The Fourth Illusion

Abstract

This chapter aims to analyze the business models' opportunity represented by the Metaverse (Foundation, n.d.), proposing a framework composed of four interdependent blocks; the “illusions” (Slater, 2003). The word Metaverse has been used to describe a sort of thing, mainly related to virtual reality (VR) (Lanier, 1992) and the non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The immersive experience of virtual reality is characterized by three illusions: the illusion of place, the illusion of embodiment, and the illusion of plausibility (Slater et al., 2009). This chapter describes the use of blockchain technology, namely the NFTs, as the origin of a fourth illusion.