Following Mark Zuckerberg's statement about orienting Facebook from a "Social Media company" to a "Metaverse company", along with Epic Games (the company behind the Fortnite game) raising $1B with the ambition of bringing this game becomes Metaverse, now Metaverse has become a very hot keyword and is of great interest to many people.
Besides, with the trend of NFT and Gaming in the Crypto market emerging as a phenomenon, Metaverse is expected as the next trend after Play to Earn .
In this article, let's learn about Metaverse with Coin98:
- What is Metaverse? Features of Metaverse?
- What is the potential of Metaverse?
- Where will investment opportunities with Metaverse lie in the Crypto market?
- Is Trend Metaverse just a short-term trend?
All the above questions will be answered right below.
What is Metaverse?
Metaverse is a virtual world created from the Internet and augmented reality tools (such as VR, AR or other devices), to help users get the most realistic experiences.
Metaverse as a world that exists parallel to the real world. In this world, through the tools or features developers provide, all barriers to creativity are almost eliminated.
If you are still quite confused with this abstract concept, the movie " Ready Player One " is a typical example of Metaverse.
Origin of the Metaverse
Is Metaverse a new term emerging in today's evolving information technology era?
The truth is not so, the "Metaverse" was first mentioned in the science fiction novel " Snow Crash " by Neal Stephenson in 1992, described as a place where humans can interact through together through the bold Cyberpunk space .
Thus, the term "Metaverse" was born a long time ago (before the Internet era). The word Metaverse itself is also composed of two words:
- Meta: Beyond also means to go beyond.
- Verse: In Universe means universe.
Therefore, the concept of Metaverse implies " beyond the existing universe ".
Features of Metaverse
Some of the features of Metaverse include:
- Sustainability: The ability to maintain and continually improve services or ecosystems within them.
- Immersion: The level of realism of the Metaverse, this feature answers the question of how much of our experience in the Metaverse is compared to reality.
- Openness: Openness means that Metaverse allows participants to connect or disconnect at any time. At the same time it must be an open space that allows creativity to become limitless.
- Economic System: An economic system parallel to reality. In it, participants can move their assets between the real world and the Metaverse easily, as well as being able to rely on groundbreaking innovative innovations in the metaverse to accumulate and increase assets. for yourself.
Creating layers in Metaverse
There are 4 basic Layer layers that make up the Metaverse including:
- Foundation Layer: The foundation for connectivity, which is the Internet .
- Infrastructure Layer: Regarding the infrastructure for Metaverse, there are hardware components that help us have authentic experiences. In addition to hardware components, the technologies to form Metaverse are also in this layer (some technologies can be mentioned such as Blockchain, AI, Big Data, ...).
- Content Layer: On this layer we will have games and applications that help users immerse themselves in one or more different worlds, for the most vivid experiences.
- True Metaverse: This is the last layer of the Metaverse, when the lower layers develop to a certain extent, we will have a true Metaverse.
During development, we can see that, when the foundation layers are completed, they will become the foundation for the layers on which to grow. And during that development, the Layers will always be updated as well as continuously developed, specifically as follows:
- The Internet is now very developed, but research units are still continuing to launch different Internet technologies, which are faster and more convenient (typically the current 5G technology).
- On the Internet layer, we can see that the Infrastructure layer is also developing very strongly, the big guys are still very strong in the race for hardware components, as well as the underlying technologies that are increasingly coming into reality. living.
- In the Content layer, we can see the first forms of Metaverse in the form of games, and this layer is still waiting for further improvement from Infrastructure to be able to really explode in the future.
Some outstanding Metaverse Games
With the current technological limitations, getting an experience like in "Ready Player One" is impossible. However, if you pay attention, there are currently many products built with the Metaverse concept, especially the following Metaverse games:
Minecraft: An open-world game where you can exploit resources to craft tools, build buildings and create your own world, as well as interact with other players through features. and different game modes.
GTA V : In the game's Multiplayer mode, you can interact with many other players, with a lot of different trading or communication activities.
Roblox : A game that allows players to be creative based on many tools provided by the developer. Has support for experiences with VR, storing data on Cloud. And especially provide a system of economic incentives for players.
In the Crypto market , there are also many Metaverse games such as Decentraland , The Sandbox , etc. In these games, you can create your own worlds, own assets through NFT as well as exchange trade them through Marketplace,...
Thus, it can be seen that the Metaverse is still developing and being received very strongly by many people, however, it is still quite far away for us to see a true Metaverse like in "Ready Player One" , at some point. Limitations can include:
- The experience is still not realistic due to the limitation of augmented reality technology.
- There is almost no interoperability for non-blockchain games (assets in one game are not transferable to another and are almost impossible to interact with real assets). For blockchain games, the possibility of interoperability is there, but it is still not clear.
- Space is still quite limited for human creativity.
Why did the Metaverse become so popular?
Throughout history, humans have always had aspirations of discovery and conquest: Crossing vast oceans, conquering the highest mountain peaks, discovering mysteries in the universe, etc. However, with many technological barriers and limited financial or natural resources,... we cannot meet all these needs quickly.
Currently, with the outstanding development of the Internet and technology, it seems that we have found a new alternative to the above problems, which is to use Metaverse.
For a true Metaverse , we can have unlimited experiences and discoveries while waiting for technology to develop to experience reality.
A very simple example is the human need to explore the universe:
Traveling around the world has now become much easier and more popular for people. And gradually, the exploration of Earth will no longer be as attractive as before, our next target is the universe.
However, the development of rockets as well as the infrastructure for space exploration is currently very expensive, everything is only in the testing phase. Resource barriers have not kept pace with demand.
So we will use the Metaverse solution to record the cosmic experience based on the tests. Augmented reality tools will create the closest and most realistic feeling to humans.
As a result, with Metaverse, we can now have the closest to reality space exploration experiences, at a much cheaper cost while waiting for the above barriers to be broken.
In addition, with unlimited creativity in the Metaverse, people will have a lot more inspiration for inventions beyond real life.
In the context of the current Covid-19 epidemic, when countries implement social distancing policies, Metaverse will be an ideal place for us to interact honestly. best.
Potential from Metaverse
How big is the metaverse?
With a huge vision that is to create a parallel world to the current Metaverse world, you can imagine how big this market will be.
Currently, the data I have collected shows that the total global asset volume at the end of 2020 is up to $418,300B (you can refer here ). Therefore, overall, this is a very huge market and there is still a lot of growth opportunities in the future.
However, this is a very long view into the future, so what are the current figures? According to research from LD Capital (a long-standing Blockchain technology investment fund in China), the Metaverse industry will consist of 2 main components:
- Hardware industry: Including the hardware equipment manufacturing industries (chips, electronic components, augmented reality devices, ...) is the infrastructure to enhance the experience for Metaverse . According to research I gathered from The Business Research Company , in 2020, this industry globally is worth about $862B with a compound annual growth rate of up to 9.4%.
- Content Industry: All the platforms (mainly games) that allow us to immerse ourselves in the Metaverse. In this segment, we can also mention social networks or sharing platforms such as Youtube, Tiktok, ... but with a true Metaverse, I think these platforms will integrate directly with the game. The industry is currently worth about $170B.
Thus, although the Metaverse has not really developed in its true form, the things that exist today are worth up to trillions of dollars. Not to mention that when augmented reality products are widely available, this will be the foundation for the Metaverse Gaming market to grow even stronger.
In addition, with Metaverse's " Beyond Universe " vision , it is very likely that in the future all real-life assets will be brought to Metaverse to create a true parallel world (and even surpass it). on top of it).
⇒ Since then, this industry can completely reach hundreds, trillions of dollars.
What do the big guys think about the Metaverse virtual universe?
It's no coincidence that the Metaverse has such huge potential. In addition to solving the needs in real life, it must also attract the attention of the big guys - organizations with abundant resources to realize such a giant vision.
The first name that can be mentioned is Mark Zuckerberg - Founder & CEO of Facebook.
Sharing about the metaverse, Mark said:
“Today's mobile internet has been able to meet many different needs of people from the moment they wake up to the time they go to sleep. So I don't think the main purpose of Metaverse is to get people involved in the Internet more, but to allow people to participate in the Internet more naturally."
Along with the moves in the development of Metaverse, Facebook has also invested in VR devices through the ownership of Oculus, and changed the Facebook company name to Meta to be ready to complete the hardware infrastructure. essential hardware for the Metaverse at the end of the decade.
Learn more: What will Meta do to realize the "Virtual Universe" Metaverse?
In addition to Facebook, technology giants such as Google, Microsoft, and Sony have also joined Facebook to form the XR Association - an alliance with the ambition to create the future of " Experiential Reality ".
A fairly well-known name that is Tim Sweeney - CEO of Epic Games, the company behind the Fortnite game , has also shared his view on Metaverse. He thinks this is a very potential market in the future and also explains why the CEO wants to develop Fortnite into Metaverse.
In addition, Tim Sweeney also shared that Metaverse will not exist as a world created solely by a single company like in "Ready Player One", but will include many applications. He also addressed the need for interoperability between different worlds in the Metaverse .
In the Crypto market, we also have views shared from Decentraland spokesman Dave Carr.
Accordingly, Dave appreciates the decentralization of Metaverse , arguing that Decentralization must be enhanced for users to unleash their creativity and have the right to truly own what they have in the Metaverse.
Why Blockchain is the ideal place to develop Metaverse?
In fact, Metaverse can be built on a variety of technologies. However, in a world that promotes unlimited creativity, interaction, and decentralized freedom like Metaverse, it seems that Blockchain will be one of the key technologies of this world.
I will explain to you why right below!
Blockchain is the key to a true Metaverse
When looking at an Infographic by Jon Radoff about the Metaverse below, you can partly explain why.
As can be seen in the picture, the Metaverse industry is attended by many technology companies, including hardware, software, blockchain, gaming, ...
As I have mapped out above, the Content layer is the closest form to Metaverse , currently only having the main presence from Centralized technology companies such as Google, Facebook, Twitter, Netflix,… or names. in the Gaming segment such as Playstation, Fortnite, Roblox, Unity,...
One obvious problem in these platforms is the near inability to interact with each other. You cannot move or trade a very rare item in Fortnite for an equivalent item in Minecraft.
In addition, the property you own does not really belong to you in these games, which makes personalization & ownership not appreciated. And sometimes just a few factors such as law or company policy impact, these items can disappear from your account.
And all the above problems can be solved on Blockchain technology:
- In terms of scalability - Scalability: Current Blockchains give great scalability. Especially for Blockchain, there is an Internet of Blockchain concept like Avalanche, Polkadot or Cosmos.
- In terms of interoperability - Interoperability: Assets on different Blockchains can completely move back and forth through Cross-chain technology .
- In terms of personalization - Ownership & Privacy: This is most evident through NFTs - unique and non-substitutable tokens.
- In terms of security - Security: Blockchain technology with high security will help your assets in cyberspace avoid attacks from Hackers .
In addition to the above characteristics, Blockchain & Crypto has initially created a simple economic system with the strong development of DeFi. DeFi (or Decentralized Finance) acts as an intermediary for these economic activities to be carried out easily. You can imagine a few basic aspects as follows:
- When there was a need to exchange and trade goods on Metaverse , we had decentralized exchanges ( DEX ) or marketplaces (Marketplace) that operated in a decentralized and trustless manner.
- The need for the transfer of assets across different chains , we already have Cross-chain Bridges .
- The need to borrow money to do business on Metaverse has Lending Protocol .
- Or with payment applications like Payment Dapps , we can easily transfer assets from the real world and into the Crypto market easily.
Thus, Blockchain technology is very suitable for the development of Metaverse - a parallel virtual world, for unlimited scalability and creativity as well as for personalization and decentralization.
Crypto market capitalization is now over $2,000B along with hundreds of billions of USD of TVL in DeFi platforms, not to mention the huge value coming from the NFT market and various Dapps. Therefore, it is completely reasonable to believe that Blockchain technology will be one of the key technologies to build Metaverse .
To understand more about the structure, properties and operation of Blockchain technology, please refer to: All about Blockchain technology
The necessary piece for the development of Metaverse in Crypto
The necessary piece for the development of Metaverse in Crypto
At that foundation layer are Blockchains , especially Blockchains for high scalability and designed with the Internet of Blockchain Concept like Polkadot, Avalanche, Cosmos. Or it can be Blockchains with high scalability like Solana, Near and high storage capacity like Mina, etc.
The next layer is Dapps built on the basis of Blockchains . It could be NFT, Dapps built towards pure Metaverse Gaming like Decentraland and The Sandbox. Or simply DeFi platforms for the development of Metaverse Economy later.
And finally, it is the Cross-chain bridges that help the metaverse ecosystems to be linked together. In this class, the ability to create, expand and interact will be pushed to the absolute level.
Currently for Metaverse on Crypto, we can see that it has not really developed for the following reasons:
- The foundation layer is not fully developed. Currently the largest ecosystem is Ethereum , however this Blockchain has shown many disadvantages in terms of transaction speed as well as scalability.
- Blockchains with the Internet of Blockchain Concept are only taking the first steps in creating an ecosystem.
- Current Metaverse pure Gaming Dapps like Sandbox or Decentraland still can't provide the smooth experience of traditional games.
- In addition, Cross-chain technology is still incomplete, as evidenced by the fact that we can see a lot of Cross-chain related hacks recently.
Trend Metaverse Forecast
Still a futuristic concept
Although information technology has been developing very strongly, at present Metaverse is still just a concept of the future, and this is not the time to explode.
The first proof lies in the fact that we can see that currently, VR tools are very limited and quite expensive on the market. At the same time, VR-enabled experiences are still not popular, as well as developers are not interested in developing VR because the market is not really big.
The Market Size data of Virtual Reality Market technology in 2021 is estimated at about $22B (according to Grand View Research ) - still a very small number compared to the huge potential I have analyzed above.
The same unit estimates that VR Industry's compound growth rate will be about 18% per year and reach $70B by 2028.
VR hardware is the key and foundation to the real Metaverse. However, it is not when VR is fully developed that the Content Layer develops, but it will develop in parallel and wait for the time when VR Hardware reaches maturity to be able to explode.
That proof is the participation of many technology giants with the vision of building Metaverse in the context of the current epidemic:
- Facebook announced its participation in the Metaverse Industry.
- With the vision of building Metaverse, Epic games - the company behind the Fortnite game has raised $1B to raise the company's value to $30B.
- In June, Matthew Ball, a venture capitalist, promoted the creation of an ETF that includes companies operating in the Metaverse sector (hardware and software) such as NVIDIA or Roblox.
- …
In short, Metaverse is a promising future industry . Along with strong investment participation from technology giants, a virtual world parallel to reality will be a near future.
Investment opportunities in Metaverse
Under an open future of Metaverse, Blockchain is expected as one of the key technologies. So where are our investment opportunities?
Firstly, the Blockchain Platform
The characteristics of these Blockchains are:
- Must be scalable for mass adoption.
- Transaction fees are cheap, fast and highly secure.
- Large storage capacity with unlimited human development and creativity.
These can be Blockchains with the Internet of Blockchain concept or specifically designed for NFT and Gaming development. In this array, I can mention some names such as Solana, Mina, Avalanche, Polygon, Cosmos, Near, Flow, Theta, ...
However, there are a few more points that you should pay attention to:
- The ecosystem and Dapps are built on Blockchain, along with the vision of the development team to build Metaverse or not.
- The big players in the market will choose which Blockchain to build Metaverse.
Second, the Dapps directly serve the development of Metaverse
- The first can be mentioned the pure Metaverse Gaming Dapps like Decentraland or The Sandbox.
- Gaming platforms are open world or have tools for unlimited creativity.
- The NFT Marketplace.
- DeFi platforms, especially those that allow the movement of assets from the real world and Crypto Space.
Some notes for you is that when investing in Game platforms, we need to "skin in the game" properly, play the game and feel the attraction and openness of the game. At the same time the market is also very important, it is necessary to collect data on the interest of the players as well as who is behind the platform.
Third, it is Dapps for Cross-chain and Interoperability
This is a very important link to connect ecosystems. It is possible to mention Cross-chain Liquidity platforms or beyond that is Cross-chain NFT.
And you should also note that Metaverse is still a futuristic concept. Along with the fact that Metaverse Dapps like Sandbox and Decentraland are still not attractive enough (in my personal opinion). Therefore, this is not the time for a strong explosion of “Blockchain Metaverse”.
In the process of waiting for the infrastructure to serve Metaverse to be completed, it is entirely possible that there will be many small waves when the big guys release news about Metaverse. If you are sensitive to the market, you will be able to take advantage of these opportunities to increase your assets before the real boom takes place.
COMMUNITY CALL #12 Find nature and opportunity in the virtual world of Metaverse here .
Epilogue
Thus, through the article, I have provided you with basic information about Metaverse as well as the development potential of this trillion-dollar industry.
The development of technology as well as the effects of the epidemic have made the concept with an age of nearly 30 years become a hot topic in recent times. And with the participation of technology giants, we completely have a basis to believe in the potential of Metaverse.
Besides, Blockchain will likely play a key role in the development of this concept. However, at the moment this is still a fairly new concept and needs more time and infrastructure to really explode in the future.
The article is made by me based on my personal perspectives and some analysis that I have compiled from many different research sources, you can refer to it: The New York Times , Coindesk .
So in your opinion, is Metaverse a short-term trend or really a new future in the development of technology? Do not hesitate to comment below to discuss with cryptobnb!
