The Metaverse Podcast - Metaverse Maximalism, with Anthony Pompliano of The Pomp Podcast
Primer: Anthony “Pomp” Pompliano is an entrepreneur and technology investor. In this episode of The Metaverse Podcast, he shares his thoughts on the blockchain as a monetary and technological revolution, his journey into the Metaverse, and Facebook's entrance into the Metaverse.
Background
One of the most prominent voices in the crypto ecosystem
Leads a fund valued at over $500 million
Built a media empire around his persona:
Pomp Podcast
Pomp Letter
Newly launched The Best Business Show
Before his blockchain career, he was at Facebook doing products and growth
"You're [Pomp] kind of relentless in the amount of content you create, you've been an inspiration for me, and I can't keep up and I don't know how you do it." - Jamie Burke
Blockchain As A Monetary And Technological Revolution
This gets at the heart of the whole conversation around maximalism
People want to paint a broad brush and think either maximalism is a good thing or a bad thing. This is an elementary perspective of maximalism
Currencies are adopted not because of the technology, but because of the shared belief system as a social construct
In the US, using physical cash sucks. However, the US is one of the largest and most important economies in the world. We all believe that the USD has value and are willing to spend it or accept it in transactions. It is adopted not because of the technology, but because of monetary principles
For technology, adoption is based on technological superiority or features of the technology. We are streaming videos today because it is lower cost, faster, and more reliable than VHS tapes
Important to separate monetary assets that are reliant on a monetary policy from technology, which relies on technological superiority
Without discussing cryptocurrencies yet, the natural state of a monetary asset is maximalism
if you live in the US, you are a USD maximalist (get paid in USD, save in USD, invest in USD)
if you live in Mexico, you are a peso maximalist (get paid in pesos, save in pesos, invest in pesos)
"The end state or the natural state of a monetary asset is maximalism. It's very rare to find somebody who spreads their wealth and they get paid in three different currencies, they save in three different currencies etc." - Anthony Pompliano
A Bitcoin Maximalist is just a fancy way to say they denominate their life in Bitcoin. Does not mean that nothing else in the industry is going to accrue value. It means that they are a monetary maximalist, but a technology competitor
Other technologies in the crypto space are not competing to be money. They are competing on technology (e.g. fastest throughput, cheapest fees, most composability, etc.)
Crypto industry is getting more fragmented, which leads to specialization
Bitcoin As An Alternative For Monetary Maximalism
Will be seeing more of this in the future
For most currencies, their strength is relative
For the past 50/60 years, real estate has been a fantastic investment because the dollar has been devalued and real estate prices are denominated in dollars
Since 1971, the stock market has performed very well because the dollar has been devalued
If you denominate the stock market in gold, it's down, even though gold is down against the dollar
Ricardo Salinas, one of the wealthiest men in Mexico, shared about fiat currencies are trash. When he was a kid, 10 pesos equalled $1. Today, 20,000 pesos equalled $1
Over a long time frame, there was a huge devaluation of the peso against the dollar. What is not accounted for is that, over the same time frame, the dollar has also been devalued as well
People are starting to wake up to this fact
With Bitcoin, there's just one single currency and a global unit of account. There are none of these relative strength comparisons
The digital economy is growing larger. However, there is no global reserve asset for it. Thinks that Bitcoin will become the global reserve asset
This does not mean that fiat currencies will go to zero
His Journey Into The Metaverse
Caught wind of some digital art that is being created. Started searching online and came across Fewocious
Fewocious' artwork appealed to him. Reached out to him, got to know his art, and bought 6 pieces from him
Did not know where this would lead to
"You know, and this isn't so much like, how do we make a bunch of money, it was more so almost at the beginning of like, this is cool." - Anthony Pompliano
The following year, Fewocious sold $20 million in art and became one of the highest-grossing artists in the world
Digital art can grow larger than physical art. It's more divisible and portable
The Bitcoin and Ethereum community were fine when the term digital art was used. When NFTs were introduced as a terminology, people started to become more tribal about it
Doesn't think that decentralization matters in the context of art
Thinks that the virtual economy is going to grow much larger than the physical economy
Thinks that the action to earn mechanism (e.g. play to earn, exercise to earn, etc.) will grow larger in the future
Gotten more red-pilled on virtual worlds. Some of the jobs/businesses we know are virtual
Podcaster
Instagram model
Amazon or Shopify stores
"If you zoom out and just say, look, let's fast forward 50 years, I think most people are just going to be working somewhere on the internet, whether it's true virtual reality or some version of it." - Anthony Pompliano
People think of him as a Bitcoin Maximalist, but he has invested way more than other people realize in everything else. He is loud and upfront about Bitcoin such that everything else kind of gets ignored
Thoughts On The Future Of Work
The mechanism of play to earn is going to become very important. We are watching the evolution of the idea of a job
The traditional work environment has a centralized and hierarchical structure. People need to have the right credentials and adhere to some industry standards
Now, people can work for themselves and get paid for it. This takes away potential employees from those hierarchical structures
This trend is accelerating and, in the future, people would look back and see it as the equivalent of starting their own internet company
What happened during the Dotcom era is going to happen to crypto and the Metaverse. Many ideas would fail due to wrong execution and timing, but the space as a whole would grow
"I think you've got to have this like long term patience with these trends because it really does take longer than you think it will." - Anthony Pompliano
We Are Already Living In The Metaverse
We are already living in virtual reality when we visit Twitter every day — Twitter as a virtual public square
Jamie and himself are meeting in a lo-fi version of the Metaverse through this podcast episode
People tend to imagine the Sci-fi version when discussing the Metaverse, but what they are currently doing now through a Podcast is not possible 15 years ago
"It's certainly really important to me to try to express to people that we are already experiencing the Metaverse. It isn't some far off destination." - Jamie Burke
Facebook And The Metaverse
Facebook would have a place in the Metaverse. Based on his time at Facebook, he knows that it is not wise to bet against them
Facebook will have no more power than anybody else. If they build something that people want, they will get a seat at the table. If they build something that sucks, nobody would want it
With open systems and a competitive environment, we return back to as close as a free market that we can get
Facebook may have the advantage because it can market to its large user base. However, we have seen in free markets that those who build value win out in the end. In a Web3 environment, this flips the script for Facebook
"And therefore, me building something and Facebook building something, for this new world, compete on a much more even playing field than they did in Web2." - Anthony Pompliano
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