Metaverse 101: Everything you need to know about Metaverse
Metaverse is a concept of virtual world that connects you to the digital space with your avatar. An individual could work, meet, game, shop and interact with others — all from the their home or personal space.
The term metaverse became popular with the popularity of Facebook’s name change to Meta in October 2021. When announced, they planned to spend $10 billion over the next year on technologies to build their vision of the metaverse.
Metaverse History
The metaverse is a term coined by Neal Stephenson in his 1992 novel Snow Crash to describe a collective virtual shared space, created by the convergence of virtually enhanced physical reality and physically persistent virtual space.
Ready Player One is a novel and film which helped popularize the idea of the metaverse and brought to light the implications users may face by becoming so immersed in exploring said environment. The story is set in the year 2045, where people escape the problems plaguing Earth in a virtual world called The Oasis.
Most of us have experienced metaverse in parts through the years. E.g. networking in an online event conducted on zoom, watering our farms back in the days of Farmville on Facebook, upgrading avatars and weapon skins in video games and many other similar instances. All these provide experience of metaverse but doesn’t cover everything like proof of ownership, transfer value, accessibility, etc.
How is Metaverse different from a internet?
To start with, metaverse isn’t competing with internet — it is built on it.
The metaverse is the idea of virtual reality augmented with AR, AI, social media platforms, digital currencies, and more. Being in the metaverse mimics aspects of the physical world where people are free to do more than just browse information or interact on internet. Metaverse puts the user in the middle of action and that’s one aspect that differentiates the metaverse from the internet.
The Metaverse is the result of a convergence of technologies, including augmented reality (AR), artificial intelligence (AI), virtual reality (VR), and Blockchain.
Why should Metaverse matter to you?
World is changing, so is the way we work, interact and socialize with people. Metaverse, is at a very early stage and it feels similar to frenzy about the WWW in mid-nineties where everything was so undefined.
For starters, it could change our work experience. E.g. While Work from Home model increased productivity of employees it also resulted in more fatigue and burnout as there was lesser human contact. Metaverse can fill the gap by having virtual conferences or meetings where you can be in a VR meeting in the presence of your colleagues.
Fun Fact — A diplomatic embassy will be opened in Decentraland — by Barbados Government, making it a first government body to bring its presence in metaverse.
Metaverse and Blockchain
One might argue that meeting can be conducted in VR without metaverse, or gaming too provides option to purchase and has concept of ownership.
It is true, but a metaverse is a concept that encompasses all and provides complete physical world experience in virtual world.
Crypto provides key parts such as digital proof of ownership, accessibility, governance, etc.
- Digital Proof of Ownership: By connecting ones wallet to the metaverse platform an individual can instantly prove ownership of activity or an asset. A digital wallet is most secure and robust method to establish proof of ownership of an asset.
Fun Fact — You do not own anything on internet except a domain. Whereas metaverse and nfts gives you an opportunity to own a part of digital world that truly belongs to you.
- Digital Collection: We could also use our wallet connected to metaverse to showcase our original and unique collection. NFTs are objects that are 100% unique and can never be copied or forged as it is based on blockchain.
- Transfer of value: Metaverse requires a way to transfer value securely. As more people start to spend time and money on metaverse, they would spend money and earn as well. There needs to be a currency that is reliable and crypto fills this gap.
Fun Fact —Metaverse gaming platform Axie Infinity saw rise in daily active users during pandemic from Indonesia and Philippines. The platform provided players opportunity to play and earn tokens which can be securely transferred in value ($’s) in real world, making it an alternate career option for many.
- Interoperability: While there are multiple metaverse platforms that are into existence. E.g. Axie Infinity, Decentraland, Sandbox, etc; a united metaverse is a long way off. Blockchain is working to improve this aspect of making avatars or digital identity compatible between different platforms. A single metaverse connecting different multiverse projects is being worked on with blockchain technology.
- Accessibility: Anyone in the world can create a wallet on public blockchains. It doesn’t require an individual to provide any detail unlike in a bank account. Making it most accessible way to manage finance online.
Metaverse and the Future
The future of the metaverse is an exciting time to think about. This technology has been in development for decades and many believe that its coming to fruition will be a major technological innovation, it’s only a matter of time before a mass adoption of metaverse becomes a reality.
