In a Facebook post today, Mark Zuckerberg announced that Meta is rebranding Facebook Pay to Meta Pay. Why? Well, Zuckerberg wants users to know that its payment feature is no longer limited to its social media platforms and participating online retailers — metaverse users will get to use it, too.
Zuckerberg admitted that it will take some time before users will have the opportunity to use Meta Pay in the metaverse, but Meta has lofty ambitions about how the newly rebranded payment system will be used in the far future.
As it stands now, Facebook Pay is an easy way to send and request money on Facebook, Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp. For now, Zuckerberg said that there won’t any significant changes to the software; Meta is simply taking the step to rebrand Facebook Pay into Meta Pay.
However, Meta is working on adding a new perk to Meta Pay: a digital wallet that lets users shop in the metaverse. To quell doubts and concerns, Zuckerberg added that the digital wallet will be safe and keep users’ identity under wraps.
“In the future there will be all sorts of digital items you might want to create or buy: digital clothing, art, videos, music, experiences, virtual events, and more,” Meta’s CEO said. We have an inkling that Meta could be introducing non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in the future, especially after Zuckerberg made the following comment: “Proof of ownership will be important, especially if you want to take some of these items with you across different services.”
“Proof of ownership” is the operative phrase here, especially when it comes to NFTs. The underlying technology behind this cryptocurrency-backed protocol ensures that proof of ownership is recorded on the blockchain. In other words, if you decide to purchase digital art, the blockchain records that you are the official owner of that intangible object.
Further adding to our suspicions, Zuckerberg said, “you should be able to sign into any metaverse experience and everything you’ve bought should be right there.” Digital wallets like MetaMask allow users to connect to countless crypto-friendly sites; all can “see” the digital assets, including NFTs, inside users’ MetaMask arsenal. It sounds like Meta has similar ambitions for Meta Pay.
The Zuckerberg said that Meta a long way from materializing his vision into reality, but interoperability within the metaverse world is one of the goals he’d like to achieve.
