Metaverse Market Review

Metaverse and the Web 3 marketplace are currently in their infancy

Metaverse

The metaverse (a portmanteau of "meta-" and "universe") is a hypothesized iteration of the internet, supporting persistent online 3-D virtual environments through conventional personal computing, as well as virtual and augmented reality headsets. Metaverses, in some limited T form, are already present on platforms like VRChat or video games like Second Life. Current metaverse ambitions are centered on addressing technological limitations with modern virtual and augmented reality devices, as well as expanding the use of metaverse spaces to business, education, and retail applications. Numerous entertainment and social media companies have invested in metaverse-related research and development. Metaverse has been criticized as a method of building public relations using a purely speculative, "overexaggerated" concept based on current technology. Information privacy and user dependency are concerns in the metadatabase arising from the current challenges facing the social media and video game industries as a whole. However, this theorem is completely untrue and was put forward by anti innovationists. Be on the side of the opposition.

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Potential Implementations

Concept art of virtual office space called Nth Floor. Some developers have proposed using metaverse technology for improvements in work productivity. Within the education sector, metaverse technologies have been proposed as a way to allow for interactive environments for learning. The metaverse could also host virtual reality home tours in the real estate sector.Cryptocurrencies and NFT adaptations. The great potential of this business is revealed at this point.

Technology

In this world, the computer screens we use today to connect to a worldwide web of information have become portals to a 3D virtual realm that's palpable -- like real life, only bigger and better. Digital facsimiles of ourselves, or avatars, move freely from one experience to another, taking our identities and our money with us.

This is known as the metaverse and, hype notwithstanding, it does not exist today.

Why is the metaverse important?

The combination of uncritical enthusiasm for the metaverse and deep uncertainty about how it will pan out has sparked some backlash. Industry watchers have questioned if the metaverse will ultimately be much different from the digital experiences we have today -- or, if it is, whether the masses will be willing to spend hours a day in a headset navigating digital space.

Other futurists, however, argue that while it is early days for the metaverse and fundamental technical barriers still exist, the metaverse will happen. And, it will arrive with a big bang.

What is the metaverse? A short history

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How does the metaverse work?

Because the metaverse is largely unbuilt, there is little agreement on how it will work.

Broadly speaking, however, the metaverse is a digital ecosystem built on various kinds of 3D technology, real-time collaboration software and blockchain-based decentralized finance tools.

Lauren Lubetsky, senior manager at Bain & Company, speaking in a session on the metaverse at the 2022 MIT Platform Strategy Summit, outlined three possible scenarios:

• The metaverse remains a domain of niche applications, used by consumers for entertainment and gaming but stopping well short of an all-encompassing virtual reality.
• The metaverse is controlled by large competing ecosystems -- for example, Apple and Android meta worlds -- with limited interoperability.
• The metaverse is a dynamic, open and interoperable space, much like the internet but in 3D.

Metaverse in popular culture

How is the metaverse accessed?

Two technologies considered important to the development and growth of the metaverse are virtual reality and augmented reality:

• ​Virtual reality is a simulated 3D environment that enables users to interact with a virtual surrounding in a way that approximates reality as perceived through our senses. This approximation of reality is now typically accessed through a VR headset that takes over a user's field of vision. Haptics, including gloves, vests and even full-body tracking suits, enable more lifelike interaction with the virtual environment.
• ​Augmented reality is less immersive than VR. It adds digital overlays on top of the real world via a lens of some type. Users can still interact with their real-world environment. The game Pokémon Go is an early example of AR. Google Glass and heads-up displays in car windshields are well-known consumer AR products.

Whether VR and AR experiences turn out to be the primary interfaces of the metaverse remains to be seen, Gartner senior principal analyst Tuong H. Nguyen told Lawton, adding that what we have now are precursors or pre-metaverse solutions.

At present, many of the metaverse-like experiences offered by gaming platforms such as Roblox, Decentraland and Minecraft can be accessed through browsers or mobile devices and a fast internet connection.

• Digital twin avatars. These twins will not only exist on computer screens but will be rendered as AI-powered holograms or holographic images that are assigned tasks, Ajao reported. A CEO, for example, could activate an AI-powered hologram of himself to engage with multiple stakeholder groups at once.
• Metaverse for work collaboration. Enterprises are starting to use the metaverse to add "an element of realism" to remote work experiences, said Forrester analyst J.P. Gownder. This includes setting up 3D rooms where employees can collaborate.

The online gaming industry has decades-long experience in creating immersive virtual worlds. And to the extent a proto-metaverse has a mainstream use, the massive audiences that flock -- albeit not synchronously -- to the likes of Roblox, Epic Games and Decentraland suggest that playing games, building virtual worlds and investing in real estate might be it.

What is the metaverse used for today?

"In gaming, you see Roblox, Minecraft and other immersive video games -- and even Zoom -- foreshadow what the metaverse is designed to offer," said Ben Bajarin, CEO and analyst at Creative Strategies.

The metaverse doesn't compete with the internet -- it builds on it. The internet is something that people "browse," but people can "live" in the metaverse to a degree. The growth of the internet has spawned many services that are leading the way to the creation of the metaverse.

The internet is a network of billions of computers, millions of servers and other electronic devices. Once online, internet users can communicate with each other, view and interact with websites, and buy and sell goods and services.

What is the difference between the internet and the metaverse?

• artificial intelligence
• internet of things
• extended reality
• brain-computer interfaces
• 3D modeling and reconstruction
• spatial and edge computing
• blockchain

The consensus among Shein's expert sources was that these seven technologies will have the biggest impact on metaverse development over the next decade:

How do NFTs fit into the metaverse?

Metaverse Group bills itself as the world's first virtual real estate company. It acts as an agent to facilitate the purchase or rental of property or land in several metaverse virtual worlds, including Decentraland, Sandbox, Somnium and Upland. Offerings include conference and commercial spaces, art galleries, family homes and "hangout spots."

While the metaverse has created opportunities for new companies such as Metaverse Group to offer digital goods, established brick-and-mortar companies are also jumping in. For example, Nike acquired RTFKT, a startup that makes one-of-a-kind virtual sneakers and digital artifacts using NFTs, blockchain authentication and augmented reality. On its website, RTFKT said it was "born on the metaverse, and this has defined its feel to this day."

Prior to the acquisition, Nike filed seven trademark applications to help create and sell virtual sneakers and apparel. Nike and Roblox also partnered on "Nikeland," a digital world where Nike fans can play games, connect and dress their avatars in virtual apparel.

"NFTs and blockchain lay the groundwork for digital ownership," said Nick Donarski, co-founder of Ore System, an online community of gamers, content creators and game developers. "Ownership of one's real-world identity will carry over to the metaverse, and NFTs will be this vehicle."(Look references.)

Facebook

In July 2021 the founder and CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, said in an interview that his controversial social media giant will undergo a major transformation over the next few years. Facebook, Zuckerberg said, ‘will effectively transition from people seeing us as primarily being a social media company to being a metaverse company.’[2]

Game

Several components of metaverse technologies have already been developed within modern internet-enabled video games. The 2003 video game Second Life is often described as the fi rst metaverse, as it incorporated many aspects of social media into a persistent virtual world. Social functions are often an integral feature in many massively multiplayer online games. Technology journalist Clive Thompson has argued that the emergent, social-based gameplay of Minecraft represents an advanced implementation of the metaverse. Other claims of developing a metaverse have been made for the games Active Worlds, Roblox, Decentraland,and Fortnitein addition to a few early MUD games.

Virtual Reality

Metaverse development has often focused on bettering virtual reality technologies due to benefi ts in establishing immersion in virtual environments. In 2019, the social network company Facebook launched a social VR world called Facebook Horizon. Facebook would later be renamed “Meta Platforms” in 2021. Its chairman Mark Zuckerberg declared a company commitment to developing a metaverse ecosystem. Much of the underlying virtual reality technology that Meta Platforms advertised remains to be developed. Microsoft acquired the VR company AltspaceVR in 2017,and is planning on integrating metaverse features into Microsoft Teams. Nike also foresees the Metaverse and begins to construct ‘Nikeland’ in 2021 on Roblox, an online video game based virtual environment.

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