Metaverse: The Beginning of a New World

Imagine if you could have that touch and feel while interacting with a distant friend, playing a game, buying something online, or using your virtual properties. That is a fascinating idea, but that is what many tech experts call the internet's future. Moreover, it may surprise many of us, but this may become a reality sooner than we can imagine.

The past story of the metaverse

In 2021, everyone somewhat heard the term “metaverse” when the parent company of Facebook officially changed its name to Meta Platforms, Inc. However, the idea of the metaverse started much before that. The metaverse came from the sci-fi novel “Snow Crash," published in 1992 (Vanity Fair, 2017). The virtual world platform “Second Life” is the first metaverse. The concept became popular when big tech giants like Facebook, Google, and Microsoft invested heavily in VR-related technologies after 2008. Facebook launched a VR social world called “Facebook Horizon.” Many popular games, like Minecraft and Fortnite, are also part of the metaverse.

Is the metaverse just another social media?

When discussing the metaverse, a common question can come to anyone's mind. Is the metaverse the next social media? The answer is not a straight one. Yes, there will be some social media-like platforms in the metaverse. Nevertheless, let it not distract from the fact that the metaverse is a much more significant concept than this. It can be a game, a 3D world, a travel site, an exhibition site, an office room, a classroom, and many more. For example, games on the metaverse platform have already become very popular. Statistics show that Minecraft has more than 142 million active users (Statista, 2021), and Fortnite has more than 400 million active users. As more new games come out in the upcoming year, we can imagine that they will only get more popular in the future.

What is the metaverse?

Many CEOs of many tech giant companies are constantly talking about the metaverse. However, what is the metaverse? In the most straightforward terms, the metaverse is a three-dimensional social platform. Every person is presented as a unique body, called an avatar. It is a complete world-like platform where everything we see in the real world can be cast and beyond. Someone can meet new people, discover new places, and acquire virtual property. It can also be implemented to develop someone's skills, business, training, and e-learning. That is the fundamental concept of the metaverse. However, I assure you that it will evolve like every other idea.

What is this so-called Avatar of the metaverse?

Like in the real world, where everyone is very different from another person, if we want a 3D interface, it must also have different characters identifying the individuals to have differentiating factors. Now the idea of an avatar may vary from one platform to another. It will give freedom to the user on how they want to customize it or how they want them to look in the metaverse. Games like Minecraft have already given us an idea about Avatar. First, it is like a blank piece of paper. The user has to create their face, dress, hair color, and everything else. It will work as a representative of the user in the metaverse.

In the metaverse, what exactly are online properties?

In the last few years, we may have been introduced to cryptocurrency in one way or another. Many say this is the next way of exchanging and will completely replace the traditional way of transacting, even though no one knows the future of crypto yet as, at the time of writing the article, the prices of every cryptocurrency are still trembling constantly. On the other hand, the metaverse is wholly based on 3D properties. It is a world made up of real-world goods or imaginary items. One can create his world as he wishes to. It is a bit like Inception (2010), where the main character can create anything he imagines in his dream. However, rather than dreaming, he might have to create, discover, or buy it. Then it will be his personal property.

Moreover, by definition, he can use it as he pleases. Many may wonder what the good of virtual property one can not touch or feel is. Because the metaverse is very early, this may not be very clear, but every expert predicts that these virtual properties will be valuable in the future. Users can buy or sell virtual goods in games like “World of Warcraft.” Things like NFTs are already getting popular, and virtual goods like this will only get more popular as time passes.

What are the new models for the metaverse that are likely to work?

The metaverse is based on the Web3 architecture, a decentralized internet service implementation. While a decentralized platform is a great concept in theory, it might present some challenges in practice. It can be unstable. On the other hand, it is thought to be end-to-end encrypted, which is excellent for any transactions or general user information. However, virtual assets used on one platform are essentially useless when transferred to another. It is a tough problem to crack that requires a lot of work and attention to detail. This problem is difficult for a single organization to fix. The big companies must come up with a solution.

What is the present state of the metaverse?

Many big companies now use the word "metaverse” to fulfill their agenda. Microsoft and Facebook are the two big giants that have heavily invested in the metaverse. Facebook launched the VR headset “The Oculus Quest” in 2019. They also updated it in the past few years by releasing “Quest 2” and “Quest 3.” They claim every generation of headsets is better than the last one. They might be accurate, but there is also the fact that they are not a significant upgrade over their predecessor. That is the only thing holding the metaverse back. The technology required for the metaverse is not ready yet. The headset that Facebook released is still very bulky and not comfortable at all. Many people get a headache after using it for some time. So, a long session of wearing it is an arduous task. A 3D graphics card is necessary to simulate a 3D world. However, there is no proper graphics card ready yet for 3D tasks. NVIDIA promised in 2021 that it would work on 3D graphics cards. Microsoft is also working on it. If the hardware improves, it will very rapidly attract other companies.

The future of the metaverse

The metaverse is only starting to have meaning for ordinary people. However, it is not very difficult to imagine a future where our lives will be vastly involved with the metaverse. The survey shows that people will spend 4–5 hours daily in the metaverse within the next five years. It can redefine our traditional concept of everything around us—social networking, marketing, shopping, e-commerce, traveling, training, learning, and whatnot. People are even thinking about weddings or offices in the metaverse. Imagine that you do not have to go to the office for a meeting. You can do that from anywhere. In the metaverse, possibilities like this are limitless. We must wait until the technology is fully mature to take advantage of it.