What is the Metaverse - a Brief Introduction

The concept of the Metaverse describes an immersive digital world where people can play, work, and gather. Technologies like VR and AR allow a fully occupying experience.

Tech tycoons pouring billions of investments into this new virtual industry. In October 2021, the former Facebook cooperation rebranded itself into Meta. What looked like a marketing stunt turned out to be an all-in strategy move. With this bold action, they claimed the first mover position in the industry to capture a big chunk of the next Internet.

Meta’s Horizon application is a brief look into the future of the Metaverse, Horizons Mixed Workrooms create mixed reality environments. Here, employees can join the virtual space via VR-Headset and via regular video calls into the space. People joining via the traditional option will be displayed on screens like in a conference room. With their recent update they will bring this avatar-based experience into traditional video call tools (e.g. Zoom, Microsoft Teams).

So is that the Metaverse or what are we talking about?

Metaverse - The basics

Metaverse is a broad term (used nowadays quite inflationary) for the newly emerging digital environment where different platforms are merged to provide a seamless digital experience in VR and AR.

It is more than just tech but a social development (same as the first internet). And it's hard to grasp because there is a huge intersection with other terms (VR, AR, digital twin, ...). The term Metaverse is more the description of a tipping point where a multitude of tech trends that have been around for years come together to create something multi-dimensional new. Companies and the Web3 community are actively exploring the building of this future of the internet. It is a time before mass adoption, thus as a builder, you can play around and try things out.

In the following I will provide you with the basic keywords and topics that should help you to navigate through the industry:

- Assisted reality: Technology that displays information in the field of view (FoV) + can be used without hardware control devices.

- Augmented reality: Technology that displays computer-generated images in the real world with which the user can interact.

- Meatspace: A physical environment in which users can enter the Metaverse.

- Mixed Reality: Part of the Augmented Reality experience, where users interact with digital and real environments at the same time.

- Multiverse: Merging of all virtual environments without borders or hurdles to move in between (e.g. move your Minecraft character between Fortnite and Amazon)

- Omniverse: Merging of all virtual and physical environments (mainly branded by Nvidia)

- Virtual reality: Complete immersion into a virtual environment via optical hardware (e.g. Headset).

Metaverse and Blockchain (aka Web3 Metaverse)

A big part of the Metaverse movement is building on blockchain technology to provide assurances of digital ownership in the form of Non-Fungible-Tokens (NFTs). NFTs are unique cryptographic tokens that can be traded on the blockchain against cryptocurrencies like Ethereum (ETH).? Furthermore, these NFTs can represent items beyond their digital form; such as physical ownership certificates. Even Meta opens up to these decentral tech standards by letting NFTs into their platforms Facebook and Instagram.

The Web3 community is joining this new industry at high speed as well. Projects like Decentraland, Sandbox, or Otherside experienced enormous hype in 2021/22. But it is not only the big Metaverse projects that are relevant for this movement. When it comes to Web3 it is more about new tech standards (e.g. NFT) that the community is fighting for to be implemented than flashy 3D worlds. When we explore future virtual worlds the tech standard our avatars are built on will have a similar influence like TCP/IP (= email) or jpeg (= visual content) have today.

Metaverse and Business (aka Digital Economy)

According to Bloomberg Intelligence “Metaverse” will provide an 800$ billion market opportunity. A major part of it might come from the gaming industry, which was valued at 198$ Billion in 2021; with expected growth to 339$ Billion by 2027, according to Mordor Intelligence market report. In addition to gaming, the current hype is built around the potential B2B use cases in education and new work, like shifting work to virtual offices/rooms for remote workers/students, and conducting job interviews, as well.

B2C brands like Walmart, Adidas, and Gucci are hopping on the Metaverse train, by buying up virtual land, launching their own NFT collections, or partnering with early providers like Balenciaga partnered with Epic Games to create virtual boutiques. Nike, a first mover who bought the famous CloneX NFT creator “RTFKT”, is investing heavily in interoperable 3D characters by moving CloneX from PFP (NFT-based profile pics) to Metaverse avatars.

By expanding their regular business into these virtual worlds, corporations hope to explore the new user behaviors, marketing channels, and mechanics for this newly developing industry to exploit it as a future competitive advantage.

Metaverse and Use Cases (aka Exploration Phase)

As the gaming industry already has a foot in the virtual door, entertainment has become one of the biggest available use cases yet (as users are already there). But other industries like sports, manufacturing, and healthcare are developing use cases rapidly as well.

Unity Metacast, the famous game company built a platform to mirror professional athletes as digital twins. This can be used to create accurate NFT collections/avatars (e.g. legendary athletes’ performances; like the approach of NBA Top Shots card collection by dapper labs).

Microsoft steps into healthcare with Microsoft’s HoloLens and their mixer reality AR solution. Surgeons can use AR Technology to access the data of the patient during a procedure AR and control the glasses by hand gestures and voice commands. This piece of technology provides substantial benefits for many healthcare professionals.

NASA uses VR and AR technology for training and remote control of Robots. In Particular, astronauts use the HoloLens headset to stream data from mission control to the ISS.

We are still well before mass adoption, in the exploration phase. Except for gaming, we currently cannot find any use cases that could keep up with classic web use cases in terms of KPIs. Use cases that are currently being launched primarily serve as test runs or pilots to learn. However, the speed at which they are developing suggests that we can expect the first breakthroughs before 2025.

Conclusion and Final Thoughts

The Metaverse is early, diffuse/undefined, not just tech - or, to put it simply, not there yet. But it is way more than just a technological development. It will change society, culture, communication, and our life in a way that not even the internet has managed to do. That's why I recommend everyone to watch the developments in this area because it's only a matter of time before they will have an impact on you.

Thus, to emphasize this, I'll end this article with my two currently favorite quotes for Metaverse:

"The economy in the Metaverse will be larger than the economy in the physical world."

Jensen Huang, CEO & Founder of Nvidia

"This Metaverse is going to be far more pervasive and powerful than anything else. If one central company gains control of this, they will become more powerful than any government and be a God on Earth."

Tim Sweeney, CEO & Founder of Epic Games