Metaverse is today a term that is being thrown around like the internet was being spoked about in the 1970s & 1980s. It is expected to be one of the upcoming technologies that will define how communication will change in the next decades. Powered by Web3, blockchain, and cryptocurrencies, the metaverse is expected to be the evolution of the internet and companies are getting ready for the future.
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For instance, Microsoft has recently purchased ActivisionBlizzard for $69 billion and Facebook has officially renamed itself to Meta signaling two tech giants’ clear intent towards making it big in the metaverse world. There are other companies like Apple, Qualcomm, Valve, Epic, Nvidia, and HTC that are planning activities in the area of the metaverse.
The term metaverse is not new. It was coined by Neal Stephenson in a 1992 novel named Snow Crash. Metaverse was again brought up in a novel launched in 2011 Ready Player One. Second Life created by Linden Lab in 2003 was a virtual world that attracted several companies to set up a virtual shop and attracted a large number of users. However, the popularity decreased over time.
Here is all you need to know about metaverse and its possible impact:
What is metaverse?
Metaverse is still a fluid term that is focused on redefining how communication will happen on the internet in the future. Metaverse is the proposed solution in which people would be able to create their digital personas and extend them from one platform to another seamlessly. There are games like Roblox, Fortnite, and Minecraft that have been popular as standalone metaverses. It is expected that in the world of the metaverse, users would be able to take their digital avatars from one platform to another and not limit it to one platform.
Metaverse is expected to be an amalgamation of virtual reality, augmented reality, and many other solutions across a variety of platforms so that users can have an overlapped experience across physical and digital with categories like wealth, entertainment, productivity, and shopping.
Metaverse is still an evolving term and it is expected that what it will eventually look like will change in the future. For instance, the virtual headsets and BR goggles are not in a position to be used for a world promised by the metaverse. It is expected that many innovations in the world of the metaverse and the ecosystem surrounding it will define the future of this innovation.
How will metaverse impact you?
To start with, the metaverse is expected to impact the current batch of internet users in a variety of ways. While Web1 was about setting websites and offering a platform for interaction on the web Web2 was about interaction among users with superior user experience and user interface with companies like Google, Facebook, Instagram, etc., Web3 is expected to redefine how users communicate with each other offline and online.
Metaverse is expected to be more than just a social network. It is expected to extend an opportunity to users to have a digital avatar that can move across platforms and create a digital world in which shopping, productivity, entertainment, and other elements of life can coexist.
Whether there will be one metaverse or multiple is yet to be seen. While tech giants are open to the idea of creating a single metaverse so that users can have a seamless experience, how it will work in the practical world is yet to be seen.
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What can you expect?
You can surely expect a lot of action and innovations coming up in the metaverse space. It is expected that large tech giants like Apple, Facebook, and Microsoft along with a few small companies will race towards the creation of the metaverse to have the first-mover advantage.
The pandemic has already accelerated the pace in the virtual world. The advent of the metaverse is only expected to push the rise of virtual platforms among users. How the metaverse will look and operate is tough to visualize at the moment but it can be expected that several tech companies will come up with solutions that offer new platforms for digital interactions and interoperability among platforms.
If the metaverse can deliver on its promises, you can expect a total transformation of how you exist on several digital platforms at the moment.
