What is Metaverse?

In the last edition, we talked about Blockchain, and in this edition, we are going to talk about Metaverse. Recently a Florida couple got married in the Metaverse; for those who don’t know what Metaverse is, let me give you a quick bite.

Like the physical world, where we live with friends and family, we stay at home, walk in the street, go to the pub, and commute to the office; similarly, in a parallel world which is beyond the physical realm, your virtual identity exists.

In a nutshell, a Metaverse is a virtual place where you can find everything you see in the real world, as well as those things that are not real but are figments of your imagination, e.g., a skyscraper touching the moon or a lawn at the core of the earth. You can interact and co-exist in the virtual world through your digital identity, popularly known as an avatar.

If you are a fan of Bollywood or cricket, you might have heard or seen the fancy wedding of Virat & Anushka that took place in December 2017 in Italy’s Lake Como. Interestingly, I and you, might not be able to afford such an expensive wedding in real life, but in the Metaverse, we can not only marry in Italy but also conduct a marriage ceremony in the desert of Mars or travel back to the Ice Age and invite Manfred and Sid to the wedding.

Not only this, you can invite your favorite singer to perform in the Metaverse world. Shawn Mendes is someone I’d like to invite; how about you?

Now the question is, what’s the technology behind it, and how can you access the vast world of unlimited possibilities?

Physical Access:

Your computer and mobile are the first access point to the Metaverse. To interact with the Metaverse, you need to connect through your physical device. Simply adding pictures and videos or interacting with fellow friends and gamers would count.

Technologies:

Metaverse is an outcome of various technologies interacting with each other, although the development of this is in a very nascent stage. Below are the technologies that are currently available:

Virtual Reality (VR): It provides an access point to the Metaverse; you might have seen a head-mounted display. Now, what exactly is a VR? The use of digital technology to create a virtual world is known as virtual reality (VR). It places the user inside an experience, where they aren’t just a passive participant but a co-conspirator. In this case, imagine listening and vibing to the live performance of Shawn Mendes.
Augmented Reality (AR): Like VR, which acts as a doorway to the virtual world, AR brings virtual objects to the physical world. AR brings virtual objects to the physical realm. Imagine sipping a drink with other guests having to gossip about how well the marriage is planned, and all of this will happen in your physical space, maybe in your bedroom.
Mixed Reality (MR): The advanced version of AR is Mixed Reality or MR. MR brings together real-world and digital elements. In mixed reality, you use next-generation sensing and imaging technology to interact with as well as manipulate both virtual and physical objects and environments. Without ever taking off your headset, you can experience and engage yourself in the real world while interacting with a virtual environment with your hands. It allows you to have one foot (or hand) in the actual world and another in an imaginary world, breaking down primary notions, such as real and imaginary, and providing an experience that could transform the way you interact and work today.
Blockchain: Blockchain is a ledger that stores the record in the same way that a physical book/box does. The ownership of anything you buy or sell in the metaverse is recorded in the blockchain. Whether it’s an in-game purchase or real estate in a meta world, you can buy it with the tokens, which carry a value in real terms.
5G: Developing fully interactive 3D Metaverses with rich media from video and immersive audio necessitates the use of large digital files that are significantly denser than those necessary for video or any other content. 5G can support these larger files since its peak upload, and download speeds are substantially faster than 4G. Growing availability to 5G can help to strengthen the Metaverse’s continued growth by providing the speed and power required for digital worlds to operate. Mobile hardware companies are working on 5G-ready gadgets that can run software that is more advanced than what we now have – devices that can support the Metaverse.
IoT: The Internet of Things (IoT) is a network of physical objects — “things” — embedded with sensors, software, as well as other technologies that allow them to interact and interchange information between devices and systems via the internet. The Metaverse platform collects data utilizing a group of IoT devices for the metaverse to function efficiently. As a result, the Metaverse will need to connect to a wide range of hardware, controllers, and physical objects, which can be managed via the Internet of Things. By connecting these devices to the Metaverse and adding special sensors, the user will be able to “move” both physically and virtually.

Now, Where does this technology stand?

Well, the Metaverse is in its early stage but for those who want to have an experience, there are plenty of apps and websites that you can get connected to.

Fortnite (Epic Games): You may both play the game and attend the concerts. In 2019, Fortnite” invented the idea of a virtual concert with its first partnership with EDM singer Marshmello, which was, apparently, witnessed by 10.7 million people.
Decentraland: Decentraland is an open-source 3D virtual world platform. Users can purchase virtual pieces of land as NFTs on the platform using the MANA cryptocurrency.
Sandbox: It is a blockchain-based virtual world where users can interact, play games, as well as attend events.

Facebook has changed its name to “Meta” to better convey its goals of creating the “Metaverse.” Microsoft and Nvidia are also developing metaverse versions of their own.

If you haven’t had your mind blown yet, why not watch movies that depict what the Metaverse would be like? Here are the top 5 movies you can check out: Avatar, Inception, Matrix, Iron man, Wreck-it-Ralph.

Written by: CA Suraj Kar

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