Imagine if you're able to attend the Tokyo 2021 Olympics without having to travel to Japan. You're right in your room. You avoid catching the COVID-19 virus, you save money on air tickets, yet still are able to experience the thrill of the games right from the grandstand (not literally). You feel the crowd around you, hear the cheers, the applause, just like you would if you were in Tokyo.

That is the future that Metaverse aims to bring.

Just like in the 2018 film  Ready Player One, the Metaverse is a concept that was first mentioned in Neal Stephenson's 1992 science fiction novel  Snow Crash. It featured humans who interact with each other as avatars in a 3D virtual space based on the real world.

WHAT EXACTLY IS THE METAVERSE?

The Metaverse will be mainly composed of a multitude of virtual worlds that will interact with one another and with the physical world, creating a robust economy that encompasses work and recreation while transforming long-standing industries and markets like finance and banking, retail and education, health and fitness, sex work, and more.

In the Metaverse, we can take on whatever personality we want, travel anywhere we want. Users from all around the world will be able to meet, talk, work, play games and do many more in this 3D realm. Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) will power the Metaverse, with users managing their own digital avatars(s).

For example, you might use a VR headset to hold a completely immersive conference in a virtual meeting room with other guests' digital avatars seated at the same 3D table. Then you could leave by logging off and using the same headset to play a VR game with your friends - in the same chair wherever you're at.

These possibilities, of course, aren't without restrictions.

It isn't like Grand Theft Auto or Minecraft, simply video games where you play your avatar in the virtual world. The avatar in Metaverse, is you. You will be in the immersive experience, and literally in this virtual world.

There would have to be laws and restrictions to what can be done within it to enter a new way of viewing life and society. It would raise concerns about the new universe's governance, laws, and economy, as well as how they are connected to the real world if they are connected at all.

“The Metaverse has become the newest macro-goal for many of the world's tech giants. It is the express goal of Epic Games, maker of the Unreal Engine and Fortnite. It is also the driver behind Facebook's purchase of Oculus VR and its newly announced Horizon virtual world/meeting space, among many other projects, such as AR glasses and brain-to-machine interfaces and communication,” wrote Matthew Ball, Managing Partner at EpyllionCo. and Venture Partner at Makers Fund, in his blog about the Metaverse.

There will be building blocks required to see the Metaverse come to fruition.

The metaverse is enabled by 7 categories :

1. Compute: Companies that enable and provide computing power to the Metaverse.
2. Networking: Companies offering real-time connectivity, high bandwidth, and data services to consumers.
3. Virtual Platforms: Companies that develop and operate immersive digital and typically three-dimensional simulations, settings, and worlds where users and businesses may explore, create, socialise, and participate in a range of experiences.
4. Interchange Standards: Companies developing tools, protocols, formats, services, and engines that serve as de facto or actual interoperability standards and enable the creation, operation, and continuous development of the Metaverse.
5. Payments: Support digital payment operations and procedures, including fiat on-ramps to pureplay digital currencies and financial services.
6. Content, Assets, and Identity Services: The design, sale, resale, storage, secure protection, and financial administration of digital assets, such as virtual products and currencies, as they connect to user data and identity.
7. Hardware: The sale and support of physical technologies and devices used to access, interact with or build the Metaverse.

MARKET OPPORTUNITIES

According to Bloomberg Intelligence, the Metaverse market opportunity might be worth $800 billion by 2024. According to Ark Invest, income from virtual worlds might reach $400 billion by 2025, up from $180 billion in 2021.

Other market opportunities summarized by Round Hill Investments can be found here.

WHAT'S HOT NOW

In July 2021, Mark Zuckerberg announced his grandiose intention to create a Metaverse which he believes will bring Facebook further in its ability to create social settings, expanding its existing scope of developing a series of social apps.

He said that "the Metaverse will bring enormous opportunity to individual creators and artists; to individuals who want to work and own homes far from today's urban centres; and to people who live in places where opportunities for education or recreation are more limited."

The news not only made headlines across the world but also reignited interest in the Metaverse and what it truly is. This article tells us what it's not.

To succeed, the Metaverse will necessitate new technologies, protocols, firms, inventions, discoveries, and a plethora of other considerations, such as if the Metaverse should be centralized or decentralized. It is now known though, that a decentralized Metaverse is essential.

Metaverse-like platforms are transforming into digital economies with a variety of utility tokens and collectables due to their open-world character. Hence, any future version of the Metaverse will need to incorporate these economies, digital identities, and decentralized government, all of which are only feasible thanks to blockchain technology.

As a result, a decentralized, blockchain-based governance model is forming, in which several users, participants, and community members collaborate to build and manage the Metaverse network. This is because the blockchain may record user-created virtual places, the transfer of ownership of digital assets, and financial transactions.

Matthew Ball, a venture capitalist, published an influential essay in January 2020 that sought to identify essential elements of a Metaverse. 

HOWEVER...

Facebook's Metaverse plans have sparked worldwide debate. Facebook is still under the scrutiny of the US government who plans to break it up. A set of proposals currently making their way through Congress may compel Facebook to split off Instagram and WhatsApp, as well as limit the company's ability to make future acquisitions — or sell services tied to its hardware products. Facebook, having had many Internet issues over the years, brought itself under criticism after Zuckerberg's announcement.

Facebook has been gradually establishing the foundation for a bigger emphasis on future technologies. It formed a dedicated Metaverse team this past summer. Andrew Bosworth, the company's head of AR and VR, has recently been promoted to chief technology officer. They currently have over 10,000 staff working on consumer devices such as augmented reality glasses, which Zuckerberg expects will become as common as smartphones.

With that, a recent update from Facebook stated that it will invest $50m into the responsible building of the Metaverse. In spite, Facebook estimates that it will take more than a decade for a complete version of its Metaverse to come into fruition, with a diverse set of offerings. Still, Facebook is still facing criticism.

Additionally, Facebook is now looking to revamp its entire brand, purpose and that means -  name. It does seem like Zuckerberg is determined to make Facebook the first and largest Metaverse, looking towards 'gone are the days of social media.

The decision comes as legislators scrutinize Facebook for its detrimental impact on users, the dissemination of disinformation, and monopolistic tendencies.

Just this October, Facebook has officially announced its name change - Meta.

WHO ELSE IS IN THIS RACE TOWARDS A METAVERSE?

Aside from Facebook, tech giants like Microsoft, Epic Games, computing giant Nvidia and gaming platform Roblox, even Snapchat and Apple, have been moving towards building a Metaverse. Each of them has their own ambitions and motivations as to why they are invested in building a Metaverse. Alibaba Group Holdings has joined Tencent Holdings in the race towards a Metaverse as well.