If you were to ask 20 people what Metaverse is about, you would get 20 different answers with overlapping replies? There is no standard definition of Metaverse. 30 years ago, everyone has their understanding of the internet. Today, it hasn't changed that much. Everyone sees the internet differently, some in images, text, video, and audio.
Nevertheless, the best way to describe Metaverse is that it is an online digital space where everyone can work, play, and hang out through several devices. It bridges the rift between mobile devices, VR headsets, and laptops, thereby allowing users to enter a virtual environment. Here, users can interconnect with anyone throughout the world from games to apps.
A crucial experience of the process is the creation of a digital avatar that allows the users to interact with the web. In a Metaverse, you will need a VR headset such as the Oculus Quest 2 to enable you to communicate with others within the virtual environment. Your digital avatar will represent you as you work or chat with friends as you would in a real-world using your webcam or phone.
What to do with Metaverse?
The possibilities of Metaverse are endless. To put things into perspective, you can take a trip online, attend a virtual concert, and buy digital cloth. Metaverse will revolutionize the transition in working from home triggered by the recent pandemic. Rather than using video calls to communicate with co-workers, employees can virtually be in the office and interact with each other.
Recently, Facebook launched Horizon Workrooms, a meeting software for companies to integrate with the Oculus VR headsets. While the reviews aren't encouraging, there are plans to expound on the current headsets. Presently, the headsets cost over $290, making it hard for some people to experience Metaverse.
Individuals who can afford the expensive Oculus VR headset can use their avatars to flit between different simulated worlds created by several companies. However, tech companies are looking for ways to connect online platforms.
How Metaverse will impact our world?
The Metaverse and its application are diverse. It's like buying a mouse and keyboard when you bring a computer system at home. The Metaverse integration will change the technology we require to live in this digital world. Applications would require Metaverse capabilities to use cameras such as those built in our phone or laptop. It would enable a mixed-reality mode, allowing your screen to display the real world using a translucent layer.
Another area where Metaverse will impact the world is homeschooling. The recent pandemic and lockdown crippled education, thereby forcing kids to study from home. This has created a new way for students to interact, cooperate and conduct assessments. The tools required to achieve this also increased tremendously. Taking a clue from the Metaverse workplace experience, we can see an immersive transformation of classrooms. This can result in more social interaction with students and teachers without using video calls. The entire learning process can be gamified – learning using a gaming model.
How Payment will be in Metaverse?
The recent rebranding of Facebook to Meta has given more limelight to Metaverse as organizations are considering ways to adapt. A significant issue for many is how payment will be in the Metaverse. When in Metaverse, how can people pay for digital goods and services? What does this hold for the traditional banking system?
The ultimate objective of Metaverse is to provide an augmented reality experience that can exceed the physical realm you currently live in. It’s a new reality where the opportunity is on a level playing field. Importantly, an opportunity that looks possible is how businesses and individuals will accept information and money through a virtual world. Normally, there has to be virtual systems and application in a virtual world, which will perform transactions since physical cash would be invalid.
Here is where blockchain and cryptocurrency-based technologies come to play. Since the advent of cryptocurrency, blockchain technology has proven to provide security for peer-to-peer payments. It doesn't only allow instant confirmation of information and payment, it also offers a high level of security that is adoptable at a large scale.
Crypto payments and the blockchain helps process instant payment and reimbursement of digital assets, including cryptocurrency, NFTs, and future digital assets. Through the Metaverse marketplace, people can trade, sell, and market these assets, which are tied to a particular blockchain payment wallet or system. This would help provide an instant, secure, and accessible means of accepting payment.
With the introduction of the Metaverse, the world is getting closer to a fully digitalized payment system. Within the last 5 to 10 years, online payments have been scaling progressively and it's natural for online payment systems to enhance payments. Nowadays, common things such as in-app and in-game purchases are replacing the current traditional system. People can purchase these items in several places such as OpenSea, VBuck, and Fortnite.
Whether we like it or not, the technology always wins if you have checked your history. Whether everyone will be part of the virtual party, concert, or buy digital goods and services, it is evident that the payment system will be different. Metaverse will define the payment system and will have the upper hand over banks, traditional institutions, and payment companies.
What lies ahead?
Facebook (Meta) is working tirelessly on hardware that would make accessing Metaverse easy. However, it means nothing if people refuse to buy it. Although it is at the forefront of the Metaverse campaign, other companies are working together to make Metaverse a reality. The Metaverse will change how people interact daily, have social interactions, and how we work. Currently, projects such as Decentraland and the Sandbox are using technology to create virtual worlds that don’t exist physically.
With several projections, experts believe that the Metaverse will revolutionize our entire life and radically impact society. It is a digital country with a new civilization. The internet wasn’t created by a single organization or entity, the Metaverse is way bigger than the internet. Therefore, no one organization or company can build it and businesses will work together to actualize the new digital country.
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