In our current digital age, data is king. Businesses of all sizes are increasingly looking to monetize user data in order to power their products and services. However, the way in which these businesses go about extracting value from data often lacks fairness and transparency. Take Facebook, for example. The social media giant has come under fire in recent years for its business model, which is based on monetizing user data without giving anything back to the users themselves. This was most recently highlighted with the company’s rebranding to “Meta”, which signifies its concerning foray into the metaverse industry. Google is another high-profile example of a company that has faced criticism for its monetization of user data. The search giant has been embroiled in a number of antitrust cases in Europe, with regulators accusing the company of abusing its dominant market position to prioritize its own products and services over those of its competitors. Thankfully, blockchain technology offers a potential solution to this issue. Blockchain is a distributed database that allows for the creation of digital ownership and fair distribution of wealth through trustless and permissionless protocols. This makes it an ideal technology for enabling a more equitable data monetization model. Enabling True Digital Ownership One company that is taking advantage of blockchain to enable true digital ownership is Next Earth. Next Earth is a virtual land platform that allows users to own and lease virtual land. The company launched its own token, NXTT, on January 27th. All Platform Fees, Rewards, land purchases, marketplace sales are done in NXTT. As Gabor Retfalvi, founder of Next Earth, explains, “We truly believe that we can help the world become a better place, with the democratization of the Metaverse; with true digital ownership by the community, by delivering an economy where users can monetize themselves, create not just wealth and value, but also the community-driven content of the Metaverse itself, and get appreciated for it.” In other words, Next Earth’s platform gives users true digital ownership of their land, allowing them to control how it is used and who has access to it. Next Earth also provides transparency into the entire process, so users know exactly how their data is being monetized. This creates a more equitable data model in which users are compensated and in control. Can Blockchain Fix the Metaverse? The idea of the metaverse isn’t new—in his 1992 novel “Snow Crash,” Neal Stephenson described a digital world in which people could interact and do business. From science fiction to the real world, startups like Second Life sprung up in the early 2000s to try and bring this vision to life. However, these efforts have fallen short due to a lack of fairness and transparency in their business models. Next Earth is looking to change all that with its use of blockchain technology. With its platform and token, Next Earth is creating a more equitable system that will be essential for the success of the metaverse. The future of the metaverse hinges on the ability of businesses to interact with user data in a fair and transparent manner. Blockchain technology holds the promise of enabling just that. The idea of DAOs, or Decentralized Autonomous Organizations, takes this to a new level. This is why Retfalvi says that “the endgame of Next Earth is a fully DAO controlled state-of-the-art self-sustaining platform.” Ultimately, Next Earth will be fully user-controlled and will give back more and more to its users and the surrounding community. Why True Virtual Land Ownership Matters In the physical world, we own the land we live on and the things that are on it. We can use this land to build our homes, businesses, and other structures. We can also sell it, lease it, or give it away. This is a basic right that we have in the physical world and it is one that we should also have in the digital world. Virtual land is a key part of the metaverse and it should be owned by the users who inhabit it. Next Earth is leading the charge in making this a reality with its platform and token. With Next Earth, users will finally have true digital ownership of their land. This is a fundamental right that should be afforded to all users of the metaverse. Ultimately, the current model of data monetization is unfair and it needs to change. Metaverse users should be rewarded for the data that they provide rather than having it taken away without anything given back in return. Next Earth is leading the charge in making this a reality and its platform and token will help to create a more fair and equitable metaverse. Photo by Jeremy Bezanger on Unsplash
