Q: What is the metaverse?
The metaverse employs new technology to
bridge gaps between the physical and virtual
worlds, allowing colleagues to work together,
students to learn together, and friends
to socialize together in a more realistic,
natural way than the current internet offers
(see Exhibit 1). Today’s metaverse contains
humanoid avatars meeting in a multitude
of different virtual reality environments.
The most significant use case is gaming,
with games like Fortnite enjoying three to
eight million daily users.
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The metaverse of
tomorrow may span many more use cases,
driven by easy connections between digital
worlds (portability) and the integration of
digital and physical worlds through the use
of augmented reality (AR), virtual reality
(VR), and the internet of things (IoT).
The term “metaverse” was coined by science
fiction writer Neal Stephenson in his 1992
novel “Snow Crash.” It portrays a dystopian
world in which users’ avatars are proxies for
their social status and wealth, and a subset
of users become addicted to the metaverse
and effectively abandon the physical world
for virtual reality.
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The work of fiction points
to real risks within the metaverse, and to
avoid a dystopian outcome, developers of
the metaverse should seek to have the digital
world enhance the real lives of those who use
it even if it offers an immersive experience.
In contrast, some espouse a more utopian
vision for the metaverse, where virtual
worlds are seamlessly integrated, with
individuals retaining control and autonomy
over their digital selves. These optimists
imagine virtual worlds built on top of a new
iteration of the internet designated “Web3.”
While currently more of an idea than a
firm reality, developers envision Web3 as
the next generation of the internet with a
focus on decentralization, open access, and
interconnectivity between systems. The
name Web3 is meant to distinguish it from
Web 2.0, the current version of the internet,
in which a few closed and centralized
platforms dominate total value.
Where the metaverse and Web3 may align
to have the greatest impact is in the area
of payments. The lack of an embedded
payments infrastructure encouraged
some business models to rely on excessive
advertisement, data collection, and privacy
Basics of the
metaverse
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Reckoning with the Metaverse | Basics of the metaverse
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