The Metaverse

The metaverse is the evolution of the internet into a more spatially immersive, compelling, and frictionless 3D web, viewable by virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), along with traditional computing devices.

The term 'metaverse' was first coined in 1992 by sci-fi author Neal Stephenson in his book "Snow Crash", which envisioned a world where lifelike avatars interacted in 3D buildings and other virtual environments.

Metaverse technology is growing at an amazing speed right now. Facebook recently changed to Meta as part of their vision for a metaverse future, and Microsoft is investing millions of dollars in the metaverse technology, it’s quite obvious that the market is ready for this new frontier of internet technology.

“How” the metaverse will be built is on everyone’s mind. Which means that the logical progression from “if” the metaverse will be built has already been surpassed.

Markets that have already entered, or shown massive upside with a presence in the metaverse are many - but early adopters look to purchase digital land in order to be prepared for the masses that will flock into this next generation of the internet.

There are five key vectors for metaverse advancements:

(1) Hardware;

(2) Infrastructure;

(3) Content;

(4) Community; and

(5) Currency/settlement mechanism.

Figure 1: Essential components of the Metaverse

Metaverse Use Cases are expanding

As is usually the case at the start of most technological evolutions, some existing applications leverage emerging innovations to deliver a better and/or broader user experience.

However, eventually completely new-use cases develop, as the technology evolves and matures and new killer apps can take advantage of the better on-device processing and sensing, higher data rates, lower latencies and machine learning enabled by AI. At this stage, we see developments across gaming, entertainment, work collaboration, social media, virtual worlds, education and fitness.

For businesses, we see advances in collaboration, design, and commerce, with additional sector-specific benefits to healthcare, real estate, and manufacturing.

Figure 2: The metaverse ecosystem map

Contemporary depictions of the metaverse have strong parallels to Game-Fi, and what Game-Fi has tried to establish. Although most Game-Fi's environments aren't the same as what metaverse truly represents nor what DigiVerse is aiming for. However, they do show the possibility of what it is that DigiVerse project is trying to achieve: A digital universe, where users can participate in activities for enjoyment or financial reward, essentially recreating the physical world