Founded on a foundation of blockchain technology, the Metaverse is a spatial computing platform that offers digital experiences as an alternative to or a replica of the real world, along with important civilizational aspects like social interactions, currency, trade, economy, and property ownership. This page thoroughly explains the idea, outlining its characteristics and significance.
What is the metaverse?
Built on a foundation of blockchain technology, the Metaverse is a spatial computing platform that offers virtual experiences as an alternative to or a duplicate of the actual world, complete with all its essential elements of civilization, including social interactions, currency, trade, economy, and property ownership.
The analogy to the internet of the ’70s and ’80s seems to work when discussing the metaverse. As the groundwork for the new communication form was laid, conjecture about its appearance and intended use began. Looking back, things did not turn out exactly as some had imagined. Amidst the projected development of the metaverse into an $800 billion market by 2024, it’s imperative to understand and define this vague and complex concept. Many tech giants, including Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Facebook, are actively investing in metaverse development services to bring this envisioned reality to life.
A headset, smartphone app, or website in the metaverse can access a variety of three-dimensional worlds. People might engage in it and experience it in real time over great distances. Because of its seemingly limitless goals and possibilities, the metaverse is currently all the rage in the digital world. The metaverse attracts a lot of investors since it is at the forefront of technological and digital advancements. It’s a setting where the real and virtual worlds can interact and impact everyday essentials.
Essentially, it’s a world of infinitely connected virtual communities where users may interact, create, and have fun with the use of smartphone apps, augmented reality glasses, virtual reality headsets, and other technology. It will also cover other facets of the Internet lifestyle, such as social networking and shopping. The Metaverse will grow into an extraordinarily expansive, extraordinarily transparent, and dynamically optimized system as application scenarios mature. In order to develop a system that can accommodate a wide range of virtual reality application situations, developers from many disciplines will collaborate.
Understanding the 7 layers of the Metaverse
According to author and entrepreneur Jon Radoff, there are seven different layers in the metaverse, and each layer affects a different part of the user experience:
- Experience: As physical space dematerializes in the digital realm, the constraints of physicality will vanish. Thanks to the metaverse, people will have access to a vast array of experiences currently unavailable to us.
- Discovery: This layer allows customers to find out about new platforms through app stores, search engines, and rating websites. This important step involves finding new communities and technologies.
- Creator economy: Developers employ various design tools and applications to create digital assets or experiences. Over time, several platforms have created simpler creative techniques, like drag-and-drop tools.
- Spatial computing: mixed reality (MR), virtual reality (VR), and augmented reality (AR) are all combined in spatial computing. It has become a prominent technological category over time, allowing users to interact with 3D worlds for more immersive experiences.
- Decentralization: There won’t be a single body in charge of the metaverse. Scalable ecosystems, made possible by blockchain technology, will help entrepreneurs offer a wider variety of specialized digital goods as the metaverse grows.
- Human interface: The human interface is necessary for the Metaverse’s hardware layer. A person’s body can be accepted as a realistic 3D avatar in any virtual world.
- Infrastructure: Content distribution, network connectivity, and device-powering technologies are all infrastructure layer components. 5 G networks will significantly increase the metaverse’s capacity over time.
Metaverse platform examples
In order to comprehend the significance of the metaverse, let us examine the primary platforms that are implementing this concept:
Decentraland: is a virtual social environment built on the blockchain. It is utilized for virtual world exploration, building, trading, and money-making. It functions as the basis for the decentralized world and is essentially a digital ledger that permanently records Bitcoin transactions over a network of computers. It offers great chances for learning and having fun with virtual encounters. Among other things, Decentraland can be used for meetings and trading in virtual goods marketplaces. Communicating with other members is as easy as it is in real life.
The Sandbox: The Sandbox is a three-dimensional virtual environment accessible via the Ethereum blockchain, allowing users to communicate, create, and earn money. Sandbox supports a wide range of devices, including smartphones and Windows phones. Through innovative virtual experiences, it offers individuals opportunities for financial gain. That being said, using it is not cheap. SandBox has created the SAND coin, which is based on Ethereum, to enable this. SAND tokens are a means to pay for gas charges on the Ethereum network.
Bloktopia: Bloktopia immerses users in a virtual world using virtual reality. The 21-story virtual building symbolizes the 21 million bitcoins that are in circulation at the moment. It offers several opportunities for making cash with its innovative virtual experiences. In the tower, users may create their own avatars, participate in various activities, learn about cryptocurrency, and buy virtual “real estate.” You can also use the platform’s builder tool to create artwork, games, sequences, and more on this real estate.
Meta Horizon Worlds: On Horizon Worlds, users can engage in virtual activities, socialize, conduct business meetings, explore the virtual world, and play games. Meta is the creator of the social virtual reality app Horizon Worlds. The blockchain is not used in the Horizon universe. In addition to accessible VR settings, it offers useful VR-building components for content makers, like music, animation effects, and code blocks. In August 2020, Facebook (now Meta Platforms Inc.) initially unveiled Horizons as a test platform for virtual explorers with an invite-only policy.
Metahero: The Metahero project provides useful technology that enables users to move real-world objects—rather than virtual ones—into the Metaverse by scanning them. It focuses on using ultra-HD photogrammetric scanning technology to transfer tangible objects into the digital realm. Users can utilize Metahero as a gateway to explore the NFT, social media, fashion, and other facets of the metaverse through their 3D avatars. Metahero uses real-world objects, including people, to create avatars in extremely high definition.
Conclusion
One of the major technologies that will change the digital world in the coming years is the metaverse. According to a recent survey by the technology company Ciena, 78% of corporate users worldwide said they would be interested in using the metaverse. That’s why it’s so important for businesses to get ready for this technology, build their blockchain capabilities, protect themselves from blockchain and Metaverse security threats, and welcome a new era of the internet. Additionally, companies specializing in metaverse game development services are poised to play a crucial role in shaping and enhancing the metaverse experience for users.
