What Exactly Is the Metaverse?
To put it simply, a metaverse is a space where humans can participate in a shared virtual universe. The term comes from Neal Stephenson’s novel ‘Snow Crash’, in which humans interact with each other as avatars in 3D space. The film ‘Ready Player One’ (2018) recently depicted people who can enter a virtual world and become a 3D being, or avatar, within it. Its players were able to do things that they would not be able to do in real life, such as perform extreme physical feats or drive technologically advanced vehicles.
So far, virtual worlds have not resulted in the dystopian apocalypse depicted in popular books and films. On the contrary, virtual worlds have enabled us to interact with communities of other people. Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) worlds such as World of Warcraft would be recognized as such by gamers. People chat with their friends and raid the dungeons for loot by defeating powerful virtual monsters. Their avatar is the warrior, sorcerer, thief, healer, or other supernatural beings who comprise the game’s characters.
The Metaverse is the concept of a single virtual reality containing a variety of worlds. Users will interact in this shared virtual space by talking, hanging out, playing games, watching movies, and even surfing the web. It’s billed as the new, more interactive internet. The Metaverse will have texture, dimension, and color, as opposed to today’s flat, text-based World Wide Web. Within the same Metaverse, people will meet, watch shows, hang out, visit virtual museums, ride virtual rides, earn and spend virtual currency, and visit websites.
The following are the key desirable properties of the metaverse:
- Multi-user. A shared virtual space that enables interaction between multiple remote users.
- Ownership. Ability to buy, earn and trade digital assets or currency.
- Avatars. Players are represented by a pseudonymous digital avatar.
- Multi-purpose. Includes various activities, like playing games, listening to music, workspaces, etc.
- Spacial. Makes use of immersive augmented (AR) or virtual (VR) reality devices to deliver spatial experiences.
- Multiplatform. Can be accessed via a variety of platforms and devices.
- Decentralized. No single entity has control over the metaverse.
- Persistent. The metaverse runs its own course and can’t be stopped or reset.
- Boundless. There are no boundaries, and it might even merge with the physical world.
If this all-encompassing Metaverse materializes, it is increasingly likely that it will be powered by blockchain and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), which allow full ownership of a digital asset.
What Is the Metaverse’s Currency?
Naturally, new economies bring new currencies, and not all metaverses use the same one.
Usually, the only currency accepted in the metaverse is cryptocurrency. Depending on which metaverse you’re in, different types of cryptocurrency are used. Decentraland, for example, uses MANA as its native currency.
Other metaverses, such as Cryptoxles, make it simple for users to transact with more common crypto, such as ETH.
How can I access it?
It is simple to travel to the metaverse. First, select one of the available metaverses in which you want to participate. Depending on the metaverse, you may be required to obtain your own crypto wallet as well as some cryptocurrency for in-game use. Finally, before entering the metaverse, create your avatar name and account.
In general, accessing the metaverse is simple, requires little effort, and is user-friendly.
The Metaverse’s Future
The metaverse is novel, exciting, and brimming with possibilities. You have more opportunities than ever before to meet new people, create your own assets, and monetize your creations. Hello and welcome to the future. Hello and welcome to the metaverse.
A quick Google Trends search reveals a significant increase in metaverse search volume around October 2021. Meanwhile, since December 2015, there has been a healthy fluctuation in search volume for VR.
Metaverses, as you can see, are already teeming with life. A lot of creative people are banding together to buy land and build some amazing digital architecture on the blockchain. Perhaps the foundations of today’s blockchain metaverses will be used to build a world like ‘Ready Player One’, a fully realized and immersive metaverse.
