https://metaversebases.com/metaverse/the-perfect-storm-of-the-first-year-of-the-metaverse/

2021 is the so-called the “metaverse year”. A storm has swept over Silicon Valley, attracting many talents from big companies such as Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Apple. 

Some of the tech industry’s most influential people are leaving for what they call a once-in-a-generation opportunity to get rich from regular workers, executives, and even founders.

• There will be 5 new professions in the metaverse world

Is this a once-in-a-decade opportunity, or is it just another bubble?

Sandy Carter, Amazon’s vice president of cloud computing, left to join a virtual tech startup this month. She posted a job link for a new company and received more than 350 applications within two days, many of them from traditional Internet giants.

“It’s a perfect storm. The timing that we’re seeing in this space is amazing,” said Sandy Carter. Virtual tech startups have made it impossible for big companies to retain people.

Sandy is one of Silicon Valley’s flying stars. Now, Silicon Valley executives and engineers are forgoing lucrative salaries that can reach millions of dollars a year for a once-in-a-generation opportunity. 

They argue that the next opportunity is virtual technology, with virtual currencies including Bitcoin and products that rely on blockchain, such as NFT.

Sridhar Ramaswamy, the chief executive of Neeva, a search engine startup, and a former Google executive, heard it, too. “There’s a huge sucking sound coming from virtual technology.”

This month, Brian Roberts, the chief financial officer of Lyft, a well-known ride-sharing company, joined virtual technology startup OpenSea. “We are now at ‘day one’ of NFT products and their impact,” he says of the virtual realm.

Jack Dorsey, the founder of social media giant Twitter, has also embraced virtual technology. After stepping down as CHIEF executive of Twitter, he spent more time on Square, his virtual currency and third-generation Internet company, and changed its name to Block, a nod to the blockchain.

Even Meta’s David Marcus, the executive in charge of virtual currencies, announced that he would leave and focus on his virtual currency projects at the end of the year.

Is it the Internet again, or another “subprime bubble”?

Silicon Valley is now full of stories of people riding a virtual wave to get rich. Bitcoin is up 60% this year, Ether has quintupled in value, and even Dogecoin, which wasn’t taken seriously at first, has given investors life-changing fortunes.

Beyond the investment boom, a growing number of the best and brightest minds in Silicon Valley’s tech industry see this as a time for a “seismic” shift. They believe that virtual technology is now the emergence of personal computers, the rise of the Internet era. 

Investors are also flooding into the virtual world. They have poured $28 billion into virtual and blockchain startups globally this year, four times as much as in 2020. Nft-type companies alone invested $3 billion of that.

But others question whether the virtual technology, dubbed the third generation Internet, is a bubble, not unlike the subprime bubble or the tulip bubble of the 17th century.

Instead, they argue that the craze for virtual goods is being fuelled by people who want to make a fortune by trading assets that are often based on Internet jokes.

But a growing number of believers in the virtual realm say that virtual technology can change the world by creating a decentralized Internet — the third generation.

“Big factory” to rob people can not stop the “run”

At Google, retaining employees is a topic of discussion at the company’s chief executive. Google also began offering employees additional stock awards to prevent the theft of “ripe fruit.”

Unlike Metasverse, Google has not yet been willing to jump into this lively virtual movement. But Google employees were the first to see the opportunity in the virtual realm. 

Last year, Google vice President Surojit Chatterjee left to become chief product officer at Coinbase, the largest virtual currency exchange. Coinbase went public in April. Surrogit’s stake in the company is worth more than $600 million. And he’s only been with the company for 14 months.

Cashing in so much money so quickly has created a fear of missing out in Silicon Valley, especially as those around them watched their friends get rich by buying Bitcoin in the early years.

But others are leaving because of concerns about the tech giants’ problems. They joined Companies like Facebook and Google to create something new, only to discover how controlling and bureaucratic those companies are. And with virtual startups paying off earlier than traditional tech startups, it was the most natural choice.

Sandy Carter also said that people want to work in virtual enterprises, not just for the money; some are attracted by the vision of the third generation of the Internet.

Will the departure of tech talents to virtual tech companies continue? “The answer is, of course.” Sandy Carter says now is the perfect time to jump on the bus.