Meta, the metaverse-based platform, has announced the launch of a new wallet directed to support value interaction in the metaverse. Meta Pay, a rebrand of the former Facebook Pay service, will keep fulfilling the same functions that Facebook Pay did in the past, but will be developed as a universal way of paying for goods and services using digital identities in the metaverse.
The current product features and overall user experience that people are used to with Facebook Pay will remain the same across across Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger. The change is rolling out in the United States and will then launch globally over time.
According to Meta (formerly Facebook) CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Meta Pay will be a solution to two issues in the metaverse: accessibility to digital goods and proof of ownership. About this, he stated:
“In the future there will be all sorts of digital items you might want to create or buy — digital clothing, art, videos, music, experiences, virtual events and more,” Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post. “Proof of ownership will be important, especially if you want to take some of these items with you across different services. Ideally, you should be able to sign into any metaverse experience and everything you’ve bought should be right there.”
Zuckerberg stated that ideally, everything purchased in one part of the metaverse should be available on another platform, with the same functions and traits. This is one of the goals that Meta seeks to reach with Meta Pay: a sort of Web3 identity that links purchases of digital items to a singular digital identity.
Facebook changed its corporate branding to Meta in October to capture more of the company’s core ambition, which is to build the metaverse. Since then, Meta has started renaming its products to match the new corporate branding. For example, Oculus Quest is now Meta Quest and Facebook Portal is now Meta Portal.