Round table – Innovation leaders and experts different sectors are very interested in the metaverse and the potential of asset tokenization. Testimonials from Axa France, Bouygues Telecom, Monnier Paris and Mint House.
The projects and experiments carried out in different sectors of the economy show this: the metaverse appeals to companies and their decision makers. The diversity of brands that have lots on The Sandbox is another example of this.
And even as the maturity phase of the metaverse by Gartner is planned for 2030, organizations are now committing resources to acculterate both their employees and consumers.
Transformations to watch for the Comex
Casino and its entities, including Monoprix, invest in the use of metaverseof the cryptocurrency and more in general web3. These are not the only companies in France, as evidenced by the participants in the round table led by Coins.co.uk as part of the conference IMAgine Day Metavers.
In telecom, initiatives on the Web3 remain timid, added Philippe Kerignard, Head of innovation Bouygues Telecom. Promotion of 5G in the metaverse, sale or airdrop of NFT, but “not pure telecom services”. Asia, on the other hand, seems to be leading the way in this sector.
Operators such as SK Telecom and NTT Docomo immediately created their own metaverse. They compete with companies like Meta. What they are doing is quite impressive”, emphasizes the expert.
On the axis of the tokenizationhe also calls on managers to be very vigilant about the new business models that are emerging and whose development often eludes traditional players.
Insight into technologies and applications
Indeed, these projects and their communities usually communicate on channels such as Discord and Telegram, located under the radar of corporate surveillance cells. Sudden disturbances cannot therefore be ruled out. In the telecomcould this new competition come from the tokenization of mobile data by virtual operators, MVNO.
“Users are selling on the secondary market, without our operators knowing, their unconsumed GB (…) This tokenization can have significant consequences and can cause disruptions,” emphasizes Philippe Kerignard. This potential is taken into account withinAxa France.
We are well aware that by entering the metaverse in 2022, we are in a very exploratory phase (…) However, we see an evolution in the use, from the origin of the world of video games to other applications (…) We believe in the metaverse within the innovation department, without however overestimating the short term”, explains Cyrille Magneto, VP Innovation of the insurer.
“It’s important to be quick to better understand the technologies and usage. The goal is to be one of the first to be ready for it in a few years,” clarifies the Axa CEO.
Join an ecosystem under construction
Notably, to confirm her conviction, Axa France acquired a plot in The Sandbox.
By planting your flag on a platform like The Sandbox, the company really gets involved in a learning logic (…) But buying land is not enough. So we also built our presence. This also gives us the opportunity to promote our brand in these ecosystems and meet new people there,” explains Cyrille Magneto.
Thus, in this ecosystem logic, the VP innovation is a member of the NFT Factory, whose goal is to evangelize the use of NFTs and build bridges between suppliers and companies from other sectors.
These links are also an opportunity for large groups to identify ‘tech talent’. It’s here talent war. The benefits associated with being on the metaverse are multiple.” This also applies to the luxury industry, in which the e-commerce site Monnier Paris is active.
For its director, Diaa Elyaacoubi, the challenge of web3 is that of conquering the consumers of tomorrow, that of generation Z. The distributor, described as “a tech platform”, has therefore carried out multiple projects around NFTs, crypto and the metaverse, including creating a booth during the fashion week hosted in Decentraland.
Develop a Web3 culture and technology mastery
We tried to convince some of our brand partners, many of whom were very reluctant. So there is a lot of evangelism going on on these topics,” the CEO testified.
Through his initiatives Monnier Paris thus wants to position itself as a partner of its brand customers on the Web3. The challenge is also internal and thus to develop the culture and mastery of crypto and Web3 skills in employees.
It is very important to build the company mindset around these new tools: putting Discord at the heart of our IT system, including NFT and play-to-earn in our loyalty program,” explains Diaa Elyaacoubi.
It is therefore strategic to act now to anticipate the next revolutions. “We always overestimate the short-term effects, at 2 or 3 years. And on the contrary, we underestimate them in the longer term, in 10 years (…) blockchain will disrupt a certain number of business models. And if you haven’t been able to take the train of transformation, you run the risk of missing it forever,” the boss of Monnier Paris warns.
Finance and payments promised a profound change
In the finance also the asset tokenization looks like a revolution. We should also not forget the payments, says Nicolas Louvet, CEO of Coinhouse. “The wealth management profession is also learning what makes tokenization possible,” adds the French broker’s leader, also highlighting the growing institutionalization of crypto.
” De cryptocurrency will discuss the traditional products, life insurance in particular, and support traditional portfolio management”, Nicolas Louvet anticipates in the context of complementarity between traditional financial and digital assets. However, the transformations are not only future.
The activity of Mint House illustrates it. The company, which raised 40 million euros this summer, is developing its missions beyond investing in cryptocurrency to support players from very diverse sectors in their metaverse and web3 payment adoption.
Since the beginning of the year, we have assisted 18 large groups in the purchase of land in TheSandBox or Decentraland. The best known is Carrefour, but most are CAC 40 / SBF 120 groups and some are international,” says Nicolas Louvet.
Among these customers Coinhouse counts large luxury or fashion, car or media brands. These companies use a partner to manage the payments received in crypto, i.e. off-ramp.
Crypto Services for Hundreds of Businesses in 2023
Management of wallets for selling NFT or redeeming tokens, instant crypto/fiat conversion, transaction reporting… the CEO estimates that by 2023, “hundreds of major companies will come to these services”.
We didn’t see that 3 or 4 years ago. We hadn’t quite imagined it. It is very interesting to see that companies with which we had no discussion, for example in insurance and banking, are now moving towards Web3 and blockchain,” says Nicolas Louvet.
However, there is still a stage of acculturation to go through. And it often starts with a “deconstruction” phasenotes Philippe Kerignard.
The metaverse is not just Facebook in 3D (…) NFTs are not ugly monkeys that you buy for 1 million euros (…) Cryptos are not just a ploy to buy drugs and destroy the environment”, ironically the innovation manager.
Of course, he says, the environmental impact of the metaverse is real, if only in terms of emissions generated by the use of mobile networks. The NFT coin also generates carbon emissions. Until recently, this creation even surpassed the impact of, for example, manufacturing a physical T-shirt.
However, technological advances can reduce these energy and environmental costs, including the migration of Ethereum from PoW to PoS.
The C02 component is a topic. It must not be hidden. However, I don’t think an industry will be able to share its environmental footprint by such a factor overnight,” concludes Philippe Kerignard.
Follow angles.Fr secure TwitterLinkedIn, facebook Where Telegram not to miss anything. Subscribe to our crypto newsletter received one news overview weekly.