What are the benefits of the Metaverse – for the food industry?

Starting from the establishment of Bitcoin Pizza Day and moving into the Metaverse, blockchain has evolved significantly in the food industry.

It might seem strange pairing cryptocurrency and the food industry, both based in the digital world, yet both firmly rooted in the physical world. As far back as the earliest days of cryptocurrency, the very first real-world use case for Bitcoin (BTC) had to do with food. The first documented commercial Bitcoin transaction took place on May 22, 2010, when Laszlo Hanyecz bought two Papa John’s pizzas for 10,000 bitcoins.

Now that day is referred to as Bitcoin Pizza Day on the crypto calendar. Restaurant chains and crypto companies alike have taken advantage of the event’s marketing potential by turning it into an annual celebration. Nevertheless, Bitcoin Pizza Day did more than kick off Bitcoin’s introduction as a medium of exchange. It also marked crypto’s debut in the food sector, a partnership that’s set to continue flourishing with Web3 and the Metaverse.
Crypto has an insatiable appetite for food.

 Though Bitcoin Pizza Day may have come and gone and the benefits of the Metaverse

The crypto community has always been drawn to food-related trends. It’s easy to find examples of culinary-sounding tokens among any list of “dead coins,” including Baconbitscoin, Onioncoin, and Barbequecoin. Coinmarketcap still lists Pizzacoin.

Most projects that jumped on the initial coin offering (ICO) bandwagon were tokens that had no support technology. In contrast, the dawn of the DeFi era introduced a whole new set of food-related protocols, many of which survive to this day, such as SushiSwap and PancakeSwap.

Apart from the ICO craze and the bull market of 2021, blockchain, crypto and the food sector have been witnessing a wealth of development over the years. Traceability of food is one area that has been proven to be ripe for disruption. IBM’s Food Trust is often associated with grocery stores such as Nestlé and Carrefour, but it has also worked with a California chain of seafood restaurants to bring greater transparency to menu items’ origins and treatment before they reach customers’ tables.

Blockchain and cryptocurrency are most useful in foodservice when it comes to the customer relationship.

Due to the increasing dominance of platforms like Uber Eats, restaurants have found themselves increasingly distanced from their customers, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic struck. From private taxis (Uber) to hotels (Airbnb) to music (Spotify), the platform model has already disrupted industries.

For restaurants, the platform model means that tech companies handle all aspects of customer loyalty, including payments, data handling, and data storage. They are pushed to the background so that the consumer only sees their product. It is most damaging to the consumer to rely on a platform when food prices can soar by an alarming 90%.
This imbalance needs to be corrected.

By enabling direct connections between restaurants and their customers, blockchain and crypto are increasingly able to restore the balance. Blockchain-based marketplaces for food operators provide a similar, user-friendly service for finding menu options and allowing customers and restaurateurs to interact freely and with full control over prices and menus. Customers, therefore, pay merchants directly, rather than allowing third parties to control their finances. It is more likely that third parties serve as infrastructure providers for restaurateurs and food shops, providing them with the tools to run their online shops on their own.

The ecosystem at present is only a fraction of its full potential, which will become apparent as the shift to the Metaverse gains momentum.

Is there food in the Metaverse? Aren’t activities such as eating, which are firmly rooted in the real world, out of place? There are limits to digital consumption. However, as we live more and more of our lives online, the food industry will have to evolve.

In what way will food service operators exist in the Metaverse?
Enhanced culinary experiences

Already exist, at least in some cases. A virtual restaurant was unveiled by U.S. chain Chipotle for Roblox players on Halloween. In the real world, they received a promo code for a free burrito after entering the restaurant.

As food service moves into the Metaverse, it will be part of a journey toward digitization that’s already underway. With the platform model taking over food delivery and takeout, it is also increasingly common for people to research restaurants using Google or TripAdvisor before visiting them. If you visit a restaurant’s website, you can view its menu, see pictures, or even watch videos of its meals or setting. Watching your team play a virtual big game and seeing ads around the stadium for restaurants afterward would be the same as currently doing so at physical stadiums.

After the match has ended, you can take your avatar to the virtual food market to browse different operators’ menus, which are displayed as virtual dishes, and order takeout. Once you are ready to order, a cryptocurrency payment is instantly made, and you are done! It takes around 30 minutes for your meal to arrive at your door.

Let’s say you want to impress someone you are close to by taking them to a high-end restaurant for dinner. A virtual tour could allow you to choose your venue and even your table. Even virtual chefs will talk to you about how to prepare a particular dish and what ingredients to use or a virtual sommelier will guide you through your wine choices based on your meal selections.
This is a huge array of opportunities. and their are more benefits of the benefits of the Metaverse for the food industry.

From the restaurant side-

the opportunities are vast-these scenarios can only be seen from the customer’s point of view. A restaurant could, for instance, request a booking deposit in crypto using an escrow system based on smart contracts to book a table after a virtual tour. This would help prevent one of the most common problems in the restaurant industry – no-shows. When the person fails to show, the smart contract simply transfers the funds into the escrow account of the restaurant.

Digital transformation in the food service industry hasn’t always produced positive results. Despite these challenges, blockchain and crypto can reestablish consumer-merchant relationships. Aside from that, the Metaverse has the potential to provide unrivaled value to the whole industry. These are all the benefits of the Metaverse for the food industry.