Animoca Brands targets social media giants in latest Web3 expansion plans

cointelegraph.com:

Animoca Brands co-founder and chairman Yat Siu stated that his firm will continue to “shepherd companies into Web3” to speed up the evolution of the internet into an open Metaverse.

Siu has long advocated for the broader concept of an open Metaverse as opposed to a closed one that is dominated by large centralized Web2 companies. Central to Siu’s argument is that decentralized Web3 platforms and tech such as NFTs offer users a chance to maintain ownership rights over their data and content online, instead of it being controlled and utilized by firms such as Meta (formerly Facebook).

Siu made his latest comments while speaking on day three of the Australian Blockchain Week event earlier today. During his discussion hosted by Caroline Bowler — the CEO of local crypto exchange BTC Markets — the NFT proponent covered several topics including, the true value of Yuga Lab’s BAYC NFTs, the limitations of Web2, and Animoca’s ever-growing portfolio of companies and investments.

Also, I just chatted with @ysiu and @ajamesbragg in the same week. What. A. Buzz. @BTCMarkets @BlockchainAUS @animocabrands #BlockchainWeek2022 https://t.co/HoVFOAlIQ4

When questioned on Animoca Brands’ roadmap moving forward, Siu said that the firm is still “super early” in its long term goal of building an open Metaverse, but emphasized the importance of speeding up the process due to the risk of having large centralized firms dominating the virtual sphere:

Adding to his point, Siu sounded the alarm bells on major firms that don't want the decentralized and open Web3 movement to happen, as he argued that many of their business models are built around the monetization of user data.

“There are very large centralized organizations who don't want this to happen