Interoperability and future of metaverse
Metaverse promises an immersive and augmented experience of living in a realistic digital space by facilitating a convergence of the physical and real worlds. While businesses look for ways to capitalize on this opportunity and tap into its potential fully, certain issues create obstacles in the way.
One such obstacle is the lack of interoperability. In the absence of interoperability, transcending the boundaries of virtual worlds becomes challenging, and users fail to maintain continuity across different virtual platforms that they exist on.
Since metaverse is a reflection of the real world, interoperability is key to its success. We can move freely from one place to another in the physical world without restrictions. And not just that, we can take our objects with us wherever we go. It is these qualities of continuity and interoperability that make the physical world possible to live in. And it is for this reason experts believe that a fully functional metaverse is only possible through the implementation of interoperability.
It’s worth noting here that a metaverse can only be habitable for human avatars when it successfully establishes itself as an interconnected virtual space. Let’s delve deeper into the concept of interoperability to understand its significance in realizing the idea of a metaverse.
Understanding the concept of Metaverse
Is there a single metaverse, or are there many? Why is the metaverse called so? Is it already here or in the process of making? Evidently, there are more questions than there are answers regarding the metaverse. And that is why defining metaverse isn’t easy. There are different ways to describe what a metaverse is, and almost all of them come close to what the metaverse could actually entail. What we mean is that all available explanations about the metaverse hinge on one of its pivotal ideas: a shared virtual environment accessible by all. This is a space where people can interact and participate in events using customized digital avatars. As virtual reality gets more mainstream, it is almost certain that we will all be part of the metaverse at some point in the future.
What is metaverse interoperability?
Let’s look at blockchain technology as an example to understand “interoperability.” In the blockchain ecosystem, we have both interoperable and non-interoperable platforms. However, interoperability is imperative if we desire to innovate and develop more advanced and high-utility solutions using blockchain technology.
Interoperability enables blockchain ecosystems to communicate, share arbitrary data, and use one another’s services and features. Similarly, interoperability allows various metaverse projects to function in a unified way through the sharing of data, features, services, and experiences. It also facilitates cross-platform trading and other activities that are nearly impossible in siloed spaces.
Putting it simply, interoperability in metaverse doesn’t work much differently from how interoperability plays out within the blockchain ecosystem. Users don’t need to have multiple wallets and can store and transact across different metaverse projects with one wallet.
But note that to make your metaverse interoperable, you must build it on an interoperable blockchain ecosystem. This will ensure the metaverse is interoperable across all its layers.
Layer 1- Foundation layer
The Internet forms the foundation layer and ensures connectivity to the metaverse.
Layer 2- Infrastructure layer
Infrastructural requirements such as hardware components form this layer and ensure the desired user experience. This layer also includes technologies like blockchain, big data and IoT that help make metaverse a shared ecosystem.
Layer 3- Content layer
This layer includes applications and platforms that create vivid and natural experiences for the metaverse.
Layer 4- True metaverse
This layer gets generated once all lower layers are formed. It’s the final layer that develops the virtual space.
Why is interoperability so important in the world of metaverse?
Even though a fully functioning interoperable metaverse is yet to be realized, interoperability will be the driving force behind metaverse. The Internet is a layered structure that allows different networks and subnetworks to communicate.
We can browse through all kinds of websites using a browser, and webpages available over the Internet can be linked to one another. This creates an interoperable, interconnected system of networks called the Internet.
This feature of interoperability is very similar to real life, where people move around carrying their identities along. We can also take our assets with us anywhere without much hassle.
It is this same principle of interoperability that equips metaverse with interconnectedness. Interoperability is crucial in connecting multiple metaverse projects, so users can have a unified experience while participating in different virtual socio-cultural activities in the world of metaverse.
The future of Metaverse
Web3 is an important building block for the metaverse. As we make advances in web3, we will get closer to having a vividly realistic true-metaverse experience. And this implies that blockchain-based innovations like Cryptos and NFTs will power the world of metaverse in the future.
Some metaverse NFT vendors have already made their NFTs usable in certain metaverse games, and more players are looking to enter the domain. NFT enthusiasts increasingly recognize the potential to buy or rent virtual lands in these games and sell or rent them out. Interestingly, even those who have no interest in the metaverse see it as a profitable domain and might consider investing in the equities of companies working in this area. It’s understandable that both creators and users can benefit greatly from such an association.
The future metaverse could also be a major contributor to the growth of the virtual economy. It will be open and accessible, almost without interruption from any “one” company or community. As more brands open their doors to the wider metaverse, it’s easy to infer that metaverse will closely resemble the Internet of current times in the future.
So, the future of metaverse may be expected to be exceedingly similar to the real world in numerous ways. Advocates of virtual reality even claim that metaverse will eventually replace certain real-world activities, such as working or hanging out.
Endnote
A true metaverse is more of a vision than a concrete reality right now. While the latest developments in web3, and efforts to make blockchain use cases more mainstream is a big forward leap towards making the concept of true metaverse a reality, there is still time before we can create a metaverse that will mirror the real world.
Join Coinmonks Telegram Channel and Youtube Channel learn about crypto trading and investing
