- Premium Content It takes our newsroom weeks - if not months - to investigate and produce stories for our premium content. You can’t find them anywhere else.
Shihan Fang · · 7 min readAnimoca looks to forge metaverse rules with Web2 giants amid war of words (Updated)
Update (Aug. 4, 10:45 a.m. SGT): This article was updated with information on OMA3’s intention to join the MSF.
Animoca chair Yat Siu has never been one to shy away from openly disagreeing with Web2 technology giants, or more broadly, any company that is actively banning Web3 technology.
Animoca chair Yat Siu / Photo credit: Richter Frank-Jurgen
The latest to raise Siu’s ire is Microsoft’s Mojang Studios, which is the developer of popular sandbox video game Minecraft. Mojang had been dipping its toes into non-fungible tokens (NFTs) earlier in the year but banned NFTs last week.
The move effectively torpedoed play-to-earn game NFT Worlds, which was building its crypto economy on top of Minecraft.
Animoca is known for its investments in crypto-based blockchain games and has recently raised US$75 million at a valuation of US$5.9 billion to advocate for digital property rights.
In a series of polemical tweets, Siu accused Microsoft of “digital dictatorship” and blasted the tech giant for being, yet again, on the wrong side of history. He pointed out that 20 years ago, the tech titan called open-source technology a cancer. Microsoft has since embraced the ethos and currently owns open-source coding platform Github.
1/ @Microsoft @Minecraft has just revealed that it will exclude anyone, without notice & due process, simply if they disagree with them and that they too operate as a digital dictatorship changing their terms of service on a whim https://t.co/Bo642G8FPG
— Yat Siu (@ysiu) July 21, 2022
The philosophical differences between Web2 and Web3 companies are starting to have real implications in the emerging digital worlds known collectively as the metaverse.
The launch of the Metaverse Standards Forum (MSF) last month marks the start of a collective effort by technology companies to set the standards for a single cohesive virtual world like the one described in science fiction novels Snow Crash and Ready Player One.
Web3 companies a minority in MSF
Animoca leading Web3 charge with OMA3
Improbable standards on The Otherside
Stay ahead in Asia’s tech landscape
This is premium content. Subscribe to read the full story.
Animoca’s Yat Siu has slammed Minecraft’s NFT ban. But cooperation with Web2 giants may be inevitable for the firm.
We know this is not ideal. ⌛ Sign up in 20 seconds. Cancel anytime.
Our subscriber community includes professionals from these companies:
Stay updated on the go with our mobile app.
Get latest insights with smoother, more personalized experience through TIA mobile app.
