• 3 in 4 people in the U.S are concerned about Facebook’s entry into the metaverse and prefer a metaverse on a decentralized blockchain, the survey found.
• Half the respondents believe the blockchain will be ubiquitous in the next three-six years, as almost all respondents say they would play more games if they earned from it.

Do you have concerns about the future of a metaverse that’s dominated by Facebook and other tech giants like Microsoft? Well, you’re not alone, a new survey has found. The survey showed that three in four people don’t want a metaverse that’s run by a company whose data protection and integrity are questionable. This is despite Mark Zuckerberg switching his company’s focus to the metaverse, including a name change for the holding company to Meta.

The metaverse is the latest buzzword in the world of tech, and whether you’re a big believer in its future like Zuckerberg or a big skeptic like Elon Musk, one thing is for certain – it’s attracting some of the biggest giants in finance and technology.

A survey of 1,000 U.S adults has found that most people prefer a metaverse that runs on a decentralized blockchain platform like Ethereum or Cardano. The survey, conducted by Advokate Group, found that 87 percent prefer this version, with 77 percent specifically raising concerns over Facebook’s role in the future of the immersive virtual world.

Centralization of the metaverse has been the biggest concern among its fans. Facebook embodies this centralization, with Zuckerberg being known for his consolidation prowess (Meta now owns Instagram and WhatsApp, each with over a billion users, and he even tried to buy out Snapchat).

A Mark Zuckerberg metaverse

Zucks, as some call him, has denied that he wants to monopolize the new virtual world. “Critically, no one company will run the metaverse — it will be an embodied internet,” he claimed last year.

According to the survey, not many believe him and they said they prefer using a decentralized platform like Ethereum.

Even then, there are questions about what blockchain would underpin the metaverse once it becomes big enough. Bitcoin has been unable to support smart contracts which would be critical to this new world.  Ethereum suffers from sky-high charges that hinder even existing applications like DeFi and NFTs.

Ethereum alternatives have their own drawbacks. Solana, which was the frontrunner, has proven that it has sacrificed decentralized and even more critically, security, for speed and efficiency. It suffers from outages every other month and recently suffered a Wormhole project attack.

Read More: Solana outcry increases as wormhole bridge is exploited for $320M, SOL dips 12%

Others like Cardano, Avalanche, Polkadot, Terra, Fantom and Algorand have yet to hit critical masses. And even though Shiba Inu has taken a stab at the metaverse, we can safely conclude that it will not be the protocol that will underpin the metaverse.