What exactly is the metaverse?

GM and welcome to Decentra Daily, the newsletter that helps you decide between the red pill and the blue pill.

No more FTX coverage from us today – It's Friday! Time to take a break from all the distressing news

In this email:

• What do people mean when they say "metaverse?"

It feels like every man and his Boston Dynamics dog has their own definition of The Metaverse. That makes the concept pretty hard to pin down.

So what exactly is the metaverse?

• For some, it's a 90s sci-fi trope

• Others might think of a virtual shopping mall

• Maybe it's an immersive video game or online world

• Or, a future internet utopia (or dystopia)

Which is it – or does the metaverse mean something else in web3?

The next stage of the internet

If you can’t see or touch the metaverse, then what (and where) is it?

Most of the time, the word metaverse represents a belief – that in the near future, the way we interact with online environments will go through a major change:

• Instead of desktops and phones, we'll use immersive devices that help us feel present online.

• Instead of browsers and pages, we'll navigate a world of integrated services.

• Instead of handing over your data, you’ll directly own your digital property & ID.

• Instead of logging in, physical and digital life will blur. Work, rest, and play will become hybrid activities.

The result of these changes will be a bigger, more seamless, more accessible virtual world with its own digital economy – a metaverse 🚀

But why though?

I'm fine with my Amazon Prime and Twitter followers, thanks.

Metaverse believers think we can do better than the current relationships we have with digital services.

Their philosophy centers around three concepts: decentralization, immersiveness, and, interoperability.

In a decentralized internet, no one person or company controls an entire network or data set.

Metaverse advocates believe decentralization will keep the new digital world away from central companies and in the hands of users, allowing us to build, vote, and own things as we do in real life.

In an immersive internet, users will experience online activities as vividly as in real life, meaning digital worlds won't always come second to IRL.

In an interoperable internet, you'll be able to bring digital possessions and identities with you as you move between platforms and services.

What will the metaverse look like?

In the future, will we wear VR headsets to work or socialize in gamified worlds?

Will everything be cartoonized with filters and avatars?

Will we be the humans from WALL-E?

The truth is we don’t really know.

When it comes to visualizing the metaverse, cultural references and web3 companies usually opt for all-encompassing 3D worlds:

But, there’s nothing to say that a decentralized, immersive, interoperable metaverse has to look like examples from books, movies, or tech demos.

In fact, it’s possible (probable?) that meta-tech will manifest in ways we can’t predict.

Think about how 90s descriptions of the internet use spatial terms like the information superhighway, cyberspace, and surfing the web.

Perhaps that’s happening now with metaverse terms – in reality, these spatial metaverse ideas are a convenient way to describe something more abstract.

What will it feel like?

The concept of presence is often cited as a test for whether online experiences are metaverse-ready.

A present digital environment lets you interact naturally with people and objects without feeling artificial.

(who wants to attend a virtual work meeting or social get-together if it doesn’t feel like you’re actually there?)

Demos like Meta’s vision of the metaverse above are all about presence. They probably can't actually produce those photorealistic avatars or holograms.

Instead, they’re conveying the feeling of future online life – even if they can’t answer the technical questions needed to get there.

The metaverse tech stack

To create a decentralized, immersive, interoperable world, these technologies will probably be central, at least to the first iterations of the metaverse:

⛓ Blockchains (decentralization)

Blockchains are secure, distributed lists of information. They store data in a way that doesn't require a central overseeing authority such as a bank.

This allows people to trade assets directly, which is why many think blockchains will support the ownership and transfer of goods in the metaverse.

🪙 Cryptocurrency (decentralization)

Cryptocurrencies are tokens stored on blockchains. They can be used to transfer funds without relying on banks or governments.

Bitcoin, Ethereum, and internal project coins could be used in the metaverse to transfer value.

🎁 NFTs (decentralization)

Like crypto, NFTs are blockchain tokens that provide a way to transfer assets – the difference being that NFTs represent unique goods instead of raw funds.

In the metaverse, digital clothing, avatars, tools, game items, etc. could be backed by NFTs.

🕶 VR (immersiveness)

Virtual reality describes computer-simulated environments that are explorable and interactive.

When people talk about VR, they usually mean a visual environment accessed by a headset. But there are also touch and audio VR projects.

➕ AR (immersiveness)

Instead of putting the user inside a virtual world, Augmented reality (AR) overlays digital elements onto the physical world – maybe it’s map directions, health data, or tutorials.

Some imagine the metaverse as less of a separate 3D space and more of an integrated experience.

🌉 Bridging solutions (interoperability)

Decentralized protocols aren't always compatible with each other, making it difficult for users to switch between services.

If the metaverse runs on multiple blockchains, bridging solutions will play a vital role, allowing apps built on different chains to access each other's data.

How did we get here?

if we’re already transitioning into the metaverse, what are we shifting away from?

The most popular way to describe the internet's evolution is web1 > web2 > web3.

Web2 vs Web3

Today's internet of central online services, where we trade our data for content, is known as web2.

In web2, users can create content and interact, but usually only via one of the big tech platforms.

In a new vision for the internet, Web3, users will access services through many decentralized apps and businesses that don’t monetize personal data.

Users will be able create, own, and sell content without big tech getting involved.

What about web1?

Web1 describes the first phases of the global internet where sites were almost entirely read-only.

Users could access information and services, but there was very little interaction or content creation.

Are we in the metaverse now?

Some people think the shift toward the metaverse has already begun. That’s because they see metaverse tech and philosophies at work in current applications.

Fortnite, Minecraft, and other MMO (massively multiplayer online) games let players connect globally and contain micro-economies for trading items.

Remote video calls, online avatars, VR headsets, crypto, and eCommerce platforms all arguably contain elements of what will one day become an all-encompassing metaverse.

So will it ever happen?

Even if you think we're entering a proto-metaverse right now, it's hard to deny the gap between visions of a future internet and what we're currently working with.

So, if you’re not Mark Zuckerberg and haven’t invested your life's work, you might ask: is the metaverse ever going to actually happen?

Accessbility challenges

If the metaverse is a persistent, always-on digital world, how will we access it?

Research suggests that VR headsets and other wearable tech are a hard sell – with most devices gathering dust in cupboards and on shelves.

Developers are facing uphill battles when it comes to device weight, comfort, and people who need corrective lenses or experience motion sickness in VR.

Interoperability challenges

The idea of moving digital assets between platforms is simple, but the tech needed to achieve it is highly complex.

Even more challenging is the business case for a sharing economy: if it’s not profitable for companies to let you easily switch to a competitor service, why would they be open to the idea?

Technology challenges

Some people question the roadmap to a metaverse. Are there unaddressed tech barriers that will prevent us from ever reaching a meta-future?

Maybe the metaverse is destined to stay more sci-fi than wi-fi.

Metaverse doubters say

There is no metaverse. We’re being fed a bunch of marketing designed to justify and sell the next set of technology products.

Others might admit that the metaverse will eventually happen – but say it will be a corporate, centralized, data-hungry environment, not so different from web2.

You have to understand, most people are not ready to be unplugged...

But Metaverse believers say

If it seems messy and confusing now, that’s because the metaverse is still being built.

We’re in the cultural process of defining what the metaverse means, and the technological process of finding out what’s possible.

metaverse advocates might agree that current projects are misjudged – maybe our current ideas about the metaverse are like 1980s predictions of the internet.

But, they also believe our digital lives will continue to become increasingly meaningful, to the point where the metaverse feels like a natural next step.

Which side are you on..? 🤔

Tomorrow: Twisted Hank's Yarn Balls 🧶 (our web3 threads of the week)