A new world, the metaverse, is evolving at a time when the shattered physical world transitions into the great unknown.
In a world of turmoil, uncertainties, and at times what appears to be insanity, young people are abandoning the physical world. They are escaping to a safe space, the metaverse.
Meta in ancient Greek meant beyond.
The metaverse is where people, particularly the youth, increasingly live, work and play
Darren Winters explains, Metaverse is a fourth dimension of being where fantasy and reality blend, thereby freeing the imagination of the human brain to create another world. Perhaps it is best described as someone being on a psychedelic trip, but the illusion experienced is real, in the sense that their fantasies are being enacted out in the digital world.
The metaverse is where people meet fantasy friends, create digital communities, own digital real-estate, play games, share and buy digital art, and much more.
So, the metaverse, a portmanteau of “meta-” and “universe” supports online 3-D virtual environments through conventional personal computing. Moreover, part of the metaverse hardware includes virtual and augmented reality headsets which are intended to make the user experience more lifelike.
Modern internet-enabled video games have several components of metaverse technologies
For example, the 2003 video game Second Life, which is often described as the first metaverse, incorporated many aspects of social media into a persistent virtual world. Social functions are also an integral feature in many multiplayer online games.
Technology journalist Clive Thompson believes that the emergent, social-based gameplay of Minecraft represents an advanced implementation of the metaverse. So, a similar argument was put forward for the game Roblox, which has since employed significant usage of the term in marketing.
Other claims of developing a metaverse include the games Active Worlds, Decentraland, and Fortnite, in addition to a few early MUD games.
What are the latest Metaverse technologies?
So current technological development focuses on addressing technological limitations with virtual and augmented reality devices.
In other words, metaverse technology aims at improving virtual reality technologies due to benefits in establishing immersion in virtual environments. In 2019, the social network company Facebook launched a social VR world called Facebook Horizon, which Facebook later renamed “Meta Platforms” in 2021. Facebook’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, declared a company committed to developing a metaverse ecosystem. Much of the underlying virtual reality technology that Meta Platforms advertised is still in the process of being developed. Microsoft acquired the VR company AltspaceVR in 2017 and plans to integrate metaverse features into Microsoft Teams. Metaverse technologies have also been proposed in the education sector to promote interactive environments for learning
The metaverse could also host virtual reality home tours in the real estate sector.
Some of you may have read or heard about the term metaverse, which is often being used as a buzzword for promotion, and as a way to generate hype for public relations purposes by making vague claims for future projects.
Beyond the hype are Metaverse related cryptocurrencies, which have surged an eye-popping 37,000% this year, far exceeding gains of bitcoin
As Darren Winters explains, the above data is based on the gains of five coins: Axie Infinity, Decentraland, Sandbox, Enjin Coin, and GALA, which is not unusual for these coins to rally over 20% in a week.
These coins are part of the metaverse where people live, work, and play in the digital world.
Smaller versions of the metaverse have already begun mushrooming. For example, Axie Infinity allows users to play games to earn crypto. Digital land and other assets can also be owned in Decentraland.
Darren Winters points out, coins related to smart contracts rallied 2,355% this year, and DeFi coins jumped 548%. Bitcoin rose just 97%.
It might also be prudent for investors to keep on their radar Afrostar, built on the Binance Smart Chain, which recently launched its AfroStar token.
So, the recent cryptocurrency sell-off in early December could offer investors investment opportunities in the metaverse-related cryptocurrency sector. But cryptocurrencies are volatile assets offering high-risk high rewards.
We believe the cryptocurrency market is consolidating and could hit new highs in the first quarter of 2022.
Where are the potential pitfalls within the metaverse?
So, the privacy of data information and user addiction, which are stemming from the current challenges facing the social media and video game industries as a whole, could represent challengers.