Snow Crash's Metaverse was filled with ads in 1992, and the real one will be too
Neal Stevenson’s Snow Crash, a techno-dystopian science-fiction novel that has become a legend among Silicon Valley tech bros, predicted the rise of a future Metaverse all the way back in 1992.
Despite Stephenson saying that he was “just making sh*t up”, the eerily accurate predictions and worldbuilding of Snow Crash have been long-revered by tech entrepreneurs and futurists including Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg.
Now, Stephenson’s striking fictional depictions of a Metaverse oversaturated with the neon glow of commercial advertising rings truer than ever as Web3 designers and marketers gear up to begin advertising in the Metaverse(s) of today.
On Feb. 23, mixed-reality NFT platform Realm announced a partnership with decentralized advertising exchange Alkimi. Realm stated it intends to use Alkimi’s platform to incentivize players to earn from advertisements by sharing the revenue from existing ad formats in a transparent way.
Speaking on how to avoid a techno-marketing dystopia like Snow Crash in an announcement, Realm co-founder Matthew Larby said that transparency was a top priority,
Ben Putley, CEO of Alkimi Exchange, added to this saying, "Advertising has always followed eyeballs and as we see the numbers of people spending time in Metaverses, it will quickly become a channel advertisers will look to include in their strategies.”
While Alkimi and Realm may have their sights set on ensuring a transparent & sustainable advertising environment, other major players are diving into the Metaverse headfirst.
JPMorgan recently released a report declaring the Metaverse a “$1-trillion opportunity” and further outlining that “[marketing] is potentially one of the biggest segments of the meta-economy.”
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