Metaverse

What is Metaverse?

Metaverse technology is the incorporation of digital ownership and augmented reality to create an immersive digital experience. Blockchain technology, like NFTs and cryptocurrency, plays a major role in the creation of a holistic space in which the virtual and real world combine. Land ownership, digital identity, and a shared sense of virtual community come together and give users a full digital world to engage with and own.

Roots of the Metaverse

What is metaverse is becoming more of a common question today, and to understand the answer we need to look at the foundational roots of it. After years of development in virtual, augmented, and extended reality (VR, AR, and XR respectively) tech developers have looked for new ways to further bring the user into the virtual world.

Blockchain technology has lent itself to this need for a more in-depth approach to virtual worlds:

  • NFTs have given users a real sense of ownership when it comes to digital items. Unlike cryptocurrency, which are fungible and interchangeable without a loss of value, NFTs are unique and represent specific and unalterable computer renderings. This goes from digital art to items to land even.
  • Cryptocurrency, as digital money, plays into metaverse tech as well. Since everything within a metaverse is digital, it only makes sense that the currency used is represented in the same way. Crypto can easily be linked to digital items and is secure while being used in digital spaces.

Examples of Metaverse Projects

When exploring how to enter the metaverse, the first question you should ask yourself is which metaverse am I actually interested in visiting. Some examples of popular metaverses include:

  • Decentraland; one of the first true metaverses built using NFTs.
  • Meta; built by the Facebook team, many new users may feel that this is the best place to start. As this example of metaverse technology is owned by a big corporation, it is far more centralized however.
  • The Sandbox; this metaverse project took many of the ideas that were already developed in the tech and made them more user friendly.

Use Cases for the Metaverse

There are potentially endless use cases when creating a fully integrated virtual world. Metaverse are currently being explored in:

  • GameFi; Using the metaverse for fully immersive gaming is probably the most common use case for this technology (Play-to-Earn and VR)
  • Medicine; both in medical education and in preparation for complicated and delicate operations, metaverses can be used to render and explore the human body and plan for the restoration of it.
  • Online shopping; this is a continuation of concepts from Web2 technology in which people can view items and clothing as images for the purpose of purchasing.
In this article

What is Metaverse?

Roots of the Metaverse

Examples of Metaverse Projects

Use Cases for the Metaverse