Taking Away The Metaverse from Mark Zuckerberg: Billionaire Brothers Strike Back

Written by extrachain | Published 2021/12/25
Tech Story Tags: history | decentralized-internet | good-company | metauniverse | zuckerberg-vs-winklevoss | billionaire-brothers | zuckerberg-metaverse

TLDRMark Zuckerberg and brothers Winklevoss are fighting for their vision of Web3.0 - or is it just the next stage of old rivalry? For now, most realistic way is sustainable development of decentralization trend and step-by-step rebuild of current Internet main infrastructure. But, there is a dream. A dream about “Cyberspace” was described in 1984, but only now humanity started to bring fantasy into reality. With development of our technology, growth of computing power and storage sizes, appearance of blockchain and decentralization. And we still need a giant technologic leap to be made. The only question is: from what side will it come.via the TL;DR App

Mark Zuckerberg and brothers Winklevoss are fighting for their vision of Web3.0 - or is it just the next stage of old rivalry?

It is a fact, everyone is interested in the idea of the future Internet. Facebook (now Meta), Google, Netflix, J.P. Morgan - everyone, small and big, media and finance - they study the subject from different perspectives. For now, the most realistic way is a sustainable development of decentralization trend and step-by-step rebuild of current Internet main infrastructure.

But, there is a dream.

A dream first described in William Gibson’s trilogy “Cyberspace” - virtual reality, an alternate version of our world where everyone is free in their creativity. This cyber-universe connects all corners of real-world, our minds and thoughts. A dream about “Cyberspace” was described in 1984, but only now has humanity started to bring fantasy into reality.

We named it - “MetaUniverse”.

With the development of our technology, growth of computing power and storage sizes, the appearance of the blockchain, and decentralization, we made a step closer to sci-fi “Cyberspace”. And we still need a giant technologic leap to be made. The only question is: from what side will it come - as proprietary and totally controllable software from corporations or as an open-source, crowd-managed DAO system?

When Facebook announced its transformation to Meta and its vision of MetaUniverse, many saw it as an insanely rich man’s extravagance.

Now, we discuss not only how it is even possible, but how other companies will follow Facebook’s example.


And then, an old rivalry emerged again.
Winklevoss Brothers, original creators of the Facebook social network, made their move. They always chose new and promising technologies to invest in, and after solving their conflict with Mark Zuckerberg, Winklevoss Brothers got 65 million $ from Facebook and invested in newly-born Bitcoin.

Their efforts made it possible to create a fully licensed crypto exchange “Gemini”. Seven years after “Gemini” annual revenue increased by 600% and brought its owners 10 billion $. Brothers keep showing the world the power of decentralization and open-source.

They grow different blockchain projects and technologies and it seems that they found their purpose. As an answer to Zuckerberg’s “Metaverse”, Winklevoss Brothers are trying to build their own “MetaUniverse” - but free from corporate bonds and restrictions.

With the power of open-source and community on one hand, and projects like DeSo (a complex decentralized solution that gives everyone a possibility to create their own social network), Winklevoss Brothers can give an answer to cleaned and sterile Facebook “Metaverse”.

As always, there is something in between.

The worldwide community actively discusses, what is really possible in the MetaUniverse concept. People share their ideas, plans, and forms. But they lack one feature - a solution to store an enormous amount of data that will be generated in MetaUniverse.

There are plenty of solutions: IPFS and Filecoin, Arweave, Ankr, and so on.

At ExtraChain, our main feature is cross-device and cross-chain data storage. ExtraChain is aimed to build tools suitable for developers, native and scalable to be sure that every device can work with decentralized data storage of ExtraChain - from IoT to powerful mining rigs. Like Winklevoss Brothers, ExtraChain wants to give a tool to bring Internet in Web3.0 era and not hold it back in corporate domination, like Facebook.

“We are at the brink of new form of human society - half-digital, half-real. Building a foundation of it, is our primary task”

Yuriy Snigur, CEO of ExtraChain Foundation

ExtraChain can be applied in a wide variety of use cases, including data exchange networks, freight transport industry, healthcare, and secure storage for digital and real-life assets. But ExtraChain Team has also another goal: create as many as possible instruments for developers, so they could do everything their creativity is capable of.

“As others, we are also building an ecosystem. But no ecosystem can live and expand without people, who want to bring something of their own. Make it easy to build and connect - it is always something we wanted from all projects. Now it is time to take matters into our own hands”

Vladyslav Halasiuk, CTO of ExtraChain Foundation

In William Gibson’s books, “Cyberspace” was a twisted reflection of reality, poisoned by almighty corporations, hackers, and scammers. Now we are standing at the crossroads of the Internet's fate: will we eventually get to the future of “Cyberspace” or will we build our own bright “MetaUniverse”?
Only time will tell.


Written by extrachain | Infrastructure provider for distributed apps, blockchains & DAO platforms
Published by HackerNoon on 2021/12/25