It’s time to enter the metaverse, a network of interconnected virtual worlds where people live, work, and play. Whether you refer to it as the AR Cloud, the Spatial Internet, Live Maps, or the Magic Verse of the metaverse, you can be assured that it is on the horizon and will have a significant impact.
As of recently, the world has gone metaverse crazy with one individual even trying to live in the metaverse and that’s not even the weirdest thing about the metaverse.
What is the Metaverse?
A lot of people have been using the word ‘metaverse’ lately, but it wasn’t until Neal Stephenson’s science fiction novel Snow Crash came out in 1992 that the term was first used. A parallel digital universe to our own, the metaverse is described by Stephenson in his novel. It’s unclear in 2022 if the real-world metaverse would ever develop in a comparable way, though.
According to venture capitalist and angel investor Mathew Ball, who has produced a series of articles exploring the possibilities and architecture of the Metaverse, the virtual world is a 3D counterpart of the Internet and computers at large.
Ball claims there really are two possible settings for this at the moment. In the early days of the internet and computers, all communication was conducted through text be its email addresses, usernames, emails and messages. They eventually shifted towards a more media-centric focus such as videos, photos and now even live streams.
The transition to a 3D UI and experience represents the next step in the evolution of the user experience. Furthermore, the metaverse is constantly present within a computer and within the web, if we conceive of [a] mobile [phone] as putting a computer in our pocket and also the internet as being accessible at all times.
The metaverse has been likened by several experts to a 3D version of the web. An online realm that serves as a virtual counterpart to the real world. An online community where everyone uses avatars to communicate with one another. It has also been argued that the full potential of the metaverse has not yet been realised.
Though definitions of the metaverse vary depending on the context, in the simplest words, it is a collaborative virtual environment that is engaging, immersive, and extremely realistic.
Metaverse currency
Naturally, the metaverse will require its own virtual currency, enter in metaverse crypto coins. The Metaverse cryptocurrency is needed for the exchange of goods and services within the network. Profits may be made by purchasing the native cryptocurrency coin of the Metaverse enterprise of your choice in the hopes that its value will rise.
So what exactly is the best metaverse crypto? Well, this will depend on the metaverse project you like the most.
What can you do when in the Metaverse?
Even while the metaverse may seem like science fiction foolishness on par with Star Wars, it will be possible to engage in a variety of enjoyable pursuits there, such as going to the movies, putting on clothing, and even attending virtual concerts.
But it has the potential to revolutionise the way we do business by allowing online video conferences to go beyond the flat screen.
Contrarily, it is envisioned as a massive industrial workplace, where digital twins of any and all machinery and systems may be evaluated. This allows for the correction of flaws and enhancement of processes before they are implemented in a more tangible setting.
This innovation, however, may change the way we do business by expanding the capabilities of video conferencing beyond the desktop.
Instead, it would serve as a giant industrial workstation for testing digital twins of different pieces of equipment and systems. This facilitates problem identification and correction prior to full-scale implementation.
Metaverse industries
The capacity to freely move between different virtual worlds is a key feature of the metaverse, and interoperability is a key component in making that possible. The economy is fully functional, and it spans both the real and virtual worlds, so the resulting ’embedded internet’ will be distributed.
A business’s options are many and may include, but are not limited to, catering to customers’ needs in the areas of social media, office or entertainment activities, payments, healthcare, consumer goods, hourly employment, etc.
On the other hand, there is still a great deal of work to be done in terms of development, such as addressing the numerous challenges that this simulated universe presents, developing more user-friendly and lightweight VR hardware, and removing the many obstacles that will stand in the way of its widespread adoption. Like the early days of the Internet, we find ourselves in a “proto-verse” where different virtual worlds exist separately and do not communicate with one another.
Few current examples of the Metaverse
Microsoft Mesh
Microsoft wowed attendees at the most recent Ignite by unveiling Mesh, a virtual reality (VR) bet aimed at being utilised primarily in Teams and riding on the success of the company’s HoloLens 2 headset. To quote the tech giant itself: “via mixed reality apps, it allows presence and shared experiences from anywhere, on any device.”
Avatars and even ‘holoportation’ are being discussed as potential solutions to increase productivity by facilitating faster decision-making and problem-solving in the workplace.
Metaverse of Facebook
For the time being, Mark Zuckerberg is the person putting the greatest resources into the online world. In fact, he felt so strongly about it that he rebranded his widely used social network Facebook as ‘Meta’. They claim that now the metaverse represents the next step in the development of social relationships, and they guarantee that Meta will provide a 3D environment for people to do all of these things and more.
They’ve emerged as the most invested firm in the metaverse, and they’re already generating new innovative technologies to make their goal a reality. By 2022, Facebook plans to spend close to 30% of its income on research and development, which would cost as much as $18.5 billion. It will also generate over 10,000 new employees across Europe.
Zuella Montemayor did her degree in psychology at the University of Toronto. She is interested in mental health, wellness, and lifestyle.
