What Is Metaverse?
Also known as: The Metaverse, Virtual World, Virtual Universe
In short
The metaverse is a concept referring to a set of persistent, shared virtual worlds in which users interact through digital identities (avatars) and social, economic and entertainment activities take place; in blockchain-based examples, digital assets are held as NFTs.
The term was first used in Neal Stephenson's 1992 science fiction novel Snow Crash; it spread to wide audiences when Facebook changed its company name to Meta in 2021. In blockchain-based metaverse projects, virtual land, clothing and items are represented as NFTs. This way, users can be the on-chain recorded owners of these digital assets and buy and sell them on marketplaces.
Projects such as Decentraland (MANA) and The Sandbox (SAND) have built virtual economies that run on their own tokens. In these worlds, users can buy land and build structures on it, host events or create in-game assets. In some projects, decisions about the platform are put to token holders' votes through DAO structures.
Although the metaverse concept came into the spotlight with high expectations, user numbers have remained limited in many projects and prices of assets such as virtual land have fallen sharply. The lack of interoperability between platforms, hardware requirements and uncertainty about long-term use cases are counted among the field's main challenges.
Last updated: · This content is for information purposes only and is not investment advice.