Synthesis Rather Than Redemption: A Win-Win Rewards Program by Self-Assembling Fragments Into an Item in the Metaverse

Modern business activities often rely on rewards programs as a common means of incentivizing consumers. However, in certain cases, it can be a lose-lose situation for both consumers and businesses. For consumers, operators may alter or terminate rewards programs. For operators, rewards programs are difficult to be trusted by consumers and can come with many potential costs. The metaverse is perceived as a utopian-style virtual social system, where brands or individuals, called as operators, can establish stores/stops to conduct business activities. That is, there are also rewards programs in the metaverse, and if people simply replicate existing programs, it may lead to the situations mentioned above. To this end, we aim to propose a win-win rewards program in the metaverse to alleviate the situation. It suggests that consumers can obtain items in rewards programs through self-assembly rather than through the redeem controlled by the operator. Operators cannot make modifications to the rewards program once it is launched. Therefore, this rewards program is trustworthy, and operators also divest themselves from the redemption process in the rewards program, thereby reducing many additional costs. Meanwhile, we implement a specific prototype from a technical perspective to match the proposed rewards program in the metaverse. It specifically implements the decomposition of items prepared by the operator into fragments. Once consumers obtain a sufficient number of fragments, they can assemble them into a complete item without the involvement of the operator.