Since Facebook announced its name change to Meta Platforms Inc. in late October, everyone has been wondering what is Metaverse. The word, coined in the 1992 Sci-fi novel Snow Crash, represents a VR world where people go to live adventures and escape their reality, a concept that is very familiar to current pop culture such as Ready Player One and Tron.
And what’s this metaverse everyone is talking about?
A good definition of “Metaverse” is a virtual 3D world that offers powerful immersive experiences comparable to our reality. It’s not a synonym of VR: the Metaverse concept combines other technologies with VR to build a network of real-time rendered 3D virtual worlds enjoyed simultaneously by an uncountable number of users, with persistent and continuous information, just like in our world. Ownership, records, identity and transaction mechanisms are strictly necessary to build a true metaverse, and the blockchain fits like a glove as a solution to these needs. Impressive single-player VR experiences already exist, as well as vast virtual worlds in a massively multiplayer setting, but those can only become metaverses once the two aspects come together and there is interoperability with other metaverses.
With so many corporations showing commitment to building the Metaverse – so much that there’s already a Metaverse ETF investing in NVIDIA, Microsoft, Tencent and others – and developments like Neuralink’s brain chip beginning human testing next year, there’s a good chance that this concept will truly come to fruition in this decade.
Metaverse November
As soon as Mark Zuckerbert announced his company’s name change, cryptoassets like $MANA and $SAND exploded to new heights. These tokens in particular are some of the blockchain projects in the best position to become a key part of the growing Metaverse. Blockchain-based solutions like NFTs are something even the corporate sphere wants to make part of their virtual world, and these projects have a lot to gain by being pioneers.
Industry players of the crypto world realized that capital and innovation is going to flow towards Metaverse projects over the course of the next decade and more, and tech and videogame companies are already starting their investments into the trend. It’s thus necessary to have an open eye for the largest and most innovative blockchain projects of the Metaverse.
Decentraland ($MANA) is an open virtual world with 90601 fully customizable land parcels represented by Ethereum NFTs. Decentraland has hosted a music festival, has its own neighborhoods and districts and is community-controlled by $MANA holders.
Gala Games ($GALA) is a blockchain gaming studio with multiple successful published titles. Their vision is to interconnect their own collection of games into the so-called “Galaverse”.
The Sandbox ($SAND) promises to deliver a virtual world similar to Decentraland, but with user content-creation and monetization mechanisms.
NetVRk ($NTVRK) is not just a VR world, but a whole universe with planets, towns, buildings, etc. They are building very user friendly VR content creation tools to allow users without prior knowledge to monetize the content they produce.
Axie Infinity ($AXS) is the biggest play-to-earn NFT game, but has no clear-cut plan to enter the Metaverse. There’s value, however, in leveraging their size before other players take their opportunity to occupy an important place in this new niche, which Sky Mavis, their parent company, has certainly taken notice of.
The blockchain is only one – albeit a very important one – of the technologies needed to build the Metaverse. Some of these projects got started as early as 2017, but the traditional corporate world has been involved in metaverse-related investments and technological breakthroughs even earlier than that. The most important companies in this race are:
Meta (formerly Facebook)
Meta may have appropriated the word for themselves with their rebranding, but their bet on the Metaverse – a radical attempt to stay relevant – was made clear to the world. Today about 20% of the company’s employees work in VR projects, a trend that began with the 2014 acquisition of Oculus. They own some of the largest social media platforms, which they are leveraging to build a VR space application for people to host parties and assemble with their friends.
NVIDIA
NVIDIA has a crucial role in making the building blocks of the Metaverse, being at the forefront of innovation in graphic technologies. In the software front, NVIDIA is building a suite of tools for creating VR content named “Omniverse”, while relentless innovation is needed in the hardware front to bring realistic VR experiences to everyone.
Microsoft
Owning Linkedin, Teams, and Office, Microsoft built their first workplace-focused Metaverse application: Mesh for Teams. It makes it possible to hold a meeting and work together entirely in VR, useful for work-from-home arrangements. Their assets include the gaming company Xbox and the Hololens VR headset line, a powerful combination to create Metaverse experiences.