As the first bank to arrive in the metaverse, JP Morgan represents a pioneer in this field. Once you are in Decentraland, you can experience many positive sides of blockchain technology and its power to change our financial perspective.
The blockchain-based Decentraland is a virtual space based on a 3D world in a browser environment. JP Morgan opened a lounge in Decentraland and this lounge was established by Onyx, which is the bank’s blockchain unit. When you enter the lounge, you are greeted by a tiger and an avatar that represents the bank.
JP Morgan’s head of crypto and the metaverse, Christine Moy, said that there is a lot of interest from the customers to see the possibilities of the metaverse, and there is a potential in the metaverse to improve our lives for the better. She mentioned that the company put a white paper for the clients to highlight their needs and their expectations in the technical aspects of the bank service.
This may significantly improve the clients’ experience with banking solutions. There are a series of possibilities that can be improved, from commercial infrastructure and technology all the way to workforce and privacy. We need to understand what the current reality is and how we can improve in the future to make the customers’ experiences better.
The opening of a new lounge in the metaverse is no surprise for a bank that can afford $12 billion to spend on technology. This amount of money can cover all the expenses and expectations from the bank officials.
Alex Johnson, a Cornerstone Advisors’ Director of Fintech Research wrote in a newsletter that it is possible to see a big engagement of the companies that want to invest in metaverse in the future. These investments will be based on customer service channels and acquisition. Johnson also suggests that users and banks should resist the temptation to colonize the metaverse, because this may be a mistake that many will make.
However, some other users of the virtual reality world believe that investing in banks’ branches could be a significant step forward in the baking business. According to IBS Intelligence, virtual branches are a must-have for today’s banking system. Virtual branches represent a logical step when it comes to banking solutions. It would be much easier to use banking options in the virtual reality world. Just imagine that you do not have to wait in the long line and that you can get everything done from the comfort of your home.
JP Morgan has very positive thinking about virtual reality banking options. They believe that supply and demand dynamics are the leading forces that drive people into the meta-economy. According to the bank officials, the users will start seeing the solutions in the metaverse that are identical in the analog world. Mortgages, credits, and rental agreements will become a standard. Until we see these options in the virtual world, we need to make sure that our engagement in the metaverse is strong enough.
Some time will pass until we see the full potential of the banks in the virtual worlds. However, we can say that the money in the metaverse lies in investing. The value of virtual reality real estate is increasing each day. There are land offers and real estate offers in the two most popular virtual worlds, Decentraland and Sandbox.
If we know that metaverse property prices rose 700% during 2021, we can realize that many people want to have their piece of land or property in the metaverse. This might be a huge opportunity for banks like JP Morgan to open new branches and offer credit options to potential customers in the future.
