The first sighting of the word “metaverse” is said to have been traced back to the 1992 cyberpunk novel, Snowcrash, written by Neal Stephenson.
In the book, the Metaverse (capitalized by Stephenson, always) is a shared realm, imaginary and made available to the public over a global fibre-optics network, this world was only able to be viewed through virtual reality goggles, way ahead of their time.
In this “world” people can build parks, schools and buildings as well as things that do not exist in traditional life, the rules of three-dimensional space and time are ignored, much like we see now in this ever-changing, dynamic ecosystem.
Defined in today’s terms, The Metaverse can be understood as such: “A hypothesized iteration of the internet, supporting persistent online 3D or 2D environments through conventional personal computing, as well as virtual and augmented reality headsets.
Metaverses, in some limited form, are already present on platforms like VRChat or video games like Second Life. Crypto metaverses are immersive virtual worlds with immense social and financial potential. Their use of blockchain infrastructure enables them to tap into the wider crypto economy, making virtual items exchangeable for real economic value beyond the confines of The Metaverse.”
So, what exactly is “The Metaverse”?
Although easily defined, The Metaverse is not so easy to understand, replacing the word cyberspace with metaverse arguably yields the same results. However, it is the financial opportunities and decentralized interoperability that sets these two terms apart.
The Metaverse allows you to take items from one world to another, currently, most virtual worlds are walled, with high barriers to entry alienating any sort of financial incentives, going so far as to ban users dabbling in any of the above.
But these things exist already in games such Fortnite and World of warcraft you say?
Well, kind of. Saying that Fortnite is “the metaverse” would be similar to saying that Google is “the internet.” Even though you could, theoretically, spend vast amounts of time in Fortnite, socializing, buying and selling things, learning, and playing games, that doesn’t necessarily mean that it encompasses the entire scope of the metaverse.
In contrast, just as it would be accurate to say that Google builds certain parts of the internet — such as physical data centers to security layers — it’s arguably accurate to say that Fortnite creator Epic Games is building parts of The Metaverse. And it isn’t the only company doing so.
Some of that work we are currently seeing is being undertaken by tech giants like Microsoft and Facebook — the latter of which recently rebranded to Meta to reflect this work, though we’re still not quite used to the name. Many other assorted companies — including Nvidia, Unity, Roblox, and even Snap — are all working on building the infrastructure that might become the metaverse.
It’s at this crossroads that most discussions and conversations of what the metaverse entails start to dissipate. We have a vague sense of what currently exists, what we could kind of call The Metaverse, we are aware which companies are investing in the idea, but we still don’t know what it is. Meta thinks it will be digital houses you can invite all your family and friends to hang out in. Microsoft believes it could involve virtual meeting rooms to train new hires or chat with your remote coworkers.
The pitches for these visions of the future range from optimistic to outright fan fiction. At one point during Mark’s presentation on the metaverse, the company showed a scenario in which a young woman is sitting on her couch scrolling through Instagram when she sees a video a friend posted of a concert that’s happening halfway across the world.
The video then cuts to the concert, where the woman appears in an Avengers-style hologram. She’s able to make eye contact with her friend who is physically there, they’re both able to hear the concert, and they can see floating text hovering above the stage. This seems cool, but it’s not really advertising a real product, or even a possible future one considering the most technologically advanced versions of current tech stacks.
In fact, it brings us to the biggest problem with “The Metaverse.” What value does it currently bring to the world and why is it different to current digital ecosystems?
The truth of The Meta
What sets this phenomenon apart from what currently exists is simple.
The Metaverse brings to life the ability to decide which artists perform in virtual concerts through governance, it allows users engaging with these ecosystems to own a share of profits through decentralization, it provides real world transferable economic value, true IP ownership and the ability to take all of the above into whichever world you please.
Tying it all together
Increasingly, the real world is moving digital faster than we can comprehend. Every major brand is exploring these capabilities, whether public knowledge or not, it’s happening.
The Metaverse is putting the power back in the hands of people outside of the traditional, “boring”, crypto on-goings. The Metaverse will onboard more people into this space than any other niche in the digital asset world.
The Metaverse will be the lightbulb moment, enabling the world to understand the true cross-over between value in the real and digital worlds.
