Since Facebook changed its name to ‘Meta,’ the hype around that term hasn’t stopped buzzing. However, while the said transition may appear to be the first association for many people who hear the word ‘metaverse,’ the phrase is much broader than some may think.
In the Ultimate Web3 Guide Series, we previously described critical features of metaverse platforms, their components, and the chances and threats that a new digital world brings. Now it’s time to dig deeper into the virtual world concept. First, please look at the answers to four common questions that will help you understand the idea of the metaverse.
What is Meta/Metaverse?
The newcomers may wonder, ‘What does metaverse mean?’. A metaverse is a digital platform you can access via virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) headsets. At its early stage of development, the metaverse can be similar to PC video games, and users don’t need specialized equipment.
Although the term ‘metaverse’ refers to a general concept of how people can connect and interact in virtual reality, it’s worth noting that there’s not one single metaverse available.
There can be limitless virtual worlds people can access with virtual reality headsets. The prospect of a persistent virtual world can be freely expanded.
One of the popular concepts in the Web3 sphere is exponential growth, often associated with crypto projects that may rapidly gain value. While metaverse is still a relatively new notion, likely, it will soon resemble a set of multiple projects parallelly growing at an unprecedented scale.
Still, we are discussing something other than a single metaverse land or one metaverse platform that gathers all the users worldwide.
Some popular metaverse projects are Decentraland, The Sandbox, Axie Infinity, Bloktopia, and Star Atlas.
How to Get into the Metaverse?
To answer the question ‘how to enter the metaverse?’, you first need to decide which project you want to engage with. In addition, some metaverse platforms require a specialized headset that will help you immerse yourself into the digital world and start interacting with other participants.
Other Metaverse projects are more straightforward and require setting up an account and sometimes installing a browser extension to start the interaction.
To better understand how to engage in metaverse platforms, find an example of projects with explanations of how to access them:
Decentraland
Decentraland is a popular metaverse project that uses the slogan ‘the first-ever virtual world owned by its users’.
Connecting your crypto wallet is the first step to accessing the metaverse in Decentraland. Visit their website at decentraland.org and click ‘Start Exploring’ in the top right corner of the webpage. You can also start playing as a guest, but your metaverse experience will be limited.
You’ll need to install a desktop client because Decentraland isn’t available on mobile devices.
After you set up your account, create a virtual avatar that will be your representation in digital spaces. Once you have configured your account, you can start engaging with other metaverse users!
The Sandbox
The Sandbox is another popular metaverse project. Like Decentraland, connecting your crypto wallet is the first step to starting your journey with The Sandbox.
The following stride in the procedure is to set up your metaverse account by providing an email address and nickname. After that, users engaging in the Sandbox Metaverse will be prompted to create their digital avatars, and then they can begin their meta experience.
The above examples show that while the metaverse is often portrayed as an unparallel, 3d digital experience today (in 2022), it’s still in the early stages of development. In addition, modern metaverse platforms more often bring traditional video games to mind rather than an immersive digital world.
How to Invest in the Metaverse?
When discussing metaverse investment opportunities, one should distinguish two ways of ventures.
- The first is an investment in stocks of companies that build metaverse platforms and dedicated solutions.
- The other is direct investment, by buying metaverse digital assets, such as digital real estate.
Find businesses that introduce metaverse solutions if you want to invest in companies’ stock, and make decisions based on your judgment. Below are examples of firms that engage in Metaverse projects:
- Meta (formerly Facebook, Inc) – a company behind a controversial Horizon Worlds virtual reality online video game.
- Microsoft – a firm that launched Azure Digital Twins, a product that uses IoT spatial intelligence for creating models of physical environments.
- Nvidia – a chip manufacturer emphasizing metaverse solutions and developing Nvidia Omniverse, a real-time development platform for building and operating Metaverse applications.
Another way of investing in the Metaverse is by purchasing virtual real estate or digital assets used within a metaverse platform. You can accomplish it by:
- Buying a virtual land in the metaverse.
- Investment in cryptocurrencies used with popular metaverse projects.
- NFT – purchase NFT assets within the metaverse of your choice.
How to Buy Land in the Metaverse?
At the beginning of their journey, some metaverse enthusiasts may already be interested in purchasing virtual real estate. Buying digital land in the metaverse requires setting up an account in the metaverse platform of your choice. Therefore, virtual land acquisition is highly dependent on the metaverse application.
For example, both The Sandbox and Decentraland are powered by Ethereum blockchain technology. Users will use native tokens to pay for land and ETH cryptocurrency to cover transaction fees.
After connecting your crypto wallet, you can start exploring metaverse lands. To buy virtual land, use a metaverse marketplace within a platform or external provider, such as OpenSea. Then select your desired metaverse land and complete the transaction by covering all the fees.
While becoming a landowner in the widespread metaverse is an easy task, simpler than purchasing real-world real estate, you should notice such an operation is always subject to various risks. Therefore, before buying virtual land, constantly assess all the hazards and make decisions based on common sense.
Metaverse Platforms Grant Access to Immersive Virtual Reality but Still Need More Time to Develop
This guide will help you better understand what meta platforms at their current state of development are. While some marketers may want you to believe that metaverse provides an in-depth digital experience being a real breakthrough of how people use the Internet, that’s only partially true.
Metaverse platforms provide access to the virtual world with a multitude of opportunities we may sometimes not even understand. The flip side of the coin is that metaverse is still at an early stage of development. Some of the most prominent meta platforms are more similar to a video game rather than 360 virtual programs you can only access with VR headsets.
It is indisputable that the metaverse brings fantastic opportunities, but, by far, it’s worth taking it all with a grain of salt.
