Brief content
The metaverse is an immersive online space that combines users' digital and real lives. Using technologies such as augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR) and blockchain, the metaverse offers new digital ways to work, communicate and play.
Projects like Decentraland and SecondLive are already experimenting with play-to-earn games and other uses of blockchain, allowing communities to gather, work, and create to achieve common goals. In addition, the tech giants are building their metauniverses to keep up with the trend.
While there may be many metauniverses, they would all benefit from being able to merge with each other. Blockchain technology offers a unique way to interact with the metauniverse. This could potentially allow users to move cryptocurrencies, items, and other digital assets between metaverses.
Introduction
Metaverse is one of the words that people mention when talking about the future of technology, cryptocurrencies and the Internet. The metauniverse is not yet fully formed, but it is noticeable that small projects and global companies strive to build the future of digital spaces.
What is the Metaverse?
A metauniverse is the concept of connected virtual universes that can be explored using 3D avatars. It's like the next step in the evolution of the internet with more immersive and interactive online experiences.
The metaverse uses technologies such as augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and blockchain. While AR allows users to project digital visuals into the real world using a camera, VR creates computer-generated virtual environments that users explore using VR headsets. And blockchain technology provides the properties of digital proof of ownership, digital ability to collect and transfer value.
NFT platforms, such as the Binance NFT Marketplace, also contribute to the development of the gaming metaverse by providing a connection between gaming projects and the crypto community. Additionally, the community-driven BNB Smart Chain (BSC) hosts various metauniverse projects. Fortnite also developed a metauniverse platform that united more than 350 million players in its virtual world.
Although the metaverse is still in development, it will most likely extend beyond gaming platforms. For example, applications for digital identity, remote work, and decentralized governance are just some of the potential sectors that could benefit from the metaverse.
What can you do in the metaverse?
The metauniverse creates open virtual spaces that combine the physical and digital. For example, businesses can start using the metaverse to hold meetings in mixed reality using VR headsets or to sign contracts without physically being in the same place.
Similarly, you can buy products by interacting with virtual shops, show off your NFT collections to virtual friends and visit art exhibitions without leaving the comfort of your home.
Play-to-earn games like Axie Infinity and workplace communication tools like Gather.town are already proving that some aspects of virtual worlds are possible. They invite users to have fun, meet people, make transactions using digital currencies and even earn a living.
Decentraland, on the other hand, is a digital online world that successfully combines social elements with cryptocurrencies and NFTs, representing anything from decorative items to virtual real estate. For example, a player can use Decentraland's native cryptocurrency, MANA, to purchase 16x16 meter plots of land, which are issued as NFTs (non-fungible tokens) on the Ethereum blockchain.
Finally, the metauniverse allows people who share common interests to come together. For example, Fortnite held a virtual concert "Astronomical concert" by Travis Scott, which gathered more than 12 million listeners from all over the world. Unlike a regular concert, gamers could interact with the famous rapper through their avatars and enjoy animated 3D visuals.
Should there be only one metauniverse?
The concept of a metauniverse assumes that there is one common and shared virtual basis shared by all. But, as we have seen, there can be different metauniverses that are separate from each other.
Therefore, each metaverse has a certain function in the collective of metaverses. Just as each social networking platform provides its users with certain services, the metaverse offers various virtual opportunities. As in the previous examples, one metauniverse could be focused on games and another on events or concerts.
Cryptocurrency metauniverse projects such as Axie Infinity, Decentraland, and SecondLive have their own unique approach to creating a metauniverse. In addition to blockchain-based metauniverses, major tech giants are pushing ahead with the development of metauniverses. For example, Facebook changed its name to Meta and invested billions of dollars in developing a meta universe, software, and AR and VR headsets. Likewise, large companies such as Microsoft, Google, and Tencent are building a metaverse and entering the market by developing new technologies.
Ideally, the different metauniverses should become compatible. Metauniverse interoperability means that one or more metauniverses can easily interact and share data. Interoperable metauniverses will allow users to move assets from one metauniverse to another, including NFTs and cryptocurrencies.
Many developers and protocols are betting on blockchain technology to connect metauniverses. First, blockchain is decentralized and transparent. And secondly, it can offer digital proof of ownership, authenticity, transfer of value and affordability.
For example, if two play-to-earn games were compatible and built on the same blockchain, players could switch between them and their virtual items could exist and be protected in both games. In other words, users would be able to use their weapons, skins, and other in-game items in both virtual worlds. There is also the possibility of using blockchain bridges to move cryptocurrencies and other digital assets between different blockchain networks.
The Future Network of Metaverses
The metaverse is still in its early stages of development. No one knows what will happen next, but it is certainly a technology sector that is attracting capital and developer attention. As mentioned, the metauniverse will likely consist of several separate metauniverses. However, technologies such as blockchain and cryptocurrencies are likely to play a central role in bringing together multiple virtual worlds.
Eventually, we may see different metauniverses with different goals become part of a single metauniverse. Creating a network of different metaverses can also help further popularization.
Results
The metauniverse continues to grow as new projects enter the market and existing ones develop new features and services. There are already successful metauniverse projects in the crypto space, including blockchain-based ones like Decentraland, as well as players from traditional markets like Fortnite and Meta. With the development of AR, VR, blockchain and other technologies, we are likely to see the emergence of exciting new virtual metauniverses.
