If you are alive and awake, you must have come across some mention of the term “metaverse”. You may like it or hate it, but you won’t be able to ignore it. As business and technology continues to stretch out imagination and delivers products to tickle our fantasies, it finds interesting new pathways that will take us from this place to another place in the future. Metaverse is just such a pathway.

Wow, that was so “meta”!!

In all honesty, there is a lot of hype baked into the name. While that might be looked upon as a bad thing, I do not necessarily see it as one. For us, people, companies, countries, and civilizations to build anything new, we must imagine it first. I do not mean one of us to be able to imagine something, we collectively must image it. And brining something to our collective imagination is not easy - especially if it is something very different. Metaverse is such a thing. And for us to collectively build it we’ll have to first be able to collectively imagine it. And to get us to that imagination, we’ll have to be excited about it. And some hype along the way may not be that bad for the journey.

Let’s get to the crux of it now…

What is the metaverse?

Let me be honest with you upfront - I did not invent the term “metaverse”. I do not know who did, but I have come to understand and embrace it from my perspective. And that is what I’m going put down in this post - my perspective on what the metaverse is.

Imagine you just bought a version of a game that you used to play in your old PlayStation 3. Only difference is that it is an upgraded 3D version of the game. You must wear a pair of 3D goggles to play it. Once you log in to the game you see everything in 3D. The real world ceases to exist for you as you get immersed into the world of the game. Let’s assume that the game you picked up is a sandbox type game (like Grand Theft Auto). This game would now allow you to explore the 3D world in the game. Let’s say the mission is to find a trail of clues that lead you to finally discover a treasure. You can go building to building, walk on the streets - as though you’re existing in an alternative reality. Having fun? Not yet? Let’s explore more.

The game has all graphics rendering done so much to perfection that you can’t tell if something is real or not. That makes all characters come to life. In fact, the game is a multiplayer one - so the people you see in the streets are avatars of real people. Everyone is looking for the treasure. Everyone is looking for a clue. Afterall everyone paid $5 to enter this contest. But why is everyone spending their time and money to look for the treasure? Because even though it is treasure in the metaverse, it is convertible to real money - $1,000,000. The money will be paid to you in USDC. But it will be convertible at parity to USD. Let’s call the game the Treasureland.

There is a company running the contest, every month. And there are many companies who are sponsoring the contest and in return are able to sell ads and digital products. For instance, if you find a clue that leads you to a distant place, you’ll need to hire a cab via your Uber or Lyft apps. If a clue leads you into a club you may need to buy a formal jacket NFT from Brooke Brothers and dress shoes NFT from Aldo, or else they may not allow you in. Stuff bought could be put up for resale to get some cash back. Friends may join in hunting for clues and share tips over WhatsApp. Your avatar may get thirsty in the summer heat and may need to buy a Gatorade to charge up.

You may say that it all sounds very much like a game, but with some crypto and NFT sprinkled in? Not so fast! Let’s say somebody found the treasure while you were still looking for clues. But, based on your progress and some collectibles you found during the contest, you raked up a sum of $415. Not bad, for $5 of investment along with 2 hours in time. So, you exit from the Treasure hunt land and decide to head to work.

You don’t need to log off though - your work is in the same virtual reality world. All you need to do is to is to use a portal to get to downtown Gotham City. You’re a research analyst at a major financial institution there. Every morning, you meet 15 people from your team for the morning brief. This is not a game, it is work. But your company uses the metaverse to bring people from across the globe into this call. The analysts from the east are handing over, the once in Europe are providing midday updates, while you’re just getting started. You find this call absolutely essential to your success and your company’s success. You have two such calls a day - morning evening and a midday one when Europe signs off. The call ensures continuity - as trading moves from market to market. Facilitation of the call is very efficient as well, due to the Zoom4D software that you use, which is integrated into your Research and Trading applications. Everyone’s avatar is present in the room and their screens are showing up as an augmented reality overlay next to them. You may select any of the views to zoom in. You may bookmark their research notes and presentations for later reference. On your side, you present your latest notes on the prospective deal you have been working on Treasureland. All in all, a 30 min conversation that sets you and your team up for the day.

Well, that is just a presentation of 2 examples of what metaverse may enable us to do. In reality there may be hundreds or even thousands of scenarios that may play out in how metaverse changes our lives.

But for all of this to happen, imagination alone is not enough. Ultimately it will depend upon execution. And if it is done right execution will not be done centrally, it will take place all around the world - from small start-ups in basements to large enterprises. Everybody will have a role to play in its development - from designing, development, testing to financing and sales and marketing. It will not be easy, and it will take time. And the reason is this - we’ll be leaping from an essentially 2D digital world to a 3D digital world. Not only that, but it will also be a world that runs in parallel to our real world - sometimes overlapping and at other times having its own independent existence. That is a scaling of complexity in higher order of magnitude.

Irrespective of how we get there, it must be built right.

So, what really is the metaverse??

Now, that’s a long way to answer the simple question of “what is the metaverse?” So, let me circle back to it. I’ll define it this way - Metaverse is a 3-dimensional immersive digital experience that would enable interaction between multiple people/entities, irrespective of their physical location, in a completely or partially virtual environment. It is being built, maintained, and managed by various people/entities across the globe and would enable parties to transact on opportunities.

Development of the metaverse would need many foundational elements to be developed and perfected. Web 1.0 needed the keyboard and a screen to make it work. Web 2.0 needed the mouse to get it rolling and the mobile phone with touch screens to take it to the next level. Web 3.0 would similarly need tools that would allow us to have an enjoyable experience - perhaps 3D glasses & headsets as a starting point, and many more to come. The amount of data to be processed and rendered would also be of huge proportions and would need such processing technology. AI & ML would have a key role to play here in enhancing the experience.

The addition of the new dimension in the metaverse and its connectivity will enable development of products and services and would impact industries spanning from communication services to consumer products to finance to name a few.

We’re in the beginning chapter of this book, so there is definitely a lot more to come.