The crypto bear market has had a negative impact on valuations across the board, especially in the metaverse sector. Despite this, VCs, celebrities, and entrepreneurs continue to build out this space, as they still see value in it.
In this Raoul Pal Adventures in Crypto episode, Raoul Pal, former hedge fund manager and founder of Real Vision, welcomes on Tom Bilyeu, founder of Quest Nutrition, and most recently, his own metaverse company Impact Theory. The two discuss Tom’s current view on the economy and the opportunities it provides, what the future of entertainment could look like, and why you should be interested.
Read our notes below to learn more.
Thoughts on Current Economy
Tom Bilyeu is not an educated investor, in the past he has bet on himself instead successfully.
Plans to bet on the NFT and Web3 space and has set dry powder aside.
Won’t try to time the bottom perfectly, is ready to place bets on himself or the entertainment industry he is involved in.
If your thesis is intact, opportunities will present themselves.
Tom is selling all his real estate, doesn’t feel comfortable with expensive property in California.
He’s looking at states that are economically free and low tax, but still plans to remain in LA for the time being.
Best time to build is during the bear market when things are cheap.
Tom’s Thesis
Tom reduced his role in his NFT collection, the Relentless Impact Theory Founders Key.
Some people thought it would be run similarly to a stock, which didn’t align with Tom’s thesis.
Tom’s thesis is bordless entertainment.
For the virtual world to matter, it needs to have certain properties in common with real life.
Irreversible transactions, provable scarcity, proof of ownership, are examples of this.
This also creates an argument against regulation: NFTs will not be seen as financial instruments, but just as in-game items that leverage blockchain technology to create a more realistic experience.
Users being able to own assets allows Tom to build entertainment and interaction platforms which were not possible until now.
Many crypto influencers were skeptical of Tom’s view during the previous bull run.
Entertainment has become globalized.
Gaming has completely taken over the film industry in revenue.
What Bordless Entertainment Enables
NFTs allow users to monetize user data or keep it private.
NFTs enable on-chain interaction with other forms of media or geo-fenced locations.
The Spatial Web
Spatial Web refers to an idea for what the metaverse could look like, allows for an immersive game environment.
Spatial Web enables NFT gated locations and streaming of content.
This platform would have frictionless fiat onboarding to create an easy-to-use UX for people unfamiliar with crypto.
The spatial web allows purchases of nearly every in-game item.
Teams are working on incorporating AR (augmented reality) into their content.
Project Kyzen
Impact Theory is building Project Kyzen; an NFT based avatar creation engine built with unreal game engine.
“Game-like Experience”
The experience will be story first, game second.
The goal is to have users who are winning in the game to also win in real life.
Tom wants to provide an experience that can actually help users develop skills that could be transferred to real life.
Characters can be brought to life with AI and the unreal engine.
The team can use motion capture in real-time to play an interactive in-game character.
He is implementing collectible NFTs with rarity elements to entice users.
Users can build their own avatar or PFP.
How Will Impact Theory Build Their Vision?
NFT sales shouldn’t be the only revenue stream.
Other features will supplement NFT sales.
Moments of disruption provide opportunity, which Tom is taking advantage of.
Last 12 months have been the most difficult of Tom’s career, worked ~120 hours a week for 8 months developing Impact Theory.
Impact Theory decided to build on top of other people’s metaverse infrastructure, which will provide a much better experience than the infrastructure they created themselves.
Metaverse projects are already developing very quickly.
Project Kyzen could launch in late October or early November.
Smart-contracts have been audited, team is ironing out remaining bugs.
Check out these Important Links
Check out Tom Bilyeu on youtube