Published on Sep 18, 2021

What is Metaverse? Why is it the future?

Parag

#Learn

4 Min

The concept of developing a parallel, the digital realm is not new. It has always been present in video games and on websites. However, the digital asset boom fueled by NFTs is increasing the digital goods market, and platforms offering augmented and virtual reality are assisting in making virtual experiences more closely mirror reality. People want to be able to develop and showcase distinct digital identities and experiences as the world shifts online.

What is Metaverse?

The phrase “metaverse,” which originated in science fiction, is a combination of the prefix “meta,” which means “beyond,” and “universe.”

It refers to shared virtual worlds in which land, buildings, avatars, and even names may be purchased and sold, typically using Ethereum. People may go about with their pals in these surroundings, visit places, buy goods and services, and attend events.

The metaverse is a collection of shared online environments in which physical, augmented, and virtual reality intersects, as popularised by Neal Stephenson’s 1992 sci-fi novel Snow Crash. People can socialise with their friends, work, travel, buy products and services, and attend events. While there are numerous virtual worlds available online, individuals cannot yet move between them while preserving their identities and assets.

History of Metaverse

History and the future are one continuous line with no beginnings or ends. We can observe how today’s breakthroughs and future trends are built on top of the framework of prior discoveries at any given moment.

Let us take a look back 40 years or more to gain a new perspective on the metaverse’s development.

1991 and 1992

Tim Berners-Lee published the first public call to collaborate on the WorldWideWeb on August 6, 1991. The next year, in his 1992 novel Snow Crash, science fiction writer Neal Stephenson invented the term “metaverse,” in which people, as avatars, interact with each other and software agents in a three-dimensional virtual realm that employs the metaphor of the actual world.

1998

Wei Dei, a computer engineer, unveiled his proposal for b-money, a decentralised, distributed cryptocurrency. It never happened, although some of the ideas are quite close to those in Bitcoin, which appeared years later.

2003

Second Life is an online virtual environment created in 2003 by Philip Rosedale and his colleagues at Linden Lab. It was a forerunner to the Metaverse worlds that are being created today.

2012

An NFT, often known as a “Nifty,” is a Non-Fungible Token that represents a unique object rather than fungible tokens, which are mutually interchangeable, such as cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. The notion of NFTs has been with us since December 2012, when “Colored Coins” were created, in which extra information is put onto a bitcoin to make it non-fungible yet unique.

2015

Vitalik Buterin and Gavin Wood created the Ethereum Network and the ethereum blockchain in July of 2015. In 2015, the first iteration was released. Nick Szabo initially introduced smart contracts in the early 1990s. Since 2015, the phrase “smart contract” has been used to refer to the concept of general-purpose computing that takes place on a blockchain or distributed ledger.

2020

Open-source, transparent apps for gaming, DEXes, DeFi, and other abbreviated purposes continue to develop. The first dapp was the Bitcoin app, which was released more than a decade ago. Travis Scott and Marshmello performed in the computer game Fortnite to slightly around 30 million people in April 2020. The Solana blockchain dapp was also introduced in April. Unlike Ethereum, this dapp’s money, known as a SOL, is mined using the alternative proof of stake (POS) method. This extremely popular dapp was built on a multi-metaverse interplanetary scenario with NFT actors interacting in a decentralised autonomous organisation.

Popular Metaverse Dapps

Oasis and Ready Player One are arguably the first games that spring to mind when you think of virtual worlds. Imagine a world in which people may live, work, and play.

1. Decentraland

Decentraland is a virtual realm built on blockchain technology. It is based on the Ethereum blockchain network and employs its own money, the ERC20 MANA token. The virtual environment is both owned and governed by the users. Users can buy and reside on land parcels inside their own Blockchain-based borders. Because each Land is an NFT, its ownership may be easily traced.

2. Cryptovoxels

Cryptovoxels is a blockchain-based virtual reality world (platform) built on the Ethereum blockchain that allows users to build, enjoy, and monetize virtual reality environments and 3D content. Cryptovoxels offers the missing Metaverse, which will be home to infinite user-generated content, by using the power of its virtual exploration and NFTs.

3. Somnium Space

Somnium Space has an advantage over other virtual reality environments due to its amazing visuals, which are similar to those found in Ready Player One. On OpenSea, which is based on Ethereum, you may purchase and sell land NFTs. It enables users to expand their inventive area with a smooth and simple drag-and-drop builder.

Why is everyone talking about the Metaverse?

The proponents and developers of the metaverse claimed that there was an infinite number of unrealized use cases for monetizing and living in virtual environments. “Everything can be exchanged in the metaverse; this is a big opportunity for creators to come up with something unique and carve out a place for themselves. You may rent out your property for events, design wearables that others can buy and wear in the metaverse, set up billboards, and develop games. “It all relies on your imagination,” NFT artist Singh explained.

The NFT industry has exploded during the epidemic, with $2.5 billion in sales projected for the first half of 2021, up from $13.7 million a year ago. Some NFT collectors regard them as collectables with intrinsic worth due to their cultural importance, while others regard them as investments, betting on rising prices.

The concept of the metaverse is very vague but some businesses are already constructing the metaverse. Contributions include Epic Games’ Fortnite, Microsoft’s Minecraft, Facebook’s Horizon, and many others.

Mark in the Metaverse

Mark Zuckerberg has outlined his plan to turn Facebook from a social media network to a “metaverse corporation” in the next five years. He believes that the metaverse will be the mobile internet’s successor and that developing this product group is the next stage in Facebook’s path. Zuckerberg wants to create a system in which individuals may switch between virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and even 2D gadgets by utilizing realistic avatars of themselves.

Check out all Metaverse dapps listed on The Dapp List.