say. It refers to open communities where you can be a part of as a participant. But not only that. You also have a say and a stake in a particular project if you want.
      Some projects have a specific form of transaction (i.e. a token) that has (or is supposed to have) value. The value is accrued depending on how strong that project is, and how useful (utility) their products and services are.
      The project can be in any industry, it doesn’t only apply to gaming. It can be in the fashion, sports, or education industries.

  31. alrbrtl

    August 30, 2023 at 8:50 am

    So let’s be honest once and for all. 99% of us dont like/want/need it. Thank you bye.

  32. armacor

    August 30, 2023 at 8:50 am

    So let’s be honest once and for all. 99% of us dont like/want/need it. Thank you bye.

  33. Mathew

    August 30, 2023 at 9:26 am

    I’m not rich but just wondering, who is going to pay for the server farms and their power bills? I think that should be part of the talk.

  34. Jonathan Cousins

    August 30, 2023 at 11:03 am

    I hope this never comes to pass

  35. Enjoydnb

    August 30, 2023 at 11:39 am

    TLDR: The open metaverse, powered by web3 and blockchain, can provide true digital ownership and property rights, leading to increased wealth, prosperity, and freedom in the digital world.

    00:00 💡 The metaverse is thriving, with millions of people finding employment and economic opportunities, generating over $30 billion in economic activity and having treasuries worth $12 billion, making it comparable to a modern capitalist society.

    01:36 💡 The open metaverse, powered by web3 and blockchain, allows communities to control billions of dollars without a central authority, with decentralized finance (DeFi) serving as the banking system, all part of the future iteration of the internet known as web3.

    02:27 🌐 Accessing the open metaverse doesn’t require VR goggles, and it offers a thriving virtual world with businesses and experiences, but our digital existence lacks ownership and rights, and can be taken away without due process.

    03:27 💡 Data is the most valuable resource, and web3 and blockchain can give us true digital ownership, allowing us economic freedoms and the ability to partake in network effects.

    05:05 💡 The value of digital ownership lies in the community, culture, and identity it represents, as seen in the popularity of virtual goods in the video game industry, where ownership is currently limited to rentals.

    06:55 🌐 NFTs allow us to own virtual goods in the metaverse, becoming stakeholders and participants in new economies and societies, shifting from shareholder capitalism to stakeholder capitalism, while tokenization protects our digital intellectual property rights.

    08:32 💡 Blockchain can establish ownership and property rights in the digital world, leading to increased wealth, prosperity, and freedom for individuals and nations.

    10:02 💡 NFTs generated more sales than Web2 platforms, highlighting the importance of digital property rights for our digital freedom.

  36. sachamm

    August 30, 2023 at 1:58 pm

    This is the same vision we had for the internet itself back in the 90s. The problem now is the same problem then: companies are not incentivized in any way to allow their assets to be used on other platforms or to share or play nice with anybody. These assets — whether you “own” them or not — are not useful outside the walled gardens built by the corporations and never will be.

    Think of it this way: if you’re a corporation, are you going to spend money on a building a feature into your product who’s only goal is to take control and money away from you?

    The only way around it is to build a separate economy of Open Source games and digital assets that could interoperate through NFT and the like in a meaningful way.

  37. A B

    August 30, 2023 at 5:28 pm

    Stratos Network is one of the infrastructure projects in Web 3.0 that will bring ownership to the people

  38. Dan Reed

    August 30, 2023 at 8:28 pm

    Resist the metaverse!

  39. jotax94

    August 31, 2023 at 1:37 am

    still not convinced, the only thing these stuff are made for is just for money laundring and scamming, NFTs are virtual goods with zero value that are not even close to be decentralized (no internet conection, no access to your NFTs), also in the game industry they’re very hated cause they need to be usefull for the gamers to consider spend A LOT of money, if they’re just cosmetic they’re useless.

    most business want to sell these things and their only point is to say “these makes BIG money”, little do the investors know is that most part of the money are just ppl selling things to themselves just to inflate the prices.

    if these things have a very volatile value, zero use and it “costs” the same as a house, noone wants to get close tho that web3

    it can be a pretty good technology but for now is just filled with ponzi, scams, useless things and more problems than the ones they promised to solve

  40. crookedjon

    August 31, 2023 at 3:33 am

    Feels very scammy.

  41. Lil Kakarot

    August 31, 2023 at 12:40 pm

    So i don’t own my gmail inbox??? Damn… Well i do have a nice handcrafted mailbox in the 0penWeb3 metaverse. I have a tiny piece of farmland by the river there but me and the squirrel neighbors can’t gather enough digital treats for the maildog to even wanna deliver the nfts that we ordered months ago

  42. InvestMore

    September 1, 2023 at 6:19 am

    Great video. Too many Gamers are clueless that NFTs are vastly better than their “trinkets” that they waste money and time on.
    This is a new tech that’s sadly too complex for the simple-minded to comprehend. Give them time.

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