The metaverse is supposed to take off eventually as young kids start using it.

How would monetisation work on a decentralized platform? Would the creator be limited with merchandise and promotions without ads?

We went over a related business case in my MBA just yesterday. You can look at what Adidas did: they partnered with the Bored Yacht Ape Club to produce NFTs that ended up selling for $22 million. That marketing strategy hinges on working with recognizable folks that are already established within decentralized areas. And that's what it's probably going to be about, at least at first: building relationships rather than direct monetization. It'll actually be really nice, probably.

Except that's how all internet platforms start. Then it'll be enshittified. You know what enshittification is...but if you don't:

it is a seemingly inevitable consequence arising from the combination of the ease of changing how a platform allocates value, combined with the nature of a "two sided market," where a platform sits between buyers and sellers, holding each hostage to the other, raking off an ever-larger share of the value that passes between them.

So, I predict over the next 5/10 years, as the metaverse gets set up and whatnot, social media might become slightly less shitty for some time in there if you're willing to engage on these decentralized metaverse platforms. Because you know damn well that Reddit and TikTok are going become thoroughly eshittified until all the value is extracted from them, and users will have to look for alternatives.