Greetings to everyone out there, I would love to join Prof. @wahyunahrul to welcome each and everyone to the first week of this season. The topic for this week is Metaverse and Blockchain and I'll try my best to give detailed answers to the test questions listed. If you reach the requirements, you could join me to do same by reading up the lesson on this link
1.)
Introduction
The metaverse universe is about to become the future of social media platforms as well as the internet itself. Well, the metaverse can be seen as a virtual experience where users can explore another reality and reach out to friends and family with certain characters known as digital avatars.
Everyone has a special character for just themselves, an avatar that looks like them in the virtual world. Users can seamlessly move around the metaverse feeling every thing in their environment with a gadget known as the virtual reality headset. They can converse with other people's avatars all around the world.
The metaverse is just like the internet which brings people together but the difference between the two like Mac Zuck said is "it makes the user have an experience inside the internet" and not just looking and scrolling through the screens of their phones.
This technology will be so broad and very fun to use among long distant peers. Research and projects are still being done by tech giants like Mac Zuckerberg and companies like Microsoft to figure out additional softwares or hardwares that can be added to metaverse experience to make it feel so real and possible for the world. Billions of dollars have been spent and its a wise thing to expect the metaverse to be an explosive investment opportunity for the future.
Since the metaverse is a virtual project there would be need for virtual types of currencies and this is where cryptocurrencies come in to serve as a medium of exchange on the platform.
So is the Metaverse the future of technology?
Yes, I would say with my full might that the metaverse is the future of technology. Technology was invented to make life easier and a device like the metaverse can make long distant communication feel physical and closer. In this age, communication is made easier with the internet but since the metaverse is better and more hybrid in everywhere, it can be a replacement in the future to the internet. Communication in a meeting can now be done between members sitting at home with their avatars. If the members would need to receive a physical presentation and to feel what ever product is being presented, the metaverse technology has that covered.
A quick illustration, instead of shopping for clothes on an online store on instagram, without physically seeing, feeling and trying on the material, with the metaverse technology, a user can now go to the virtual form of the store to test out the attire before it is being shipped down to your address. You can even buy them with crypto assets through the use of smart contracts on the blockchain to ensure both parties are settled and there aren't dubious actions.
In the present world, geographic location matters when seeking for a job but with the metaverse a lot of people can be given the opportunity to jobs no matter where they live. Like I said they can just be anywhere and be present with their avatars in their work places.
Example of A sale on a Metaverse Platform
The Gucci company even made an NFT virtual handbag on Roblox and sold it for an amount of about 475 Robux which is $1.6625. They have sold 47,357 of that NFT item.
Are people Interested?
Well, I think the metaverse is much appreciated by a lot of people. People are so much interested in it.
I searched “metaverse” on youtube and from what I saw, there where hundreds of thousands of views per videos ranging to millions. There's a booming amount of people trying to find out what the technology is all about. This shows that there is a high amount of people interested in it.
Facebook even changed their company name to meta and there are lots of tech giants throwing in billions of dollars to make the metaverse technology a possibility. I feel the metaverse project is the future of technology and its advantages conquers its disadvantages.
2.)
Metaverse technology is borderless and this means that there isn't any form of restrictions by intermediaries and this makes the platform decentralised. Although, a fully functioning metaverse doesn't exist yet, the technology can only be made possible with a digital economy. Here is where the blockchain technology which is a digital and automatic ledger that makes records of all digital assets transacted on the metaverse platforms. They are impossible to be edited and this gives users the assurance of security over their digital assets.
The quality of a fully functioning metaverse platform is the ability to transfer or port your NFT avatars and other digital assets between other metaverse platforms. For example, the transfer of your avatar from Facebook Horizon to the Roblox platform. The ability of portability or transfer between virtual worlds can only be made possible with the use of the blockchain technology.
Platforms like Decentraland where users can buy and sell digital landed properties are exmaples of this blockchain metaverse. Here you own a valuable property for your avatar like lands, clothes etc. and identification codes in the NFT item will give confirmations that you are the rightful owner.
Some people work in this metaverse virtual worlds as bartenders or waiters to various avatars and get paid in no other asset but cryptocurrencies. Since there are a lot of monetary operations in such virtual worlds there is high requirement for the compatibility of the blockchain technology and the metaverse technology.
Here are three properties that further explains why the blockchain should be compatible with the metaverse
No Intermediaries: This makes it possible for the metaverse to be made borderless without any control from any central server
Incorruptibility of The Blockchain: This means that all transactions recorded between users on the metaverse can not be corrupted or altered. Herby ensuring tougher security and giving users the guarantee that once they purchase a digital asset, those digital assets can't be retracted by any means.
Endless nature of the blockchain: The blockchain can never be closed down by anyone and this assures users that their tokens are safe forever.
3.)
The are quite a number of metaverse platforms but for this question, I will be selecting the Decentraland
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Decentraland is a community owned virtual land. It was founded by Ariel Meilich and Esteban Ordano. Decentraland was developed to what it is now in China by a group called the Metaverse Holding Limited.
This platform was created on the ethereum blockchain in 2017 which makes it the first ever metaverse project to be decentralised. This means it is owned by its users and that’s why I called it a community owned virtual land earlier. All monetary operations on the platform are documented or recorded on the Eth blockchain.
Decentraland software provides its users with a virtual space to acquire landed properties worth a whole lot of money, build on them, move around and relate with a whole lot of other users across the world. Users are also allowed to buy clothing and various other NFT items. All these digital assets can be bought on a feature called the market place.
Speaking about the virtual parcel of lands, on the decentraland metaverse, they are about 90,000 virtual lands and each of them are created on a single map in the form of non fungible tokens. Which means that, they are all unique in their own way and may vary in prices. There are various types of this virtual lands on decentraland
- The Individual land NFT
- The Estates which have series of parcels in a particular location and
- Ditricts which are private owned properties and contain plazas which are non-tradeable.
The Decentraland Metaverse has been there for a while but was recently made public in Feb 2020 before the pandemic. The platform even tried its best to support some countries during the pandemic by creating face masks NFTs, selling them in the virtual markets and returning the revenue of the sales back to those countries.
Its native coins is called MANA
Quick Analysis of the MANA token
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MANA token was launched on the Ethereum network to act as a medium of exchange on the Decentraland Metaverse. It is ranked as the #29th best coin in the world with a current price of $3.95 and currently has a market cap of $7,215,292,203. It also has a circulating supply of 1,824,627,935 MANA
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The MANA token has an All time high of $4.69 just 21 days ago and an all time low of $0.007883 4 years ago. The shows how much increase the token has experienced since launch in 2017. The MANA token still has the tendency to get back to or even surpass $4.69 in the future. The mana token has a mechanism that keeps on burning unused tokens at a particular rate and of today, 600,000,000 have been burnt.
It can be acquired on Binance, OKEx, Coinbase etc.
To me the MANA token is a good long investment tool because of the rapid growth of Metaverse in our age. The decentraland metaverse has a good fan base with a populated amount of players acquiring and building virtual properties. There are still loads of investors yet to understand the platform and since the MANA token is the only means of exchange on the platform, there is a high tendency of its price skyrocketing in the near future due to the influx of new virtual land investors seeking to buy MANA tokens in other to acquire properties .
4.)
In this question, we will be connecting the metamask wallet to the Decentraland Metaverse
- Click on the Start Exploring button on the right hand of the screen.
- Click on Connect with wallet
If you have already downloaded the Metamask extension from from the Chrome Extension Store, click on the extension at the top right of your computer browser then click on Connect.
On the next extension screen, click on Sign.
- The Decentraland software will download some updates then you are good to go.
5.)
The Metaverse I'll be exploring is still the Decentraland, it is a wonderful platform with high stakes of becoming one of the leading crypto currency metaverse technologies in the future.
Like I said earlier, the Decentraland Metaverse is a 3D virtual reality platform that allows users to explore a new virtual world and connect with long time friends or meet new people on the platform. It's fascinating to experience and I'll try to list out important features in the platform.
I) This the first page you see once you have connected your wallet to the website. Here you design and redress your avartar to what ever style you prefer using the free available items in the
- BODY
- HEAD
- TOP etc sections
II) The picture below is the Market Place, here users can buy different virtue landed properties or collectibles for their avatar. What ever they purchase is registered on the Etherium blockchain and they become the rightful owner of that NFT.
III) This is builder section where users can come to customise their building assets and design it to their taste. They don't need any qualification like knowing how to build in reality to perform this task.
IV) The picture below display the page for all assets owned by the user in his wallets. Mine is empty because I haven't started dealing on the patform.
V) This is called the Decentralised Documentation page, it displays all help options. New users with no basic knowledge of how to buy and sell different NFTs on the platform can use this section to learn the different processes.
Finally, this is the Land Map of the decentraland community. The map is filled with different colours to represent different sections. I'll explain further below
Green Areas: This sections are allocated to the Plaza. This are land properties owned by the community and can not be bought by any user. The center of them all is called the Genesis plaza. The genesis plaza is where players spawn into the game.
Light Grey: This section represents the roads, they can't be bought by any user.
Dark Blue: This section represents the Districts, it is privately owned and can't be bought.
Grey: The sections are owned and not for sale.
Light Blue: This section is for sale to new users and the closer the land property is to the genesis plaza, the move expensive it gets.
Advantages
I) The first advantage of the decentraland platform is that it is decentralised and this creates room for other advantages like:
Since there is no central server, there is an assurance to the users that the platform will not shut down one day costing the users to lose all their NFT tokens.
The platform can not be hacked except users disclose or compromise the keys to their wallets.
The nature of decentralisation removes all third party operations and revokes the possibility of the user to be limited of what they can do on the platform.
II) The platform deals in NFTs and a native token known as the MANA token. Since this virtual assets in lands and buildings, prices will surely soar up as there is scarcity of properties to sell and a high amount of buyers. This makes storing of fiat in this NFTs and MANA tokens a wise and sufficient investment strategy.
Unique Qualities
Decentraland is built on the etheureum blockchain as the first decentralised metaverse and is a place for various content creators and people who are looking for business opportunities. It also exists to its users as a platform for entertainment or to while away time.
The decentraland project also gives user who hold the MANA tokens rights and privileges to:
- Modify land parameter
- Adjust marketplace fees and
- Approve wearable NFT collections.
There are also opportunities for gambling on the decentraland metaverse.
The Metaverse project is a fascinating technology, I must say. The ability to bring a large mass of people together from different parts of the world to be able to converse virtually and feel everything around them with the use of small gadget called the Virtual Reality Headset.
Although, the project is still in its infancy and research is going on by tech companies to find out the cheapest and possible methods of making the Metaverse platform a reality. It will be a huge advancement in our world and I believe we can all say that it is the future of technology.
Thank you so much once again, Prof. @wahyunahrul. I must say, I had no idea about Metaverse projects until now. Looking forward to your next assignment.