Major US retailer Walmart is planning to enter the crypto space with the development of its own cryptocurrency and NFTs (non-fungible tokens) to be used in the metaverse.
The supermarket chain has filed trademarks indicating it plans to “offer users a virtual currency, as well as non-fungible tokens, or NFTs.”
It has also filed separate trademarks for virtual reality (VR) products relating to “physical fitness training services” and “classes in the field of health and nutrition”. It’s believed these products will be used together to provide customers with either a VR or augmented reality (AR) experience within the metaverse.
The concept of the metaverse was popularized when Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed the company’s rebranding to Meta and announced plans to build in the metaverse. The metaverse is a term used to loosely define a collection of virtual reality and blockchain-based applications that work together to create a fully-functional online world.
However, the new trend has not been without criticism. Recently, ex-Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey agreed with a Tweet from Udi Wertheimer pointing out the origins of the term metaverse. It comes from a book by Neal Stephenson that describes it as “a virtual world owned by corporations where end users were treated as citizens in a dystopian corporate dictatorship.”
After Wertheimer asked “What if Neal was right?”, Dorsey responded “He was.”
the word “metaverse” was coined by neal stephenson in the book “snowcrash” and it originally described a virtual world owned by corporations where end users were treated as citizens in a dystopian corporate dictatorship
what if neal was right
— udiverse black (@udiWertheimer) October 20, 2021
