The Metaverse
Everybody’s talking about the Metaverse, but no one is making it any easier to understand what the Metaverse is and how brands can gain a foothold in this emerging space.
So, why is it so hard to define the Metaverse?
Because the Metaverse doesn’t exist…yet.
A true Metaverse is still a theoretical idea which means our definitions of the Metaverse are predictions of the future and everyone has a slightly different vision of what that future might be.
What currently exists as the Metaverse are several independent, siloed virtual worlds like Meta’s Horizon World and Decentraland and decentralized applications like the Ethereum block chain that hint at the promise of what the Metaverse might be.
When Wunderman Thompson asked 15 experts to define the Metaverse this is what they said:
The Metaverse Defined
A persistent and user-defined virtual space
A digital layer of everyday life
A digital twin of the physical world
An interconnected and limitless virtual world
An extension of physical identities
There “will be no clean Before Metaverse and After Metaverse, instead, it will slowly emerge over time as different products, services and capabilities integrate and meld together.”
- Matthew Ball
The Metaverse will emerge eventually, but it will be a slow process to get there. Much like the way it took more than 30 years for the internet to evolve from the start of a public internet to the internet we know today.
Metaverse is an umbrella term for technologies that bridge the divide between the physical and digital worlds.
- Amy Web
This will mean that many of our interactions with the internet will happen using a combination of Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality technology as well as wearable technology like smart watches and sensory feedback devices.
And the internet we interact with will be different too.
The Metaverse will be built on Web 3.0.
If you think of Web 1.0 as the birth of the internet and Web 2.0 as the advent of social media, Web 3.0 is an evolution of the internet built on blockchain technology that allows for a more human connection and a freer flowing exchange of information.
A true Metaverse built on Web 3.0 will be decentralized – rather than controlled by governments and corporations.
It will also be open source, which means it is built on free open-source software and it will be trustless and permissionless so that transactions between two parties won’t require a trusted third party like a bank, service provider or government.
NFTs, Crypto Currency and Virtual Worlds are all in their infancy, but they give us a window into the vast possibilities of a true open source, interconnected Metaverse.
To learn more about the future of the Metaverse and how brands are using NFTs and current Metaworlds to engage with consumers, contact info(at)ultracreative.com to schedule our Metaverse 101 presentation.