What is Metaverse?

• The "Metaverse" refers to a shared, immersive, persistent, 3D virtual realm in the computer industry.
• It's a 3D virtual environment built and maintained for exploration and interaction.
• The metaverse is a hypothetical, global, all-encompassing virtual setting emphasizing social interaction.

History of Metaverse

• 1938: French poet Antonin Artaud used "virtual reality" to describe characters, objects, and images orchestrated into immersive worlds in his essays, The Theater and its Double.
• 1962: American filmmaker Morton Heilig built the Sensorama, which simulated riding a motorcycle through New York City with 3D movies, vibrating, fan and smells.
• 1984: Jaron Lanier, a computer scientist and musician, founded VPL Research, Inc. and developed VR headsets and data gloves, demonstrating commercial and artistic applications.
• 1989: Tim Berners-Lee created the World Wide Web at CERN, it was a radical upgrade that open-sourced a client and server for linked web pages with text, graphics, and audio.
• 1992: Neal Stephenson's book Snow Crash introduced "metaverse" as a dystopian future where wealthy people escape into a 3D reality with personalized avatars.
• 1993: Moni Naor and Cynthia Dwork invented proof-of-work techniques to deter spam and denial-of-service attacks, and concepts that were formalized to become the basis of Bitcoin.
• 2003: Linden Lab launched Second Life, a 3D virtual space with over 70 million registered accounts; it allowed users to explore; interact, and exchange virtual goods.
• 2006: Roblox allowed users to create and play multiplayer games, selling new items and scaling successful games.
• 2007: Google Maps with Street View allowed virtual exploration of the real world at scale.
• 2009: Satoshi Nakamoto launched Bitcoin and first public blockchain with a proof-of-work algorithm.
• 2010: The gacha video game model was introduced, where players use toy vending machines to earn currency and in-game rewards.
• 2011: Earnest Cline's novel Ready Player One, shows the idea of a shared virtual world, OASIS with a stable currency and Steven Spielberg directed a movie of the story in 2018.
• 2012: Yoni Assia introduced Colored Coins, establishing a new way to create, buy sell and own assets on a public blockchain.
• 2012: Palmer Luckey launched the Oculus on Kickstarter as the first low-cost 3D.
• 2014: Facebook acquired Oculus, scaling its 3D infrastructure.
• 2014: Kevin McCoy and Anil Dash created the first non-fungible token, secured with cryptography which allowed for experimentation in virtual art, concert tickets, and play-to-earn experiences.
• 2015: Vitalik Buterin and Gavin Wood launched Ethereum with features for building decentralized apps on a blockchain.
• 2016: Pokémon GO introduced augmented reality games by finding, capturing and battling virtual creatures associated with physical locations,
• 2016: The DAO was launched on Ethereum as a decentralized autonomous organization for raising VC funds.
• 2018: Video game Axie Infinity, by Sky Mavis, used NFTs integrated into the blockchain.
• 2019: Epic Games' Fortnite became the most popular shared virtual world with +250 million users
• 2021: Facebook's parent company rebranded as Meta, investing over $10 billion to develop new hardware, software, and services.
• 2021: Microsoft introduced Mesh as a new platform that offers to synchronize virtual collaboration.
• 2022: Siemens and Nvidia partnered on the industrial metaverse. using Nvidia's Omniverse and Siemen's digital twin tools for digital engineering environment

Advantages:

• The metaverse ignores geographical boundaries.
• Metaverse offers immersive experiences, enhance personal and professional endeavors.
• Metaverse provides immersive social interactions, helping users feel connected, especially useful during quarantine.
• Metaverse combines social media with virtual spaces to create unique social experiences.
• Metaverse offers immersive marketing and advertising strategies and virtual storefronts with better UX, also allows haptic technology to be used.

Disadvantages:

• Cybercrime is a major issue on the internet, also in the metaverse.
• Cultural uniqueness may diminish as civilizations mix.
• Gaming in the metaverse may lead to addiction, where users stay submerged in VR.
• Prolonged usage of the metaverse can lead to detachment from the real world.
• User data may be compromised in metaverse.

Essential Metaverse Examples

• Gaming is a main backer, allowing people to communicate in a single environment.
• Virtual tourism becomes a possibility with virtual travel for those unable to travel far.
• VR enhances education and quality of learning with information and live experiments.
• Architecture is being used by Nike, Intel, YouTube, McDonalds, Gravity Sketch and Upland for virtual offices.
• Healthcare provides patients with better therapies and telemedicine.

Metaverse examples:

• Second Life: It was released in 2003. It allowed users to personalize appearance and communicate, becoming the first virtual world with avatars with less than 70M accounts.
• Ready Player One: The film showcases what the metaverse can be. It's based on the Oasis platform where people can do everything.
• Fortnite: became one of Gen Z's most popular online gaming worlds.
• Roblox: Over half of American kids use Roblox, a platform with 50 million daily users.
• Pokémon Go utilized augmented reality, being one of the first apps to do so.

Conclusion

• Metaverse is a 3D network of interactive virtual and augmented reality built on blockchain technology.
• It includes interactions, money, trade, and property ownership.
• Drawbacks include cybercrime, cultural disintegration, and unhealthy usage.