What is the metaverse and how will it alter the internet?

Cointelegraph Video Director Jackson DuMont addresses the “next big thing”: the metaverse. He explains the who, what, and why of the metaverse and delves into how its Blockchain technology has the potential to disrupt Internet users’ online lives.

The term was originally coined by Neil Stephenson in his novel SnowCrash 1992. Although not a new concept, the recent surge in activity and developments in virtual collaborative spaces have made it a new virtual economic realm that rivals today’s physical economy.

“The metaverse is exactly like the current version of the Internet,” but it’s on its way to becoming fully immersive, Dumont explained, especially with tech and social media giants like Meta and Microsoft playing a big role in its development. evolution. In the case of Meta, it has invested billions of dollars and is positioning itself at the center of the “billionaire Eden” while racking up profits.

Some of the features that the metaverse aims to improve within cyberspace are user privacy, data protection, trustless transactions, and unalterable record keeping. That is where Blockchain technology comes into play. Metaverses operate on the same values ​​as blockchain-based systems, such as permissionless access, censorship resistance, security, and decentralization:

“Blockchain and crypto assets are critical to creating a secure virtual reality. And NFT technology will also be the foundation of ownership in the metaverse.”

Decentraland and The Sandbox are examples of metaverses that have seen the most virtual real estate and NFT sales in the last year. However, Dumont points out that for the metaverse as a whole to achieve wider adoption, interoperability between individual virtual worlds is key. This means that users could move from one virtual space to another using the same avatars and digital objects when moving from a metaverse life from Ethereum to Solana, for example.

What unites all the metaverses, which for now function separately, is a large community with a common shared vision: to build a new Internet infrastructure that can support the metaverse. Among the pending challenges is the development of virtual and augmented reality devices with higher Internet speeds and superprocessors that handle hyper-realistic graphics.

The video ends with a bold statement: “Humanity is in the midst of creating the most complete alternate reality that has ever existed.” But how long will society have to wait to fully immerse itself in this fantasy?

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