Meta, the metaverse-based platform, announced the launch of a new wallet targeted to support value interaction in the metaverse. Meta Pay, a rebrand of the former Facebook Pay service, will continue to fulfill the same functions that Facebook Pay did in the past, but will be developed as a universal way to pay for goods and services using digital identities in the metaverse.
Meta is trying to solve the problem of value transactions and interactions in the metaverse. The company announced the launch of a new digital wallet that will support users' savings in the next iteration of the Meta metaverse. The wallet, dubbed Meta Pay, will be an evolution of what is known today as Facebook Pay, still supporting the range of payments it currently processes, but with a new focus on digital identity and proof of ownership. According to Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta (formerly Facebook), Meta Pay will be a solution to two problems in the metaverse: accessibility to digital assets and proof of ownership. About this, he stated:
In the future, there will be all kinds of digital items you might want to create or buy – digital apparel, art, videos, music, experiences, virtual events, and more. Proof of ownership will be important, especially if you want to take some of these items with you to different services.
Zuckerberg stated that, ideally, everything that is purchased in one part of the metaverse should be available on another platform, with the same functions and features. This is one of the goals that Meta seeks to achieve with Meta Pay: a kind of Web3 identity that links purchases of digital items to a unique digital identity. Zuckerberg explained:
This kind of interoperability will provide much better experiences for people and greater opportunities for creators. That is, the more places you can easily use your digital products, the more you will value them, which creates a bigger market for creators.
Furthermore, Zuckerberg argues that a universal payment method across the metaverse will be an opportunity for content creators as more consumers will be available to buy their content. However, this can only be achieved with a certain degree of standardization. The company recently partnered with Microsoft and other companies, such as Epic Games, to release a group of open standards for all things metaverse, working to establish commonalities to make metaverses more interoperable in the future.
