Eh, maybe. I dunno. I think the actual security research was pretty much unchanged, and the money was going into application and speculation. I don’t think we got a big new message digest function, or any major elliptic curve advancements, or a more secure hashing algorithm in the entire time that was popping off. In fact I’m not even sure if it could have, since the big player in the game (Bitcoin) was already set in stone long before.

I could be wrong, though.

EDIT: Agree on the metaverse, though. I could maybe imagine some sort of benefits for people with severe physical handicaps, but even there, I’d say other assistive technologies and medical research would be a better use of the money.