Moving Our Lives into the Metaverse with Timmu Tõke – Step into the Metaverse: EP03
In this episode of the Step into the Metaverse Podcast, I had a chat with Timmu Tõke, the Co-Founder and CEO of Ready Player Me, a cross-game Metaverse Avatar platform that allows you to create a consistent virtual avatar to use to travel across virtual worlds or multiverses. Their goal is to become the default avatar system for the Metaverse. To achieve this, they work to facilitate avatar interoperability by providing developers with a scalable avatar creation system to allow them to focus on creating games faster. They offer SDKs for Unity and Unreal Web, and many other platforms, as well as support.
Timmu and I will dive into what it takes to create an avatar system, how avatars ensure self-sovereign identity, the important role digital fashion will play in the metaverse, what life in the metaverse will look like, why there needs to be a universal system for different worlds, identity validation in the metaverse, avatar interoperability (And why building open worlds over closed worlds is key), and so much more. Stay tuned and enjoy!
Highlights
- [01:15] - Creating avatars that are used by more than 3500 companies.
- [03:26] - An interactive 3D world that is connected.
- [04:09] - Ensuring identity and repetition in the metaverse.
- [07:46] - The main characteristics of an avatar and what they will look like in the future.
- [14:35] - Looking good virtually: The importance of digital products in the metaverse.
- [16:48] - How interoperability across platforms will be achieved in the metaverse.
- [21:00] - Will identity theft happen in the metaverse?
- [23:29] - What the retail industry will look like in a Direct-to-Avatar world.
Quotes
“Ideas are nice but execution matters more” - Timmu Tõke
“People in virtual worlds have endless possibilities” - Timmu Tõke
“People will think of their virtual representations like they think about themselves in the real world. Like having great fashion in the metaverse and things like that is going to be important” - Timmu Tõke
“The metaverse could be more disruptive for brands than social media or any other change that has happened before in tech” - Timmu Tõke
“There’s an opportunity for metaverse native brands to come up and be a big player in that space” - Timmu Tõke
Learn More About Timmu Tõke in the Links Below:
- LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/timmutoke/
- Website - https://readyplayer.me/
- Twitter - https://twitter.com/timmutoke
If you are interested in learning more about the metaverse, you can order my book Step into the Metaverse here.
Dr Mark van Rijmenam
Dr. Mark van Rijmenam is a strategic futurist known as The Digital Speaker. He stands at the forefront of the digital age and lives and breathes cutting-edge technologies to inspire Fortune 500 companies and governments worldwide. As an optimistic dystopian, he has a deep understanding of AI, blockchain, the metaverse, and other emerging technologies, and he blends academic rigour with technological innovation.
His pioneering efforts include the world’s first TEDx Talk in VR in 2020. In 2023, he further pushed boundaries when he delivered a TEDx talk in Athens with his digital twin , delving into the complex interplay of AI and our perception of reality. In 2024, he launched a digital twin of himself offering interactive, on-demand conversations via text, audio or video in 29 languages, thereby bridging the gap between the digital and physical worlds – another world’s first.
As a distinguished 5-time author and corporate educator, Dr Van Rijmenam is celebrated for his candid, independent, and balanced insights. He is also the founder of Futurwise , which focuses on elevating global digital awareness for a responsible and thriving digital future.
