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Once known as a manufacturer of hardy mobile phones, Nokia has been working on developing industrial use cases for the Metaverse.
From beer breweries on opposite ends of the globe to aircraft technicians in isolated airports, telecoms infrastructure firm Nokia has been looking for ways to use the Metaverse to aid remotely-located workers.
Nokia, who many remember as a manufacturer of consumer mobile devices, has since pivoted into developing technology and equipment that “delivers the internet.”
Robert Joyce, CTO of Nokia Oceania told Cointelegraph that part of those plans also includes delivering the Metaverse.
“Nokia set up two labs last year to really look at the Metaverse and the technologies that underpin the Metaverse.”
Last year, Nokia began collaborating with an Australian university to deliver a 5G-connected microbrewery using metaverse technology, noted Joyce.
Using Augmented Reality (AR), researchers from a brewery tech lab at the University of Technology Sydney have been working alongside researchers from a twin facility at Dortmund University in Germany.
“They actually do joint experiments where they brew beer, they change the process, the temperature, the timings, the volumes, the recipes [...] and they feed back all of that brewing process into the digital twin,” he explained.
“Then they can actually simulate brewing in the digital twin so they can perfect the beer in the digital space."
Meanwhile, in South Australia, Joyce said Nokia has been using the metaverse to potentially assist Cessna aircraft technicians at remote airports.
“We worked with a company that had a virtual Cessna aircraft [...] You’ve got a Cessna in front of you, and then you have an audio instruction in your ear to tell you how to change the wheel, or change a part on the engine," said Joyce.
“We had a 5G connected Microsoft HoloLens and we were able to instruct people on how to service a Cessna using augmented reality in this case.”
Earlier this month, Nokia's global chief strategy and technology officer Nishant Batra told the World Economic Forum (WEF) that the Metaverse will have the biggest immediate impact on industries, rather than the consumer market.
“Ports have begun using digital twins to track every container on their docks, no matter how deeply they are buried in stacks. Aerospace companies are building engines and fuselages in the digital world to simulate exactly how an aircraft will fly – long before they tool its first mechanical part,” wrote Batra in a Jan. 13 WEF op-ed.
The industrial #metaverse promises to fundamentally change the way we work, whilst driving productivity, boosting safety, and enabling new levels of flexibility.
— Nokia (@nokia) January 13, 2023
Find out more ahead of Davos in this blog from Nokia’s Nishant Batra. ▶️ https://t.co/BiDWssGfm0 @wef #WEF23 pic.twitter.com/d6Jfg5mk2G
Joyce agreed with the statement, adding he doesn’t expect the “consumer metaverse” to take off until 2030.
He said by next year there will be five times the revenue spent on the “industrial Metaverse” compared to the consumer or enterprise Metaverse.
“The technology is not there yet, the technology is clunky,” said Joyce, referring to currently available consumer Metaverse devices.
“It's not the best experience to have a Quest 2 on your head for a couple of hours, and it's not until people get to the augmented reality wearables that are comfortable [and] mass-produced.”
“We see this three or five-year lag before we actually see massive uptake in consumer virtual reality or augmented reality services.”
Related: An overview of the metaverse in 2022
Asked how blockchain will play a part in the future of the Metaverse, Joyce was optimistic that the technology will be key when payments or a transfer of assets is involved.
“Clearly if you wanted integrity within a metaverse, then blockchain will play a part,” said Joyce.
“If I was going to buy a house next to Snoop Dogg’s and want to ensure that it couldn’t be lifted and shifted and copied, that's where blockchain is quite useful in terms of maintaining uniqueness in a digital space.”
Joyce however said that he doesn’t believe blockchain is a necessity in all applications.
“It's not an essential underpinning technology for the Metaverse but I'm glad we've got it [...] and it will be used in the Metaverse,” he concluded.
Brewing could soon be getting the Web3 treatment, with tokens giving holders a choice in how their favorite brewery is run.
Munich-based MetaBrewSociety (MBS) will soon offer voting rights on the business decisions of a physical brewery via nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO).
The MBS was formed in February this year by a group of beer-loving NFT investors and entrepreneurs that came up with the idea to combine a brewery with the Metaverse, a DAO and NFTs to create a “tangible IRL utility that carries a concrete value” for participants.
As part of the project, MBS will offer a range of tokenized “beer share” certificates that offer varying levels of governance rights over a physical brewery in Munich that will also have a presence in the Metaverse. The Sandbox platform is being considered as a potential location.
All of the NFTs will entitle the holder to at least 100 cans of free beer per year, with the sale of the NFTs helping to fund the purchase and scaling of the brewery. Once the physical location has been purchased, the project will then form a DAO consisting of the NFT holders.
Speaking with Cointelegraph, the co-founder and CEO of the MBS, Holger Mannweiler, noted that the DAO will play an important role in the governance of the business moving forward, while also playing a key part in consumer research:
“The DAO will take all major business decisions from which beers we´ll brew, how we´ll price them to non-NFT holders, where we'll sell them, etc.”
“The beauty of this DAO is that it also represents a huge permanent target group, something which other consumer brands need to spend a lot of time and money for,” he added.
The MBS will roll out a total of 6,000 NFTs in two stages, with first access given to whitelisted members at an unspecified date in the near future. Once 75% of the NFTs have been minted, the MBS will execute a purchase of an existing brewery that will have its name changed to the “MetaBrewery.”
Mannweiler stated that the project will most likely “airdrop the beer allowance right for every year to the NFT holders as a separate NFT so they can sell/monetize it if they don´t need the beer in a certain year or hold more NFTs than they can drink.“
The MBS will also use the Metaverse-based variant of its brewery as a way to increase the exposure of the project, while also acting as an online shop to purchase its range of beers.
Mannweiler highlighted that Web3 concepts such as DAOs and NFTs can help stimulate and modernize “even the most old-fashioned brands” as they enable the creation of dedicated communities that can actively shape the trajectory of a company:
“The community holding the NFTs is a permanent target group of young innovative beer lovers that can help to shape and revive any brand by guiding it towards brand and product experiences that resonate with exactly this target group. “
“If the NFT holders like what they get they will be our greatest brand ambassadors and will help to onboard friends and family to the MetaBrewSociety experience thus building the basis for insane future growth,” Mannweiler added.
Related: Beyond the hype: NFTs can lead the way in transforming business experiences
The co-founder stated that the MBS may launch a second NFT drop if the option of a second brewery becomes a reality in the future.
“In terms of additional tokens there are several options that we will explore with our DAO. First, we may drop more NFTs to buy another brewery… potentially one after another if we see demand for our approach is high enough,” he said.
Is this the 21st-century crypto-themed update to "bread and circuses"?
The United Kingdom arm of pilsner beer brand Stella Artois is partnering with a digital horse racing game to release a series of nonfungible tokens (NFTs).
In a Tuesday announcement from Stella Artois’ U.K. brewery, the beer brand said users of the digital racing game Zed Run would now be able to bid on Stella Artois-themed skins for their favorite horses. Beginning Tuesday and running until Saturday, crypto users can bid on 50 digital packages featuring nonfungible tokens of the racehorses and original Stella art, as well as the branded skins.
The auctions for the skins, horses, and beer artwork are available on OpenSea's digital marketplace. At the time of publication, the highest bid on one of the pieces is 1.05 Wrapped Ether (WETH) — roughly $2,687.
Built on the Ethereum blockchain, Zed Run has offered an alternative to in-person horseracing events at a time when many venues are still closed to spectators due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Players can earn returns by digitally breeding and racing the animals.
“While for some the term ‘metaverse’ is still something of an unknown, this virtual world is exploding right now and looks set to change the way we all engage in digital experiences forever,” said Lindsey McInerney, the global head of tech and innovation at Budweiser Brewing Group, the parent company of Stella Artois.
Related: Basketball star turned digital racehorse tycoon: Wilson Chandler on NFTs and the NBA
Many in-person horseracing events in England were closed to spectators during the lockdowns carried out in response to the pandemic. Though the government announced earlier this year that it was possible for venues to have crowds at pre-pandemic levels starting on June 21, the emergence of the COVID-19 Delta variant is making that look unlikely, according to a recent statement from Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
