The metaverse, explained: what it is, and why tech companies love it

Blockchain is a key technology, providing the infrastructure for decentralized applications and digital currencies. Interoperability enables different systems to exchange and use information, while cross-platform compatibility ensures that applications can run on different devices or platforms. Whereas Meta’s presentation of a more immersive virtual environment might please investors, it’s reminiscent of current social media which is very obviously more interested in keeping the user endlessly scrolling and watching ads than actually providing an interesting experience. The platform, founded in 2004, houses scores of user-generated games, including role-playing offerings like Bloxburg and Brookhaven, where users can build homes, work and play out scenarios. In reality, it may be the case that any real “metaverse” would be little more than some cool VR games and digital avatars in Zoom calls, but mostly just something we still think of as the internet. VR headsets like the Quest 2 are cheaper than ever, and Apple’s Vision Pro could be really cool if there’s ever a version that costs less than a laptop, tablet, and phone combined.

What is the Metaverse, and why do people seem to not like it or be interested in it?

And there are some signs that younger generations are more comfortable replacing real-world gatherings with virtualized ones; just ask the 12 million people who saw a Travis Scott concert in Fortnite last year. You define metaverse as an engaging digital landscape where you can present yourself as an avatar, where you can talk to people and hang out with people, where you can bicycle, surf, motorcycle, drive, compete, tell stories, be told stories, have live events, sit at a casino table… Stephenson’s Snow Crash described something of a hybrid approach between these two poles. An individual user’s view of Stephenson’s Metaverse is “the graphic representations—the user interfaces—of myriad different pieces of software that have been engineered by major corporations,” he wrote. But the virtual world those pieces of software live in is controlled by the Global Multimedia Protocol Group, which developers need to work with to “get zoning approval, obtain permits, bribe inspectors, the whole bit.” Recently, people have tried to use non-fungible tokens as a decentralized way to track and establish ownership of virtual goods, independent of any controlling authority or corporate server.

• At present, many of the metaverse-like experiences offered mostly by gaming platforms such as Roblox, Decentraland and Minecraft can be accessed through browsers or mobile devices and a fast internet connection.
• This vision of a connected digital future comes early on in our 60 days of Facebookmas.
• Another virtual universe beloved by kids, the Microsoft-owned Minecraft is essentially the digital equivalent of Legos, where players can create their own digital character and build whatever they desire.
• But there’s another definition of the metaverse that goes beyond the virtual worlds we know.

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Organizations are also deploying VR for employee safety training, particularly in settings where employee mistakes can cause harm. Assembly line workers can train in a virtual environment before hitting the factory floor, or emergency responders can use VR disaster training to practice in a safe environment. Indeed, risk reduction is one of the key workplace benefits of such VR applications, according to Ria O’Donnell, author of Transformative Digital Technology for Effective Workplace Learning. A host of developers and designers, including Richard Garriott, Raph Koster and Mark Jacobs, introduced MMORPGs in the late 1990s and early 2000s, demonstrating the commercial viability of large-scale virtual games.

VR motion sickness can happen when an end user’s brain receives conflicting signals about self-movement in a digital environment. Businesses eager to apply virtual reality to their marketing and products should be hiring and training people who “can think in 3D,” said Andrew Cornwall, a senior analyst at Forrester. Apple’s vision of the metaverse currently revolves around its Apple Vision Pro headset. The virtual reality goggles — or spatial computer, as Apple describes Vision Pro — became available in February 2024, priced at $3,500 a pair and designed to bring the digital and real worlds closer together by enabling users to immerse themselves in both VR and AR experiences.

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While Zuckerberg has not abandoned Meta’s quest for virtual reality, some industry watchers have noted that he now talks about the metaverse as a blend of physical and digital worlds and, in recent earnings conferences, has emphasized Meta’s work on AI chatbots and assistants. The world’s largest provider of cloud services and technologies plays a significant role in the development of the metaverse by virtue of its compute, storage, database, networking, AI and blockchain services. As noted by Moor Insights & Strategy principal analyst Anshe Sag, AWS supports many extended reality companies, including Meta, Magic Leap and Nvidia.

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Give humans a chance to build a world without restrictions, and they’ll either come up with a branding opportunity or a fetish dungeon. That should serve as either a warning for the future architects of the metaverse, or an opportunity. Over the last few months, the HermanCainAwards has attracted lots of attention for displaying the published histories of anti-vaccine and coronavirus misinformation spreaders, most of them evangelicals, who then went on to die of COVID.

The Metaverse Is Bad For Data And Privacy

Here’s counsel from metaverse experts on what executives and other business leaders can do to prepare for the metaverse. For those of us who have been in the metaverse industry for more than a decade, it’s very clear that the overwhelming majority of crypto “metaverse” projects are social engineering scams built to take advantage of the naïve using FOMO and promises of massive profits. As a rule of thumb, if you plan to resell your NFT fusion markets forex broker or crypto at a profit, you are likely being suckered into a pyramid scheme. They are not necessarily, however, enthusiasts declare the Blockchain may be an efficient consensus mechanism to identify ownership of property and create persistent avatars and reputation systems. Facebook Horizons, Decentraland, Fortnite and Roblox could all be considered part of today’s Metaverse but the real potential is in AR/VR. But what a metaverse might look like — besides, like, Zelle and Venmo and shoes and groceries and a complete lack of nudity — is community.

Imagine being able to play chess with a friend who lives across the world using a hologram. Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, EPIC Games, Roblox, Unity technologies, Autodesk, Nvidia are all involved in the creation of the Metaverse. As a rule of thumb, if you plan to resell your NFT or coin at a profit, you are likely being suckered into a pyramid scheme. Now, Antiwork has been one of the fastest growing subcultures on Reddit in the last week.

The ability to own virtual property as you would physical property

In 2015, Russian-Canadian programmer Vitalik investing in metals Buterin and Gavin Wood, a British computer scientist, launched Ethereum, a blockchain platform that introduced smart contracts. These contracts enabled the creation of decentralized applications and digital tokens, including non-fungible tokens. The Ethereum platform can support autonomous systems in the metaverse, such as virtual economies and governance mechanisms.

That same year it released its metaverse application Meta Horizon Worlds, in which users can use Oculus headsets to play games created by other users. The application included a business platform, Meta Horizon Workrooms, in which users who work at locations remote from each other can interact as in a real office. The tech giant formerly known as Facebook has already made significant investments in virtual reality, including the 2014 acquisition of Oculus. Meta envisions a virtual world where digital avatars connect through work, travel, or entertainment using VR headsets. Zuckerberg has been bullish on the metaverse, believing it could replace the internet as we know it. “The next platform and medium will be even more immersive and embodied internet where you’re in the experience, not just looking at it, and we call this the metaverse,” said Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg last month after revealing the company’s rebranding.