MetaCity Debuts Global SocialFi Platform Connecting Celebrities With Fans

variety.com:

Michelle Hsieh Last year, social media entered an entirely new dimension, with companies and consumers alike getting interested in the idea of the “metaverse” and the technology that powers it.The word “meta” is now popping up practically everywhere — on social feeds, on the news and in articles profiling the “overnight millionaires” who have found success by grabbing a piece of the meta pie.And now TOKAU, a Japan-based blockchain company, is launching its own metaverse project called MetaCity, the first platform focusing on celebrities and their fans.For the uninitiated, the term “metaverse” refers to a 3D virtual universe into which users from all over the world can enter and interact with one another in real time.

The space is created using a permanent record-keeping system called blockchain technology, and the data that is stored within the blockchain is called a non-fungible token, or NFT.

Based on the principles of openness and decentralization that are fundamental to Web 3.0, NFTs are being incorporated by major corporations into their routine business, while  regular consumers are beginning to use them in their everyday lives. ​​NFTs are already being utilized as artwork, event tickets, software licenses, fan club memberships and so on.Within TOKAU’s MetaCity, which maps a metaverse 3D world, fans are not merely consumers; instead, they form one of the nodes of an intricate global “SocialFi” (or “social-to-earn”) ecosystem where they can earn crypto tokens (a form of tradeable cryptocurrency) as they explore and play.“There’s been a change in the social structure of society over the past few years, and now people desire greater access to the world around them,” says Nao Saito, business development manager of.