Zuckerberg announces Facebook Pay is officially renamed Meta Pay, plans to create a Metaverse wallet

On June 23, local time on Wednesday, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook’s parent company Meta, announced that the company’s payment service Facebook Pay was officially renamed Meta Pay, and also detailed the company’s plans to build a Metaverse wallet in the future. .

While the Meta Pay service is essentially the same as the previous payment service, just with a different name, Zuckerberg’s statement is primarily focused on the “metaverse wallet” the company hopes to build in the future. Zuckerberg said,Meta is developing something that will allow users to manage their identities, items and payment methods in the digital world of the future.

In its Meta Pay rebranding announcement in May, Meta also mentioned that it was “researching what a single wallet user experience might look like” in terms of payment services, identity storage and digital items. However, Zuckerberg mainly explained how the company’s future Metaverse wallet will prove users’ digital ownership, mentioning how the Metaverse wallet will be used to create and buy “digital clothing, artwork, video services, music, online experiences” and virtual events, etc.”

Zuckerberg said, “Today I’m going to focus on Meta Pay and Metaverse’s digital wallet. We’re going to take the first step and change Facebook Pay to Meta Pay. You can do it through Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, and any other Platforms that support Facebook Pay use Meta Pay, and the way users shop, transfer money, and donate remains the same. But in addition to existing features, we’re working on something new: a metaverse wallet that allows you to securely manage your identity , the virtual items you own, and how you pay. In the future, you may want to create or buy a variety of digital items, such as digital clothing, artwork, video services, music, online experiences, virtual events, and more. Proof of ownership is important if you want to take these digital items to different services.”

“Ideally, you should be able to log into any metaverse experience, and all digital items purchased should remain the same. There is still a long way to go to achieve this, but interoperability will provide users with better experience, providing more opportunities for creators. That is, the more places users can easily use digital products, the more they will be valued, which creates a larger market for creators. The easier the transaction, the more opportunities for creators The more. We’re looking to build such a metaverse.”

The concept of a wallet that proves a user owns digital items sounds a lot like a crypto wallet that holds non-fungible tokens. While Zuckerberg didn’t mention blockchain at all, Meta has been working on integrating non-fungible tokens into Instagram and Facebook recently, but the company hasn’t made it clear if it plans to use crypto to build the Metaverse , or just draw inspiration from it. The latter is probably the best option, given what Meta has done in the past. The company tried to develop a cryptocurrency, but it didn’t work out well. Meta is reportedly currently working on a non-blockchain-based digital currency.

Zuckerberg also said that Meta plans to make users’ digital wallets interoperable, allowing users to bring goods into “any metaverse experience.” While Zuckerberg admits he’s not sure what interoperability between companies will look like, Meta recently helped form a standardization group with the goal of keeping all companies developing languages ​​and technologies related to the Metaverse. Consistent.

If interoperability based on standard protocols is considered, it may be a while before the metaverse wallet Zuckerberg describes becomes a reality. However, that didn’t stop Meta from selling digital products during this period. It has developed a digital store that allows users to buy clothes for their digital avatars.