We've been hearing a lot about the metaverse lately: headlines talk about virtual worlds, games and films about digital reality, Facebook announces a rebrand in Meta and the creation of a new innovative social platform. Exploiting the power of the metaverse discussed in the government, and Barbados is already going to open its virtual embassy. So what is the metaverse and why is this concept causing a stir in world?
With the advent of the Internet, we began to move towards the transformation of this network to more convenient social canons. First, simple text grew into images, then into videos, and finally into live broadcasts. But online communication, as before, does not go beyond computer screens. Even during a working conference in Zoom, we see only a few moving windows on the screen, although in life it is much more common to be together in the same room and interact in the same way with the surrounding reality.
The essence of the metaverses is that they are the next step in the development of Internet technologies and our interaction within the network, because virtual reality should solve the problem described above. In the metaverse, when using different network services and services, each user will have a personal An animated 3D avatar, similar to a computer game character, but completely unique. Thanks to the metaverse, the interaction of people on the Internet will be much more diverse and richer, the sensations will become more real.
Let's say you and a friend are on the same site, for example VKontakte, and communicate. In a familiar social network, you will only see the online status next to the avatar picture, while in the metaverse you will be on the same website in the literal sense, in the same virtual room in the form of two avatars, which move, touch the environment and transmit speech. This example may seem like a fantasy, but Mark Zuckerberg has already announced the Horizon Home virtual reality application, which will work exactly as we described in the example.
Now the metaverses are a lot of different applications that run in browsers or on VR devices. As in the early days of the Internet, different developers create systems that are designed to solve a particular problem, but they do it in a new virtual format, putting their own vision of what the future of the metaverses should be like.
Let's take it a step further and imagine a game where there are real cities, they are divided into built-up areas with developed infrastructure. Your character has a living space in this city, he can go to the cinema or to an exhibition, moving inside this game. Can interact with other residents of the city, as in reality, can create and sell some things, can put up for auction his paintings or software developments. When there's a concert in the neighborhood, your character walks into a club full of other similar people. The avatar of a real popular artist enters the stage and holds a full-fledged show. In this world there is an internal currency, the economy is developed, and you can take part in management thanks to the accumulated finances, and moreover, withdraw them in the real world or, on the contrary, replenish the virtual balance. And the most interesting thing is that such a metauniverse already exists - this is Decentraland. Absolutely all user data is stored in the blockchain, and not on some servers. This means that only the user manages their digital things, no one collects or transfers information about you to third parties, no one will ban you or censor your actions. This is a global social network where you can spend time and have fun, or you can engage in commercial projects. That is why there is such a great demand and a huge price for land, because the most passable and popular places can bring a good income.
Some metaverses are aiming for a faster transition to virtual reality, to be not just a game with unique user-generated content, but to offer players the experience of interacting with digital reality, as with the real one.
Everything now suggests that the metaverse will soon become a new and more realistic incarnation of the Internet. It makes it possible to feel close to other people, instead of simply viewing data on the monitor. I hope you were interested to know what awaits us with the development of the metaverses and how they arranged now.
