Exploring the Metaverse

Imagine a virtual world where you can live your daily life from your living room. You can meet your friends, buy things you need and it all gets delivered to your home or gets consumed digitally.  You and your friends can enter a virtual multiplex and watch movies together, and do basically everything you would do in real life, but in a virtual world. You can even interact with colleagues and classmates in a virtual work or study environment. By being in your home you can take a virtual vacation anywhere in the world with your friends from four continents. This is what we call the metaverse. 

So, what exactly is the Metaverse?

Metaverse is a virtual or semi-virtual world accessible through virtual and/or augmented reality headsets, each providing a unique experience. It is a hybrid of technology elements such as virtual reality, augmented reality, and video in which users "live" in a digital universe. The metaverse's supporters envision its users working, playing, and staying connected with friends through everything from concerts and conferences to virtual trips around the world.

A number of developments have served as stepping stones toward the creation of a true metaverse, an online virtual world that combines augmented reality, virtual reality, 3D holographic avatars, video, and other forms of communication. As the metaverse grows, it will provide you with a hyper-real alternative world in which to coexist. In popular online game universes like Fortnite, Minecraft, and Roblox, inklings of the metaverse already exist. And the companies behind those games want to be a part of the metaverse's evolution.

How does the Metaverse work? 

Virtual and augmented reality, web 3.0, and blockchain will all be used in Metaverse. The blockchain component is what will set this apart from the internet world, or Interverse, as people popularly refer to it. Notice that in today’s world, the only thing you own or can own in your own name on the internet is a domain name. The rest of the accounts, such as Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp, Gmail, and others, are owned by the respective companies. 

You can own a lot more in a metaverse. Using blockchain NFTs, you will be able to buy anything you want. The idea is that in a Metaverse, you can own digital creations, and every time someone buys one of your creations, you and any intermediaries, if any, will profit because your NFT will identify you as the content's original owner.

Before I go further, let me break down what an NFT is. The best way to describe an NFT is to compare it to collectible cards. NFTs allow us to have complete control over digital assets. A non-fungible token (NFT) is data that is added to a file to create a distinct signature. It could be an image file, a song, a tweet, a website text, a physical item, or a variety of other digital formats.

As it interacts and augments with the real world, augmented reality-based metaverses may have a more immediate impact. We will live in our Universe, Interverse, and Metaverses of our choosing once these metaverses take off. The idea is that cryptocurrencies and the blockchain technology that underpins some of the new virtual worlds go hand in hand. This keeps metaverses decentralised rather than centralised under the control of tech companies or payment providers.

The Metaverse has recently become a hot topic of discussion, with both Facebook and Microsoft claiming ownership. But, when is it going to arrive?

Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of the newly renamed Meta (formerly Facebook), estimates that the metaverse's key features will take five to ten years to become mainstream. However, some aspects of the metaverse are currently visible. Even if they aren't available to everyone, ultra-fast broadband speeds, virtual reality headsets, and persistent always-on online worlds are already available. Here are some examples of future metaverses that have already started evolving: 

1. Epic Games

Source: Knowyourmeme

Epic Games is a company that makes video games like Fortnite. Concerts by Ariana Grande and Travis Scott, movie trailers and music debuts, and even an "immersive" re-imagining of Martin Luther King Jr.'s historic "I Have A Dream" speech from 1963 have all taken place there. With its MetaHuman Creator, it's creating photorealistic digital humans, which could be how you customise your digital doppelganger in future open-world games.

2. Roblox 

Source: Youtube

The platform, which launched in 2004, is home to a slew of user-generated games, including role-playing games like Bloxburg and Brookhaven, where users can construct homes, work, and role-play scenarios. After going public this year, Roblox is now worth more than $45 billion. the Roblox founder and CEO David Baszucki tweeted a thank you to everyone who helped bring the platform "one step closer to fulfilling our vision of the #Metaverse" on the day of its IPO in March. Since then, Roblox has partnered with Vans to create Vans World, a virtual skateboarding park where players can dress up in new Vans gear, as well as a limited Gucci Garden where you can try on and purchase clothing and accessories for your virtual self.

3. Minecraft 

Source: The Verge

Minecraft, a Microsoft-owned virtual universe popular with children, is essentially the digital equivalent of Legos, in which players can create their own digital character and construct whatever they want. Minecraft has over 140 million monthly active users as of August. It has exploded in popularity among children who have had to rely more heavily on virtual connections as a result of the pandemic.

4. Meta

The former Facebook has already made significant investments in virtual reality, including the acquisition of Oculus in 2014. Meta envisions a virtual world in which digital avatars interact via virtual reality headsets for work, travel, or entertainment. Zuckerberg is a believer in the metaverse, believing that it has the potential to replace the internet as we know it. 

Another example is Decentraland, a popular platform that allows users to buy virtual plots of land, construct their own structures, and vote on the economy's governance.

What should we be careful for? 

While the metaverse's popularity has grown, many people remain sceptical. There are concerns that the metaverse has become overhyped (industry-wide). They point out that virtual worlds have existed for decades - for example, Second Life - and that virtual-reality headsets have never taken off. Others doubt that cryptocurrencies will gain widespread adoption, and believe that tech behemoths like Facebook will end up dominating whatever the metaverse becomes.