A new revolution has begun, and it’s being led by Facebook now known as Meta, and its name is Metaverse. Soon after Mark Zuckerberg changed the name of his company (Facebook) to “Meta” – “Metaverse” became a buzzword of the town. Although the reason behind their name change was a mix of reasons, a world-famous platform changing its branding to signal its embrace of the invention meant something.
But what is it? How does it work? What are the challenges it poses?
So here in this article, we are going to dive in-depth into the meaning of Metaverse and how actually it works. We will also be talking about the big players who are riding this wave of revolution, and much more.
Read till the end to know more.
Table of Contents
- What is Metaverse?
- How does Metaverse work?
- Big Players Who Are A Part Of The Metaverse:
- Challenges Of The Metaverse
- Conclusion:
What is Metaverse?
The word Metaverse can be segregated into two “Meta” meaning “Beyond” and “Verse” meaning “Universe”. This term was first used by Neal Stephenson in his novel “Snow Crash” in 1992.
According to Mark Zuckerberg, it is a place where the internet comes to life. A place where you can do everything that you do in real life. You can interact, play, work, learn, and do much more with your friends even without being in the same physical space as them.
And to put it in technical terms, it is a mix of augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR). The main feature that distinguishes it from simple AR and VR is that it is based on a haptic model.
By haptic model, we mean that it possesses a sense of touch, and this feature backs up Mark Zuckerberg’s statement about the internet coming to life.
So it’s no longer a hypothetical question since it is already here. It’s like our favorite movies like The Matrix and Ready Player One have come to life.
Now that you know what Metaverse is, it’s time to understand how it works?
How does Metaverse work?
The working of this virtual world can be understood from simple things around you. From movies to video games, all are prime examples of how it works. To make it easy for you to understand how to get into the metaverse we have listed out some easy steps.
- It is a virtual place where you pick a virtual avatar that represents you in the virtual world. It’s just like the James Cameron movie “Avataar”. You can customize the outfit of this avatar and perform various tasks.
- Now that you have created an avatar. You can explore different things. You can buy real estate here but it will be known as a “parcel”. Again, instead of the contract being signed on paper, it’s signed on the blockchain.
- Also here in this virtual world, you can create your own content/space as you do in the famous online game “Fortnite”.
- You can also buy or sell anything in the Metaverse but it will be in the form of an NFT (Non-Fungible Token) which will be registered on the blockchain.
And if you want to see a practical example of how it works, then all you have to do is sit back, have a bucket of popcorn and binge-watch the movies we mentioned.
Well, wait, you can watch the movies later after you have finished reading the article.
Because now it’s time to see if are there any other big players in the field and how they plan to establish themselves.
Big Players Who Are A Part Of The Metaverse:
With Mark Zuckerberg invested billions of dollars in his dream project and planned to move his enterprise “Meta” fully to the virtual world. Other big players like Microsoft, Sony, and Nvidia have plans to do the same.
This is only understandable for organizations to invest in the concept because as per the industry report, it is expected to reach an expected value of 2.5 trillion by 2030.
In light of this, another tech giant Microsoft is building their own virtual world “Mesh”. What makes it different from others is that you can project yourself like a hologram. They are calling this feature a “Holoportation”. Also, Microsoft recently purchased Activision Blizzard Inc (A leading gaming company) for a record deal of 68.7 billion USD.
Another big player in the space is Roblox, which is an online gaming platform. The platform allows users to create their own games and avatars. Users can sell these games and earn some money in form of a virtual currency called Robux. This is already a major player to watch in the virtual industry, as Roblox has already created a platform where users can create their own metaverses.
Now you know even the big players are in the game.
However, you might have heard the famous saying, “All That Glitters Is Not Gold” by William Shakespeare. The reason why we are using it here is that there are some challenges/red flags associated with the Metaverse.
Let’s learn about them!
Challenges Of The Metaverse
Obviously, the concept offers great promise, but it has its own challenges, just like any other real or digital world. It currently has gray areas–not necessarily good or bad. After all, it is a young industry and is in development, hence has new challenges like data theft, legal issues, identity theft, etc.
It’s not just these, we have to question this on moral grounds as well. In order to understand, we should ask ourselves how it will influence the lives of people. As we are divided as rich, poor, developed nation, and developing nations so there is always a risk of becoming even more divided in the virtual world
It is more like a parallel universe coming into existence, with online users living in it. So it is only justified to have some doubts about this development because this is a virtual world a programmable world meaning you will be giving someone the right to define reality for you.
Conclusion:
Despite having many big players investing in this revolution, it still is a game of patience. There is no denying the concept has enormous potential for corporations, as they are willing to invest time and money to bring it to life.
While many people are curious about the collaboration and connectivity possibilities the metaverse would afford. There is still a tremendous amount of ground to cover before the metaverse can be seen as a place where many people live, play, and work.
Businesses and governments are discussing issues such as metaverse infrastructure, privacy concerns, and international governance.
But there is no doubt that it will eventually become a part of our daily lives, not only at work but also throughout our everyday lives.
