Lightspeed’s Mercedes Bent on why the metaverse isn’t overhyped

Chain Reaction
174 Episodes • Last Episode: March 29, 2024

On the Chain Reaction podcast this week, we dove into a topic that tends to stir up strong emotions, even from those outside the crypto space — the metaverse. Mercedes Bent, an investor at Lightspeed Venture Partners who focuses on consumer investments in crypto, joined us to unpack this loaded term and explain why she sees its potential.

“It’s become like a punching bag,” Bent told TechCrunch. “If you think about the potential of it, and why maybe a geek like me gets excited about it, it’s because there are things you can do [in the metaverse] that you could not do in the real world.”

The prospect of attending an event with tens of thousands of other attendees across the world in the metaverse, for example, excites Bent. But even more than entertainment, Bent is enthusiastic about the potential for the metaverse to have an impact through education. She shared the hypothetical example of public school students being able to learn from the best instructors in the world in a metaverse similar to the movie “Ready Player One” — though without the dystopian elements, she qualified. Bent’s vision squares up with some of her non-crypto consumer investments at Lightspeed, such as small-group live education platform Outschool.

But what will the metaverse actually look like? When we asked Bent, who once worked for virtual reality technology company Upload, she said she used to think the metaverse had to be tied to VR technology, specifically the head-mounted display screen.

She’s since realized that what the metaverse has to offer has less to do with how users access it physically and more to do with the sense of community it can foster.

“I think what this era — the 2021 and 2022 era of the metaverse terminology — has shown is that it’s not about the headset, it’s not about what physical apparatus you use, it’s about the sense of [a] collective being together, and presence,” she added.

While VR tech itself has been around for decades, Bent posits that the metaverse gained traction as a concept last year because it offered one thing classic VR games like Second Life did not — the ability to transfer in-game currency to fiat currency. Cryptocurrency, she believes, made that switch possible.

“There was obviously in-game currency and there were obviously virtual goods you could buy before, but the ability to be able to transfer that to fiat and then go use it in the real world to pay your rent bill is just something entirely different that we didn’t have in such a mass quantity before,” Bent said.

That technological development coupled with the onset of the pandemic, which gave people the opportunity to spend more time online, gave the metaverse new life, she continued.

Skeptics think the metaverse gets a lot of hype and isn’t backed by substantial technology or user adoption. Bent said that in her experience, skepticism is to be expected for any early-stage consumer products.

“These hyped areas look really non-obvious. I mean, they don’t have traction; they’re just an idea. They’re often from a founder who hasn’t necessarily had the most pedigree, so you have to kind of take a leap of faith,” Bent said. Bent’s mission as an investor is to back “early-stage consumer companies that are unlocking wealth creation for underserved individuals and regions,” according to her website — a thesis that might help explain where she finds some of that faith.

As an early-stage consumer investor, Bent pushes back on the idea that it’s too early to fund consumer-facing crypto companies that haven’t yet honed their user experience.

“There are not very many companies [in web3] that I would say have scaled to what I would call a mass audience yet. We have Metamask, which is pretty far along, but I think all of these companies are up for grabs in terms of [whether] somebody else could come along to replace them,” Bent said. “I think we’re going to see the next WhatsApp, AOL and Google founded in short order.”

https://techcrunch.com/2022/05/19/blockchain-billionaire-sam-bankman-fried-big-bet-robinhood-chain-reaction/

Subscribe to Chain Reaction on AppleSpotify or your alternative podcast platform of choice to keep up with us every week.

Chain Reaction

Hosts

Author Avatar
Anita Ramaswamy

Reporter, Crypto and Fintech

Author Avatar
Lucas Matney

Latest

Chain Reaction

Episodes

As AI proliferates and things on the internet are easier to manipulate, there’s a need more than ever to make sure data and brands are…

The AI world needs more data transparency and web3 startup Space and Time says it can help

Welcome to TechCrunch Crypto, formerly known as Chain Reaction. This is the last edition of this newsletter. I want to personally thank each of you…

SBF sentenced, Worldcoin hit with another ban order and big web3 pre-seed rounds are back

Many of the people building web3 feel like the traditional web ecosystem has taken advantage of users and their data. While it benefits a number…

A new web3 network is being built right now that wants to end Big Tech’s control of your data

Welcome to TechCrunch Crypto. This week, Starbucks killed its Odyssey NFT program, Solana continued to see memecoin momentum and India faces more challenges with the…

Solana memecoin hype continues, Backpack’s beta phase was a success and Starbucks axes its NFT program

Starbucks launched Starbucks Odyssey in 2022 as its initial foray into the web3 world.

Starbucks ditches its Odyssey NFT program

Two months ago, media giant Fox Corp. partnered with Polygon Labs, the team behind the Ethereum-focused layer-2 blockchain, to tackle deepfake distrust. Fox and Polygon…

Blockchain tech could be the answer to uncovering deepfakes and validating content

Welcome to TechCrunch Crypto, formerly known as Chain Reaction — it was an eventful week in the crypto world.

Bitcoin hits new high, Solana price jumps as memecoins mania rises and Worldcoin faces heat in Spain

Zora, an NFT-based social network platform, is continuing its expansion beyond the crypto-sphere into the hot artificial intelligence market, Dee Goens, the startups’ co-founder, said…

NFT platform Zora is offering a novel way for AI model makers to earn money

Welcome back to TechCrunch Crypto. It was an eventful week: bitcoin’s price hit a new high, Spain’s data protection authority banned Worldcoin and Binance raised…

Bitcoin hits highs, Binance launches a crypto perfume and Coachella partners with OpenSea

Welcome to TechCrunch Crypto. Here’s the biggest news this week: bitcoin’s price jumped and Coinbase’s app crashed, Telegram rolled out a plan to pay out…

Bitcoin jumped and Coinbase’s app crashed, while Aptos eyes Hong Kong and Telegram rolls out rewards with TON

NFTs don’t always get taken very seriously, particularly now that AI and content creators are hogging the spotlight, but not everyone is so quick to…

Animoca Brands’ Yat Siu sees NFTs as a way to protect ownership in the age of AI

Welcome to TechCrunch Crypto, formerly known as Chain Reaction. This is our fifth edition with of course, regularly scheduled news bits, but also some recurring…

Crypto VC exits were low in Q4 2023, Phantom MAU’s reach new highs and spot bitcoin ETF volumes are still rising

Hello and welcome back to the fourth edition of the new and improved TechCrunch Crypto newsletter. Let’s get into the big headlines.

Farcaster hype grows, Bluesky opens to the public and SEC’s Hester Peirce is open to new token proposals

a16z’s Chris Dixon thinks it’s time to focus on blockchains’ use cases, not speculation

“I’m not anti-speculation, but I think it’s a question of priorities… It’s putting the cart before the horse.”

a16z’s Chris Dixon thinks it’s time to focus on blockchains’ use cases, not speculation

Hello and welcome back to the third edition of the new and improved TechCrunch Crypto newsletter.

Tether had ‘record-breaking’ net profits in Q4, Polygon Labs does layoffs and hackers steal $112M of XRP

Welcome to TechCrunch Crypto, formerly known as Chain Reaction. To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important crypto stories delivered to your inbox…

Bitcoin and Ethereum decline on the week, Worldcoin to launch a new Orb and Terraform Labs files for bankruptcy

Distinct from the Ripple network and protocol, the XRP Ledger is a decentralized public ledger with an open-source code base that anyone can contribute to…

After 12 years, Ripple’s president sees its payment and enterprise businesses evolving further

Welcome to TechCrunch Crypto, formerly known as Chain Reaction. Alongside our regularly scheduled news bits, I’ll be testing out some recurring segments and features —…

Bitcoin spot ETF volume rose, Coinbase went to court, Solana Mobile announces new device and Google cuts crypto apps in India

Welcome back to Chain Reaction. This past week has been all about U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs in the crypto world.

US spot bitcoin ETFs begin trading, Circle files for IPO and India continues crypto pullback

It’s been a long road for spot bitcoin ETF filers — and today the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission finally approved all 11 standing applications from…

Grayscale CEO sees spot bitcoin ETF as first step toward ‘normalizing’ crypto

Welcome back to Chain Reaction. Wouldn’t a bitcoin spot ETF approval be nice?

Talks of bitcoin spot ETF approval circulate as India blocks exchange sites and crypto is seeing more optimism

Welcome back to Chain Reaction. To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important crypto stories delivered to your inbox every Thursday at 12…

Dog-themed memecoins are pawing their way back into investors’ hearts

Warden thinks one of the biggest avenues for real world use cases is tokenization of assets and areas that aren’t even tradable yet.

Why tokenization of assets can be a key driver of growth in crypto

Robinhood is on a quest to dive deeper into crypto

The platform might not be as highly technical as one that’s crypto-focused, but Robinhood is doing research to understand what customers want and are missing.

Robinhood is on a quest to dive deeper into crypto

Welcome back to Chain Reaction. Even though it’s the season to feel jolly, that’s not stopping hackers from acting out.

Crypto hacks and chaos aren’t halting this holiday season

Welcome back to Chain Reaction. In general, the total crypto market cap steadily rose 14% in the past week as more capital enters the crypto…

Bitcoin continues climbing, Block releases hardware wallet, Robinhood expands to EU and VCs may see some relief soon

The crypto industry is facing the same macroeconomic headwinds as others, with the added bonus of regulatory uncertainty.

The venture landscape may be on the ‘cusp’ of explosive growth after years of macro strain

We didn’t publish a Chain Reaction newsletter last week because of Thanksgiving. But we’re back — and saying goodbye to November after a month filled…

Crypto saw lots of chaos, charges and price changes in November

The goal is to help users forget which chain developers are building on, because it ultimately won’t matter.

Optimism execs are optimistic for Ethereum’s future amid its ongoing scaling battle

Welcome back to Chain Reaction. The crypto market and overall ecosystem may be showing signs of recovery after a prolonged bear market.

Crypto market showing signs of recovery as prices, NFT sales rise on the month