Metaverses with top in-house rules will be the most successful ones as people look for where to live their best virtual lives, a crypto boss says

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The metaverse is generating huge excitement, from Wall Street to big brands who see it as the future of the internet and the next big thing.

Yet people at large don't quite know what to make of the shiny new concept, and aren't sure what they can expect in its virtual worlds.

It's early days. But the metaverse company most likely succeed is the one best at setting rules on conduct and policing for a safe virtual environment, according to Ben Weiss.

«You don't want a metaverse where people are saying racist things, or where people are committing crime, or where people are acting unruly,» Weiss, the CEO of crypto ATM operator CoinFlip, told Insider in a recent interview.

«So the companies that have the best regulations in their metaverse are probably the metaverses people are going to want to join.»

Broadly, the metaverse provides immersive digital worlds where people can use avatars to work, shop, socialize and play games. Some commentators believe it could replace the real world for where people live their lives. Others argue that won't happen if they need to wear clunky virtual reality or augmented reality headsets.

A battle to prevail in the metaverse is shaping up between crypto-native companies and big techs like Facebook, which has rebranded as Meta. Virtual gaming worlds like Fortnite and Roblox are already huge.

That said, the metaverse is still in an early-adoption phase, and developers are working on the deep tech behind it. Weiss — who believes several virtual worlds are inevitable — thinks the metaverse is possibly a decade away from being commercially viable.

Like most new tech, it'll first be used by a small fraction of the community before spreading to society as a whole, according to Weiss.

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