Metaverse

A Metaverse is a virtual platform in which people can interact with a virtual environment and with each other. The promises of a Metaverse rest on expansions of some cutting edge technology we have today.

Who came up with the Metaverse?

Before anyone says good ol’ Zuckerberg created the Metaverse with his company Meta, there’s plenty of good historical background to explore which led us to where we are now. There have been many takes on what an alternate or parallel reality could be, even going all the way back to the Ancient Greeks’ concept Atomism.

But the actual term, “Metaverse,” was first coined in Neal Stephenson’s 1992 novel, Snow Crash. Since then, the idea has evolved into the virtual/digital platform we know today.

The Metaverse is being designed for immersive 3D experience(s) that provide users with interactive, shapeable environments that also react to inputs. More intangible features from real life may also be incorporated such as economical and social systems through the means of blockchain technologies and existing social technologies (face calls, social media).

Technologies that often build concepts of a metaverse generally include the following:

- Virtual Reality - Can be defined as simulated/artificial environment(s) which are generated on or by a computer to create sensory stimuli. VR will play a significant role in the development of a metaverse as environments and settings will need to be carefully crafted for user enjoyment and large-scale usage.

- Augmented Reality - This is the interactive experience of a real-world environment in a computer generated world. Usually includes multiple sensory inputs for touch, sight, sound, etc…, and allows for interaction in a simulated reality.

- Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning - Computer technologies that intake info from an environment and then act on that data, similar to how human’s and other animals’ natural intelligence allows. Artificial intelligence could have several use cases in a metaverse from semantic natural language processing to data retrieval, environmental maintenance, and much more.

- Blockchains used for digital economy purposes - Decentralized, public ledgers that verify and record information, distributing the recorded data for transparency and immutability. NFT metaverses would be entirely possible whereby each object (pen, car, piece of land, concert ticket, etc) would be an NFT secured by a blockchain and therefore tradable in a frictionless economy.

- Physical technologies like the Oculus headset help connect us to VR and AR, and may be our eyes of the future.

- Cloud technologies - These allow an entity to store all of its data, and easily retrieve it. Maintaining a metaverse with tens, hundreds, thousands, or millions of users at any given time requires massive amounts of data storage and retrieval. Cloud tech seems to be one of the quickest ways to store data, although blockchains are tough competition.

Why Build a Second Reality?

The push to create a digital reality is founded on several underlying principles. Creating a platform for instantaneous communication and interaction offers a utility the world has never seen the likes of before. Sure, FaceTime and Zoom offer a type of “face-to-face” experience, but they don’t allow you to instantaneously travel to unknown worlds with your friends, or join in on a concert. The Metaverse promises to provide people with the ability to live out their wildest dreams in a digital medium.

In a podcast with Lex Fridman, Mark Zuckerberg mentioned people would be able to exist as a dragon or look however they wished, and would even be able to sculpt environments to their liking. The possibilities are endless, and providing people with a malleable digital life could offer countless benefits.

Where is the Metaverse Today?

For now, there are no metaverses in existence that offer a fully immersive experience like we’ve been discussing yet, and there are also a few problems to address before we get there. For instance, the end goals of building the metaverse aren’t super clear. What will barriers of entry be? How immersive is too immersive? Is privacy a feature on the metaverse?

Video games offer the closest approximations to what a metaverse could be today. Many games today contain digital economies, customizable characters, NPC systems for individual interactivity, and many have the ability to host hundreds if not thousands of participants.

But the possibilities a metaverse offers can easily match and expand beyond the possibilities of real life. With digital economies and enough VR/AR built in, participants could maintain jobs, homes, and assets in the metaverse. There’s a lot of speculation that NFTs will be used to create property, goods and services in the Metaverse. Fayre is constantly working towards innovating NFTs for the future, and one of our goals is to provide utility to the Metaverse.

For now, we’ll continue to watch as this revolutionary technology emerges!