The Metaverse is the internet, iteratively evolved to incorporate Web3 principles regarding the devolution of user data, novel technologies aimed to improve usability and immersion such as augmented reality/virtual reality headsets, and greater interoperability built atop more open standards and blockchain technology.
The Metaverse doesn’t fully exist today.
Because said evolutions have yet to pass, the Metaverse doesn’t fully exist today. This explains exactly why the term is the subject of such intense excitement and derision; advocates and detractors don’t yet agree on its key components, how it should differ from the modern internet, or even whether it should come to pass at all.
The Metaverse is inevitable.
The evolution of computers and networking has consistently focused on creating efficacious digital representations of physical reality. Email, one of the internet’s early success stories, simply computerized a centuries-old capability, significantly enhancing its value proposition in the process. Today, the Metaverse aims to take this premise to new heights, leveraging a bevy of new technologies, including Internet of Things (IoT), blockchain, and Virtual Reality (VR), to more thoroughly bridge the physical and digital worlds. Music, industrial asset monitoring, office collaboration, social media—these experiences and the data they generate will be increasingly connected and accessible in myriad environments. Supercharging information’s ubiquity is one step toward improving productivity and generating more compelling digital capabilities.
The Metaverse will be an extension of the real world.
Whatever the Metaverse amounts to, it will always be an extension of the real world, not a replacement. Far from dystopian source material such as Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson or Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, the actual Metaverse will be inextricably connected to and in conversation with real-world developments, not a place to become untethered from reality.
The above is an extract from a report by Pitchbook.
