What Is the Metaverse?
The metaverse refers to a digitally-based alternate reality where individuals engage in various activities such as work, play, business, and social interactions.
It is a parallel version of reality that exists in a digital space.
Metaverse Example | Source: Masterworks
Understanding the Metaverse
Currently, multiple metaverses exist, each with its own name and terms.
The term “metaverse” combines “meta,” meaning “beyond,” and “universe,” encompassing all known matter and space. Consequently, the metaverse represents a realm beyond what is visible and known.
Navigating the Blockchain-Enabled Metaverse
In the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry, many projects working with emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and extended realities such as virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are creating their own digital realities.
The term “metaverse” often refers to an ecosystem where users can find a comprehensive range of elements, creations, experiences, and interactions in a shared and persistent space.
The concept of the metaverse is gaining traction even among major tech companies.
Several key features can characterize it:
- Persistence: The metaverse comprises a continuously evolving space where environments grow and develop, regardless of users’ presence or interactions.
- Real-time: Experiences within the metaverse occur in real-time, although they may not always be live. For example, pre-recorded performances can be triggered, but users experience them in real time.
- Economy: The metaverse operates with a fully functional economy, utilizing a native, blockchain-based currency for buying, selling, and trading products and services within the metaverse.
- Physical bridge: In augmented reality, the metaverse can coexist or be linked to the physical universe. This could involve an additional digital layer integrated with actual geographical coordinates. In contrast, virtual reality metaverses exist solely within a virtual realm.
- Open content: A significant aspect of metaverses is that corporations and users can create content and experiences within them collaboratively. Users are expected to contribute the majority of content in a metaverse over time.