What is the Metaverse?

On October 28th last year, Mark Zuckerberg announced the rebranding of Facebook and changed the company name to Meta. The social network retained its previous name, so the change went unnoticed by many. However, it marked the beginning of the creation of a new universe of immersive virtual reality.

What is the metaverse?

The Metaverse is a combination of virtual and augmented reality technologies to create the ultimate immersion in a virtual world. Simply put, it's a virtual space where people interact with virtual objects and each other through their avatars.

The term first appeared in Neal Stephenson's 1992 novel Snow Crash. So the idea isn't new, but the thought of living in a digital space still seems futuristic. If you think about it, we already live in a digital world.

If you've seen the movie Ready Player One, which takes place in 2045 where most of humanity uses virtual reality to escape the real world, you have a rough idea of how the metaverse works.

What is the point of metaverses?

The metaverse offers an alternate reality, much like the real world. The main difference is that in the metaverse, you can communicate with people or travel the world without leaving your home, using only a computer and virtual reality goggles.

If you and your family, for one reason or another, cannot physically gather together for some important family holiday, you can put on a VR headset and virtually gather in one room, talk, chat, play games, etc.

Or you can use the virtual space to meet with business partners, conduct meetings, participate in trainings, educational programs, and interviews. You and your colleagues can sit at the same table, watch the same presentation, and discuss it as if you were sitting together in a real office. When the meeting is over, you simply take off your headset and find yourself at home with your family.

You can go even further—metaverses allow you to create a real business within any virtual land you own. For example, you could build and monetize a recreational area where people can come to play games and host various events. You could open a VR clothing store or monetize construction skills by charging users for constructing digital architectural structures.

The virtual space could also create new employment opportunities, as there will be a demand for developers, virtual architects, and other specialists. There are no limits to the imagination here.

Metaverse Currencies

Metaverses use cryptocurrency. This can be a proprietary cryptocurrency, like MANA at Decentraland, or a universal one, like Ethereum (ETH) at Cryptoxles.

Examples of metaverses

Some of the most popular metaverses today are:

Cryptovoxels;
Decentraland;
The Sandbox;
Somnium Space.

CryptoVoxels, Decentraland, and Somnium space are considered VR platforms, while The Sandbox is better known as an online gaming platform. Well-known games like Fortnite and Minecraft are also considered metaverses. Fortnite CEO Tim Sweeney defined a metaverse as a virtual 3D space that combines gaming and non-gaming elements.

The number of brands creating their own metauniverses is constantly growing: Atari, Addidas, Google, Microsoft, Nike, Sony – and this is far from a complete list.

Let's take a closer look at the selected metaverses.

1. Cryptovoxels

Cryptovoxels – a virtual world built on the Ethereum blockchain. It consists of a city known as Origin City. Its streets are owned by a corporation, while individual sections are owned by ordinary people.

Previously, Cryptovoxels used its own in-game currency, $COLR. Since June 2020, Cryptovoxels has switched to Ethereum.

To immerse yourself in the world of Cryptovoxels, all you need is a computer and a stable internet connection. You don't need a wallet to interact with the world. Simply visit Cryptovoxels.com/Play.

Users can create, buy, and sell their assets using in-game voxel builders, and then trade them on the NFT marketplace.OpenSea.

Origin City is convenient and functional. While navigating the city, you can use a guide containing a list of locations and events for direct teleportation.

2. Decentraland

Decentraland is another popular space built on the Ethereum blockchain. Decentraland offers virtual real estate (LAND), which is stored on the blockchain as non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Land plots are 16 by 16 meters, or 52 by 52 feet.

Cryptocurrency – MANA.

You can explore Decentraland without a wallet, explore the virtual world, create an avatar, and chat with others. However, without a wallet, you can't receive rewards or participate in various virtual events.

Decentraland's signature feature is its own marketplace where you can buy and sell virtual real estate, land, digital items, and even unique avatar names.

3.The Sandbox

The Sandbox was developed in 2012 as a mobile game. In August 2018, it was acquired by Animoca Brands to transform it into a completely new form – a voxel-based blockchain game where users can earn money from their in-game creations.

Over 160,000 plots of land are available in the Sandbox, divided into two categories: regular land (96 by 96 meters) and estates (combinations of multiple plots of land). Assets—game characters, accessories, etc.—are issued in the form of tokens.ERC-1155, which can be either interchangeable or non-interchangeable.

Games form the core of The Sandbox's virtual world. Thanks to its easy-to-use interface, you can create your own game and assets without any coding skills. VoxEdit lets you create your own in-game assets, and Game Maker lets you create 3D games for free that can be monetized. Once you reach the verified artist level, you can export your creations to The Sandbox marketplace through the creators' fund.

4.Somnium Space

Somnium Space has created a virtual reality world with its own economy and currency. You can access it from a personal computer or mobile device.

Somnium Space allows you to immerse yourself in a virtual world using all major VR headsets. Somnium partners with Sony, allowing access to their 3D modeling technology for avatars. Users can also monetize their virtual lands and assets.

Resume

The Metaverse is an exciting technology that opens up new possibilities. You can meet new people, create assets, and monetize them. This is the world of the future, accessible to us today.

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What is the Metaverse?