Whenever we discuss the future, how easily 100s of guesses are thrown about technology, the absence of oxygen, the zombie world, and the apocalypse in the future. Accordingly, countless movies and videos on various platforms have already been directed. And talking about the future, ever heard of METAVERSE? Not much right! But, interesting is how easily the whole world got familiar with the word Meta as soon as Mark renamed his social platform Inc. as meta recently. Now, if not everything about the metaverse, at least the word meta is on every tongue. But what does it mean? Meta stands for beyond, and verse is derived from the word universe, a world beyond our universe.
The ones born before 2004 have seen this whole evolution of technology from black and white keypad mobiles to smartphones, and from the introduction of the internet now in just 15years, we are talking of a whole new virtual world. Yes, an existing virtual world, where your virtual avatars will come together to work, play, shop, and not just that, they will also engage in communities in digital space.
Now, if we talk about something in the future it’s not just a blind prediction, it will surely take years, but the metaverse at present also is a prominent reality.
Although familiarization with the 3d world came through gaming in different stages. However, stepping ahead of playing games wearing a VR headset, celebrities have started doing concerts in the metaverse, booking virtual venues for events. People buying plots and real estate on metaverse will be the new normal till the end of the decade. Digital worlds such as Sandbox and Decentraland let the virtual developers build digital infrastructures, malls and rent them out.
At the end of 2021, Bill Gates spoke about how in the next two to three years two-dimensional zoom meetings will shift to the metaverse. He continues “there’s still some work to do, but we’ll soon be together virtually in the office while being at our home".
Our education forms have transformed with time and situation from computers to Smart classes to e-classes now. Visual views have always been more impactful in the learning process than audio and text learning. Roblox is planning to step into the educational sector and talk about educational classrooms and video games. A 3d visual of whatever we’re learning will not be just a thought soon.
Platforms like AltspaceVR will enable social gathering experience in the virtual world. Community gathering in live virtual events like bar nights, comedy clubs, and concerts is the next step of Altspace. Now, if you think virtual concerts are gonna be a 'fail', then you’re wrong, a recent Marshmello concert in Fortnite attracted 10 million people.
When we talk about personalized virtual avatars of ours, there will be accessories we’ll own such as garments, shoes, cars, etc. as we purchase in the games at present time. Imagine you have a date with someone in the metaverse, you put on your Balenciaga hoodie, with Nike kicks on, and go to some of your favorite places. But Nike and Balenciaga in the metaverse?
Yes! Now all these things go sideways, brands like Nike have booked their trademark for virtual shoes and gear. Whereas, luxury labels such as Gucci, LV, and Balenciaga have started selling their e-bags and e-clothes. In this virtual world, companies need not buy any raw material, no warehouse tends to make huge profit margins.
And let me answer you before the question gets into your mind “how will all this purchase be done?”
And next comes NFTs which will be your digital certificates to prove ownership of the property. So, the crypto is the new money, and NFTs stands for the stuff that completes the metaverse.
The rise in demand for NFTs this year was remarkable and is expected to surpass $24 billion in the upcoming year. Whereas, it was $0.1 billion the previous year, says DappRadar.
Yes! You heard that right, NFTs will surely include virtual real estate in upcoming years. Last year Snoop Dogg announced his entry to metaverse through Twitter and later a guy made it into the limelight by buying a plot of land next to Snoop Dogg's mansion worth $500,000. In exchange for real money folks half a million real US dollars.
Once you own land next comes the infrastructure like mansions, malls, hotels that can be visited by people in 3d while sitting at their home. According to UBS: Architects are developing entertainment complexes, office buildings, malls, etc.
At present, if we talk about metaverse the first thing that comes to our mind is VR headset. VR headset can easily be mentioned as a door to the virtual 3d world, which has already become a must-have gadget. No doubt with time it’ll get lighter in weight and smoother in transition, and till the end of the decade, it will be mainstream. According to International Data Corporation (IDC) the total value of AR, VR products will jump to $36 billion from $4 billion this year. Showing a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 68%.
Investment bank group Jeffries says investing in metaverse now will be like investing in the internet in the starting days. The virtual world will require every kind of hardware, software, and then the people who will develop it. Meta announced about hiring more than 10,000 engineers alone from Europe to create his next internet frontier. This tech industry has set its foot to make the metaverse as future and is expecting to project the sales to $800 billion by 2024 and around 1 billion people by 2030.
So, soon a perfect combination of AR, VR, AI, crypto, NFTs will bring you a new virtual world where you’ll be enjoying every activity in every possible way while being at your home.
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Muskan Kapoor
She is a writer by day and a reader by night.