The metaverse is a virtual, immersive universe that integrates its users’ digital and physical lives. The metaverse provides new digital methods to work, socialize, and relax by incorporating technologies such as augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and blockchain.

Decentraland and SecondLive are already experimenting with play-to-earn games and other blockchain applications, allowing communities to unite, collaborate, and build toward common goals. To stay up with the trend, tech titans are creating their metaverses.

While there may be several metaverses, they would all benefit from communication. Blockchain technology provides a novel approach to metaverse interoperability. This could allow users to transfer money, products, and other digital assets between metaverses.

Introduction

When discussing the future of technology, cryptocurrency, and the Internet, the term “metaverse” comes up frequently. The metaverse is not yet fully realized, but it is clear that both small projects and big businesses are working to shape the future of digital environments.

What exactly is the metaverse?

The metaverse is a network of interconnected virtual environments that may be explored using 3D avatars. Consider it the next step in the growth of the Internet, with more immersive and engaging online experiences.

Technologies such as augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and blockchain are used in the metaverse. While AR uses a camera to merge digital visual elements into the real world, VR creates computer-generated virtual environments that people explore using VR headsets. Meanwhile, blockchain technology offers digital evidence of ownership, digital collectibility, and value transfer.

NFT platforms, like the Binance NFT Marketplace, are also helping to create the gaming metaverse by connecting game initiatives with crypto communities. Furthermore, the community-driven BNB Smart Chain (BSC) hosts several metaverse projects. Fortnite has also created a metaverse platform, which has linked over 350 million gamers in its virtual world. Even though the metaverse is still in its early stages, it is expected to extend beyond gaming platforms. Applications like digital identification, remote working, and decentralized government are just a few examples of prospective areas that could benefit from the metaverse.

What is possible in the metaverse?

The metaverse develops shared virtual places that fuse the physical and digital worlds. Businesses, for example, may begin leveraging the metaverse to organize mixed-reality meetings using VR headsets or to sign contracts without being physically there.

Similarly, you could do your grocery shopping by interacting with virtual aisles, show off your NFT collections to virtual companions, and attend art exhibitions without leaving the comfort of your own home. Work socialization tools like Gather and play-to-earn games like Axie Infinity.

The town has previously demonstrated that operational components of virtual worlds are doable. They encourage users to have fun, meet new people, transact with digital currencies, and even make money. Decentraland, on the other hand, is a virtual realm that successfully combines social components with cryptocurrencies and NFTs to represent everything from cosmetic items to virtual real estate. A player, for example, can use MANA, Decentraland’s native cryptocurrency, to acquire 16×16 meter land plots issued as NFTs (non-fungible tokens) on the Ethereum blockchain.

Finally, the metaverse allows human collectives to form around common interests. For example, Fortnite famously hosted Travis Scott’s virtual Astronomical concert, which drew over 12 million listeners from around the world. Unlike a conventional concert, gamers may engage with famous rappers through their avatars while enjoying animated, 3D images.

Is there a single metaverse?

According to the metaverse notion, there is one common and shared virtual ground that everyone shares. However, as we’ve shown, different metaverses can exist alongside one another.

As a result, each metaverse serves a specific purpose in the collective of metaverses. Similarly to how each social media site delivers unique services to its consumers, metaverses present unique virtual possibilities. As in previous examples, one metaverse could focus on gaming while another on gatherings or concerts.

Crypto metaverse projects such as Axie Infinity, Decentraland, and SecondLive each take their own approach to metaverse development. Along with blockchain-based metaverses, big tech is advancing the metaverse narrative. Facebook, for example, renamed itself Meta and spent billions of dollars producing metaverse content, software, and AR and VR gear. Similarly, large corporations such as Microsoft, Google, and Tencent are creating new technologies to penetrate the metaverse.

The many metaverses should ideally become compatible. The capacity of one or more metaverses to interact and exchange data is referred to as metaverse interoperability. Interoperable metaverses would allow users to transfer assets such as NFTs and cryptocurrencies from one metaverse to another.

Blockchain technology is being used by several developers and protocols to connect metaverses. To begin with, it is decentralized and transparent. Second, it can provide digital proof of ownership, legitimacy, value transfer, and accessibility.

For example, if two play-to-earn games were interoperable and based on the same blockchain, players may switch between them while their virtual things were established and secured in both games. Users may, in other words, use their guns, skins, and other in-game stuff in both virtual worlds. It is also possible to use blockchain bridges to transfer bitcoins and other digital assets between blockchain networks.

The future metaverse web

The metaverse is currently in its early stages of evolution. Nobody knows what will happen, but it is undeniably a technology industry that is attracting funding and developers’ attention. As previously stated, the metaverse will most likely be made up of multiple separate metaverses. Nonetheless, blockchain and cryptocurrency technologies will almost certainly play a key role in connecting multiple virtual worlds.

In the long run, separate metaverses with distinct agendas may merge to form a single metaverse. Creating a network of diverse metaverses may help stimulate more adoption.

Final thoughts

The metaverse continues to expand as new projects enter the market and established ones add new features and services. There are already successful metaverse initiatives in the crypto realm, including blockchain-native ones like Decentraland as well as traditional market players like Fortnite and Meta. With the advancement of AR, VR, blockchain, and other technologies, we can expect to see the rise of intriguing new virtual, borderless metaverses.