What is the Metaverse? A Brief Introduction
The world of blockchain began over a decade ago with the launch of Bitcoin and has progressed a long way. Today there are numerous niches besides cryptocurrencies, including DeFi, NFTs, blockchain gaming, and more. All of these are not mutually exclusive or independent but work together with each other.
One such niche, which is a product of all these and other technologies such as AR, VR, AI, and more, is the metaverse. We’re now at the cusp of Web 2.0 and Web 3.0, the next generation of the internet, and the current metaverse concept stands on that cusp.
If you’ve come across this phrase before, and know little about it, consider this your introductory session.
In this article, we’ll take you through what a metaverse is, its different aspects, its importance, and what the future looks like for it. So let’s jump right in.
What is a Metaverse?
The term metaverse was coined way back in 1992 by an author called Neal Stephenson. According to him, the metaverse was a fully digital world isolated from the real one and acted as a counterpart where people could do anything.
However, today after three decades, experts are wondering how close our metaverse would actually be to the one in fiction. Currently, the metaverse is a 3D world on the internet where a person can perform different actions such as investing in crypto, playing games, attending fashion galas, music events, and much more.
Let me put it in simple terms. Think of the metaverse as a virtual world that resembles the real world. You could move around physically as digital characters, and you would be able to do anything. The possibilities are truly endless.
Why is the Metaverse Important for Businesses?
Businesses are proliferating increasingly in today’s era, and many fields are even getting saturated. As a result, the metaverse is the next step that would benefit organizations. Here’s how:
Increased Reach
With the metaverse, businesses can increase their reach multi-fold. Traditional institutions and services were restricted by numerous aspects such as geographic locations, accessibility, and unnecessary intermediaries.
With the metaverse, users only need a device and an internet connection to access any services or products. Businesses would thus be able to expand their market.
Opportunities for Innovation
With technologies such as blockchain, VR, AR, and IoT, businesses can innovate in innumerable ways to create products and services that we couldn’t imagine before. For instance, hosting an entire fashion event on the metaverse where people could create collections that could be used by avatars in the metaverse.
Building Communities
As mentioned earlier, people do not need much to access the metaverse. Any device like a phone or a laptop with an internet connection would be enough. This also means that building communities of like-minded people will become far easier.
The marketing sector has evolved such that brands and organizations are looking to bring together people as communities and have a closer relationship with them. Businesses would be able to do so with the metaverse.
Transformation in Workplaces and Workflows
The global pandemic had brought about a massive change in the way organizations and employees functioned. Remote working became the norm, and even after the lockdown ended, companies saw how efficient it was to run the business with hybrid models.
The metaverse would be a few steps ahead of this. People would interact with each other in virtual offices and workplaces via their digital characters and gather together to collaborate and communicate.
These are a few simple ways the metaverse would be important for businesses.
Why is the Metaverse Important for People?
Now that you know the business perspective, it is also necessary to understand how the metaverse would impact the masses.
Decentralization
With technologies such as blockchain, authorities and intermediaries could potentially become redundant since people would drive the metaverse. Furthermore, data would be stored in a distributed manner, unlike the conventional centralized way. This would make the data much more secure than it is in the current infrastructure.
Self-Sovereign Identity
This is one of the most sought-after changes for the common folk. If you look at the current scenario, you’ll need to create identities using your ID across different platforms. Besides maintaining these, the control is in the hands of the organizations and platforms.
In the metaverse, we would need to create only a single digital identity that we could use across different services and platforms. The control of this would also be with the people themselves.
Censorship-Resistance
Content on today’s internet is vulnerable to all kinds of censorship. Organizations can censor content, ban it, and essentially do what they want regarding what a person can or cannot put on the internet.
However, in the metaverse, there would be a shift in power from companies to the people. As a result, creators would strive for lesser censorship and be more in control of their assets.
Besides these, there are numerous other benefits, such as creators getting paid directly by their users, the investment becoming a people-driven process, and much more.
Conclusion
To summarize, the metaverse is deemed to be the next era of the internet. However, there is still some time for our perceived version of the metaverse to be a reality. But one thing’s for sure, it is a significant transformation that is still in its nascent stages, and there’s so much to explore.
Do you have some project involving the metaverse? don’t hesitate in contacting us! You can do that here!
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