The term metaverse dates back to 1992, because that is the year that Neal Stephenson’s book Snow Crash was published. This book has since become the bible of future versions of the internet.

The metaverse is a virtual shared space, which is formed by the combination of the internet, augmented reality and virtual reality. All existing and shared facets of existing, shared and 3D virtual spaces come together in an all-encompassing virtual universe. In fact, it is a copy of the real world, but digitally.

Characteristics of the metaverse #

Even though the definitive characteristics of the metaverse are partly speculation, due to fact that the realization is still largely in its infancy, we can cautiously draw some conclusions from what has been done so far.

• It’s infinite. The virtual world cannot be paused, like a meeting or a game. In that respect you can compare it to your own daily life, because we can’t put that on pause either;
• Real-time and synchronous. This may sound a bit crazy, as if you are giving something out of your hands, but this virtual world keeps on running. As a result, things just happen, including those that are not planned;
• A whole new economy. In the metaverse you can build, develop, grow, buy and sell. It’s a brand-new global economy, so you can make a profit or lose money there too;
• Everyone participates. As a rule of thumb, you don’t need a special access code for it and you don’t have to pay for it in the base. Everyone must be able to participate in this parallel universe, at the same time. However, many metaverse related projects sell NFTs that users need to hold before being able to enter the project’s metaverse;
• Interoperability. There is only one virtual world: the metaverse. All items, experiences and creations can be used anywhere. This means that, for example, a car is designed for the Porsche website, is also functional on Rocket League and Roblox and can even be exchanged via Facebook;
• Connectedness. This virtual experience connects private with public and digital with physical worlds. This gives open and closed platforms an infinite connection, breaking open the virtual world;
• Contributors are independent. Individual developers, groups or companies: it’s all possible in this beautiful universe.

Metaverse vs Crypto #

The main contribution of blockchain to the metaverse is that you can trade in a secure manner. Payment must be made and preferably as quickly and safely as possible, without too much hassle. By working with blockchain technology, trading in NFTs has become possible.

A major advantage of the metaverse will be that users will not have to create all kinds of separate accounts or that a new currency will arise. Crypto is the digital currency, but it comes in all shapes and sizes. Because everything will be connected in the virtual world 2.0, there will be no hassle with switching between accounts and platforms, because everything is already one. Users can roughly divide the economic system in the metaverse into two flows: NFTs and DeFi.

DeFi #

DeFi is the abbreviation for decentralized finance. Currently, financial resources are guarded by banks, but this will be different in the future. It’s time to decentralize and bring finance back to the people, through blockchain technology.

NFTs #

User can buy digital land, artworks, videos or images. These are called NFTs (non-fungible tokens). An NFT is a non-replaceable certificate of ownership, which guarantees that you are the owner of a unique object.

You can imagine that an enormous amount of data is being recorded with an audience of billions and that all has to be managed in the right direction. Experts find much still unclear, but that crypto will play a role in this universe is an absolute certainty.