What is the metaverse? Existing projects and prospects

The term “metaverse” has been heard in the crypto-currency environment in recent years. A great future is predicted for this area, from the metaverses they are expected to penetrate into the daily life of people and turn into a market for goods and services with a huge turnover and a metaverse consulting agency. Tech giants drew attention to these projects, seeing them as an interesting way to interact with the audience.

Let’s figure out what the metaverse is, what its prospects are, and how interesting the tokens issued by projects in this area are.

What is called the metaverse

The Metaverse is an open virtual space where people can do what they do in the real world and much more. Such an environment will not be owned by anyone in particular, it is managed by the user community. The economy of the metaverses will be based on cryptocurrencies and NFTs. Inside the metaverse, digital entertainment, communication, remote work, education, advertising spaces, financial services and much more will be available.

In simple words, the metaverse can be roughly described as an online game world connected with social networking features and virtual reality technologies. All this will be seasoned with complete freedom of action and creativity. Inside such a world, the user is represented by his character (avatar).

This area will include many technologies at once:

Blockchain
Virtual and augmented reality
Machine learning
Artificial intelligence
Internet of Things
Cloud technologies

While the metaverses are in the initial stage. But information technology research firm Gartner expects one in four people on the planet to spend an average of one hour a day in 2026.

This area can be seen as the next stage in the development of the Internet. The term “metaverse” was first coined by science fiction writer Neil Stevenson in his novel Avalanche. His heroes, coming home, plunged into the digital world, where they built, communicated and had fun.

Why is there so much hype around the metaverse

Its full-fledged appearance can change many existing patterns of interaction between people, their approaches to shopping and communication. Here are just some of the possibilities of new technologies:

Using Virtual Classrooms for Education
Replacing social networks and transferring communication to a new format
New space for e-commerce
Building a new approach to customer support, hiring, sales
The Emergence of a Huge Digital Value Market

Companies and individual businessmen see new opportunities for profit in the development of the metaverse. It especially appeals to those who would like to break into the industry at an early stage, when everything is just emerging. The first virtual stores, showrooms, concert venues are already appearing, presentations of new gadgets are being held.

It also creates many opportunities for work. With the development of the metaverse, digital artists, online sellers, and technical specialists will be increasingly in demand. In the future, they are waiting for the transfer of remote work to virtual offices, where employees will be presented in the form of avatars.

The state will be able to transfer city management, part of state bodies to the digital universe, create a place for meeting with citizens. All this is on social networks, but only in text form. The Metaverse will greatly expand the possibilities. Similar attempts are already being made by Dubai authorities.

Metaverse and Cryptocurrency

The new virtual format will be based on cryptocurrency and the decentralized networks on which it is built. They give freedom of action and the opportunity to make digital universes the property of communities, not corporations. Cryptocurrencies and blockchain will provide the metaverse with many necessary functions:

Digital property rights. They are necessary in an ecosystem where virtual values are widely used.
Confirmation of originality. Blockchain allows you to show that a virtual item is original. All transactions remain transparent, the entire path of the item from the creator to the last owner can be tracked.
Control. Many decentralized autonomous organizations already operate on the basis of blockchain and cryptocurrencies. They will be widely used in the metaverse, this format has already proven its reliability and viability.
Availability. Cryptocurrency wallet today is the easiest way to make payments. They are free and do not require any additional data.
Possibility of interaction between universes. Cryptocurrency developers have long been working to unite their networks into a single ecosystem. Avalanche and Polkadot showed the greatest success in this direction. Connecting the metaverses to each other and to other projects will work according to the same schemes.

Smart contracts created by Ethereum allow you to make virtual worlds complex, interesting and introduce advanced features into them.

Existing Metaverse Projects

Virtual worlds with freedom of action and many activities for the characters appeared in the early 2000s. The first such project was the game Second Life, which eventually lost popularity. At that time, there was no blockchain, and computers were relatively weak. High speed internet was also rare. Inside it, it was not possible to properly build trade, communication, the exchange of values was as primitive as possible.

More serious developments began to appear after the creation of Ethereum, on the basis of which new virtual worlds are built. They are also in their infancy, ahead of them is a serious refinement and expansion of functionality.

To connect to these projects, just go to the official website and connect the wallet. It can be empty: as a rule, you do not need to pay an entrance fee.

Decentraland (MANA)

The most famous project in this direction has been operating since 2016. Shows a constant influx of users and money in its ecosystem. Due to his age, he has accumulated a fairly large community, he has been noticed by large brands that are now buying ads inside the virtual world.

The project is being developed by the community itself, MANA token holders vote for changes in it. In the NFT format in Decentraland, game items, land plots, clothes for avatars are available. All this works completely decentralized, and the values are stored in the user’s wallet.

Thanks to decentralization, the user has full control over everything he owns, he is fully responsible for his character. In addition to the main MANA tokens, there are LAND tokens, for which land plots are sold.

In addition to communicating with other users, Decentraland offers many other activities:

Attending events and parties
Visiting art galleries
Games for which players receive NFTs
Gambling in the built-in casino

Representative offices of Samsung, Atari, Wallmart supermarket chains, Sotheby’s gallery work inside this virtual world. New interesting activities are constantly appearing in the world of Decentraland, it is changing and developing.

The Sandbox

The second most popular game world, which is built by its participants. A special VoxEdit tool has been developed to create 3D objects. Everything created can be put on the market for sale to other players. Introduced Sandbox Game Maker internal 3D game development technology.

Its own cryptocurrency is called SAND, it works on the basis of the Ethereum network. The project has a developed real estate market, which is responsible for the LAND token on the ERC-721 standard. Building plots are limited in number, which should support their value.

Rapper Snoop Dogg is an active user of The Sandbox. In the virtual world, a copy of his real mansion is built, in which private parties are held.

The main functions of The Sandbox are still in development, after their launch, the project aims to become leaders among the metaverses. Some are already calling it “decentralized Minecraft on steroids”. The project allows you to earn cryptocurrency without investing your money.

Blocktopia

This virtual world is implemented in the form of a 21-story building with many possible activities inside. It implements games with rewards in BLOK tokens, conference rooms for events and meetings, auditoriums with the possibility of implementing educational projects.

Inside Bloktopia, you can own plots of gaming land, create useful values for players in the NFT format. The developers have tried to provide all this with high-quality graphics.

Games

In addition to the above projects, there are games with maximum freedom of action. You can create objects in them, also own the earth or entire planets. You can arrange meetings and events. But they are, first of all, games with a story, pumping, gameplay. These include Star Atlas, Somnium Space, Sensorium Galaxy and many more.

What to expect from the metaverses in the future

Mark Zuckerberg believes that it will be years before the metaverses can become accessible and reach their full potential. We are still far from this point.

The very idea of gathering people from different continents in one virtual world so that they can study, work, and have fun together looks interesting and utopian, though. Virtual streets with virtual stores where you can place an online order and get goods delivered to your home will require serious technical work.

But there is already interest in such activities. Travis Scott held a virtual concert in the game Fortnite, where 12 million players gathered. Justin Bieber decided to hold a similar concert.
Theoretically, such projects will have limitless possibilities. Zuckerberg expects the start of a massive influx of users in a few years.