What Is the Metaverse and Why Is Everyone Talking About It?

All of you have heard of the metaverse at least once. Now everyone is talking about it and many are even trying to build it. But where did the concept of a metaverse come from and what does it mean?

In this article, we will learn all about this technology of the future. However, the future is already available to you at home on 22Bets.

History of the Metaverses

The term “metaverse” was coined by science fiction writer Neil Stevenson. In the cyberpunk novel “Avalanche”, this was the name of a three-dimensional virtual reality that could be entered using Google glasses. This is what the main character used, crumbling the enemies of humanity with a katana — first in the metaverse, and then in the “real” world.

According to Stevenson, the metaverse is the next stage in the development of the Internet. It combines physical, augmented, and virtual reality.

The main character regularly disappears into the Metaverse — though not just for fun. Concurrently, Hiro is a cool hacker who is able not only to influence the gameplay but also to penetrate such depths of the Metaverse that mere mortals who came here for entertainment did not dream of.

Hype Around the Metaverse

The hype around metaverses happened in 2021. But in the gaming industry and cinema, elements of the metaverse appeared long before that: the films “Matrix”, “Blade Runner” or, for example, “The First Player to get ready”, where the online multiplayer game “Oasis” became an analog of the metaverse. Among the games can be noted Second Life. And this is more than a game: “Second Life” is a three-dimensional virtual space with elements of social networks. Over 1 million active users decide for themselves how they look inside this metaverse and what to do.

There are signs of metaverses in Warhammer, Minecraft, Cyberpunk 2077, Fallout, Fortnite, Final Fantasy, and many other modern games.

The Definition of “Metaverse”

Like Web3, the concept of “metaverse” does not yet have a clear definition. In Wikipedia, the word “Metaverse” (derived from the Greek. μετά- “between, after, through” and the word universe) is defined as “A permanent virtual space in which people can interact with each other and digital objects through their avatars using virtual reality technologies.”

Venture capitalist Matthew Ball, the author of an impressive essay on metaverses, defines this concept as follows: “an extensive network of permanent, real-time visualized three-dimensional worlds and simulations that maintain the continuity of identity, objects, history, payments, and rights and can be experienced synchronously by an almost unlimited number of users, each of whom has an individual sense of presence”.

Difficult. On the Meta website, the definition sounds simpler: “A set of virtual spaces that you can create and explore together with other people who are not in the same physical space as you.”

Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games, says that the metaverse is “something like an online gaming platform where you can have fun with your friends at Fortnite one moment, and watch Netflix together the next.”

But Mark Zuckerberg, the creator of Facebook, now Meta, put it more simply and succinctly. He says, “The metaverse is a ‘volumetric internet’.

Such definitions are given to metaverses by experts and famous personalities. And how would you characterize the metaverses? What do you think is their main advantage and due to which metaverses can expect a breakthrough in the coming decades?

7 Principles of the Metaverse

1. No pauses or reboots: this is an immanent, endless world;
2. Existence simultaneously for everyone and in real-time;
3. The number of users tends to infinitely;
4. The functioning of the economy. The internal economy of the game is working at full capacity. Money can not only be spent but also earned: open your own business, invest, sell, resell, etc.;
5. Virtual and real life are connected. The metaverse is not so much a separate world from the present, as its complement;
6. Meta provides users with “unprecedented data compatibility.” For example, if you buy clothes for your avatar in Fortnite, you should be able to use them in any other game or application;
7. Metaverses are available to any authors and content makers who can create their own “experiences” in them.

But for all these principles to be implemented, first you need to create a Web 3.0 Internet. When creating the third version of the Internet, you cannot do without a blockchain.