Scientists, engineers, and market professionals always have an eye affixed to the future. Millions of brains across the globe are storming over the exact outlines of the Metaverse, and to what dizzying heights will it take humanity? With anything as elegant as the Internet, and so with the Metaverse, the answers are never simple and always multifaceted.
Metaverse explained
Primarily, the Metaverse is fluid. It can be a completely new digital world of its own, in which you can have an immersive experience via a VR headset, or it can overlay itself over your actual lived reality, the way it was, for instance, in the chart-topping game Pokémon Go.
Metaverse’s brimming with promises, and the most alluring of that lot is that it thrives on collaboration. A new world can be created by mirroring your current world while retaining the liberty of editing out elements that one finds disagreeable or adding in new ones that are desired.
Secondly, Metaverse is infinite. Unlike the physical earth, bound by laws of space and time, Metaverse is an endless enclosure. If a user does reach the end of one enclave in Metaverse, it is because programmers have not designed extensions to the existing space.
Thirdly, Metaverse is live. It is an immersive experience where one can network, date, attend rock concerts, socialize, sell, and purchase items and be part of a marketplace just like in the real world. And just like the real world, there is no on-off switch to the Metaverse. Sure, some sub-area stored on just a single server can be lost because of data damage, but Metaverse is not operating from a single server.
Fourthly, just like the real world, it is swarming with content and experiences authored, created, designed, painted, crafted, and performed by thousands of content creators. Again, just as it is in the real world, these contributors are individuals, performance groups, or corporates.
And finally, it has a thriving Metaverse economy that is no less than the real economy. Individual producers and firms are waking up to the enormous promise of the Metaverse and its economy, where digital products, goods, and services can be sold for the appropriate exchange.
What is the difference between the Internet and the Metaverse?
One can watch a movie or other audio-visual content online on the Internet, but one cannot be a part of the two mediums. The Metaverse differs fundamentally from the Internet in that it breaks what has been considered for very long, an unbreachable wall of experience. The Metaverse lets you occupy a digital space. This digital space, as mentioned before, can be rendered as a facsimile of one that is real-world or can be designed entirely anew.
Soon, instead of exchanging notes via work apps or through emails, one will be able to don an online avatar and enter a virtual office space. Instead of driving through traffic and putting yourself in the middle of a thronging crowd, one will be able to attend a rock concert through Metaverse.
How is the Metaverse different from Web 3.0?
Web 1.0 was the Internet as experienced between 1991 and 2004 when the total number of people producing content was exponentially lower than those consuming it. Web 2.0 is the current internet matrix where all of us have a digital presence either through social media or as content creators. Many speculations have been made over what will be the skeletal framework and the actual innards of Web 3.0. One thread that runs through all of these is that Web 3.0 will be decentralized to operate on blockchain technology. In today’s day and age, most of the content produced is owned by large media corporations that host this content. Web 3.0 promises to be a place where this content will be hosted independently of these media giants, and small contributors will be able to charge a fee for their works.
While Web 3.0 pivots around who gets to control the content of tomorrow, Metaverse will be the platform where such content is either performed or distributed. Metaverse will be the marketplace for Web 3.0 operations to be conducted.
Why does the Metaverse matter?
Remember the internet nay-sayers? Who believed the Internet would not change their lives much; are the people paying a dear cost today in terms of erosion of business, loss of revenue, and a retreat from market presence? Meanwhile, a new army of content creators has emerged, which are raking in money and fame for themselves, notwithstanding the barriers of resources and geography. The Metaverse will be equally, if not more, disruptive than the Internet. Our societal norms, business dynamics, and economic environment will incrementally but undoubtedly change in the coming years. Those who stay ahead of the crowd will stand to win big, while those who are late to the learning curve might pay a heavy cost.
To equip our readers with knowledge of the Metaverse, we will bring you the next blog post, which will talk about the top characteristics of the Metaverse. Stay tuned!
Read other Extentia Blog posts here!
Commenti