Ever since Mark Zuckerberg unveiled plans at the end of October for a new Facebook that will be completely focused on the metaverse, starting with the name, the stock has risen 9%. This has sparked interest in the metaverse and how it can integrate into the world of cryptocurrencies and NFTs.
What is the metaverse
The term metaverse was first used by writer Neal Stephenson, in 1992, when he used it in his science fiction novel Snow Crash. In the book, humans live by interacting with each other and with humanoid software, referred to as avatars in a kind of parallel world.
“The current, most popular ideas of the ‘metaverse’ we have today could be described simply as a place that one can visit via smart glasses or VR headsets where you find yourself in a computer-generated world – some fake forest or a beach somewhere or your office. The possibilities are endless”.
This was explained by Guy Yanpolskiy, chief organizer of the largest blockchain and NFT event in the Gulf: the WOW Summit in the UAE.
Yanoplskiy added that it is likely that all the big tech companies and others will soon follow Facebook’s example and enter this business, starting with the entertainment world, which is already experimenting with this new technological frontier thanks to NFTs and tokens, especially in gaming.
NFTs and metaverse
The NFT world, especially in its applications in GameFi, seems to be the ideal ecosystem for the development of the metaverse.
Decentraland is a classic example of how the NFT world can fit well into this technology. It is a decentralized 3D virtual reality platform consisting of 90,601 plots of land. The virtual real estate plots in Decentraland are NFTs that can be purchased using the MANA cryptocurrency, which is based on the Ethereum blockchain.
It was unveiled to the public in February 2020 and is overseen by the Decentraland Foundation, which reached an all-time high just after Facebook announced the metaverse.
The online games company Roblox, with over 200 million active users, where users can experience a virtual reality with real avatars, has recently included the possibility of purchasing, on its virtual games platform, virtual accessories and objects through NFTs.
NFTs in the art world and beyond
In recent days Gucci has announced that it has opened a virtual garden on the platform where it will be possible to buy and sell with the NFT system, the limited edition “Gucci Collection” that includes bags, glasses and hats.
“The creation of metaverses will serve as a catalyst for the development of blockchain systems oriented towards decentralized governance, decentralized finance and smart contracts in general”.
said Roman Nekrasov, co-founder of the ENCRY Foundation, which offers various decentralized services.
But the world of the metaverse combined with NFTs also has wide fields of use in the art world. In October, the famous auction house Sotheby’s launched its own dedicated platform “Sotheby’s Metaverse” for digital collectors, offering a curated selection of NFTs chosen by the auction house’s specialists.
Interest in non-fungible tokens linked to the metaverse is also growing in the cinema industry. Disney recently announced its entry into the world of NFTs to launch virtual objects and gadgets from some of its historic films.
Warner Bros. announced a new partnership with startup Nifty’s to offer 100,000 unique non-fungible tokens representing “living” characters in The Matrix, which will go on sale to the public on November 30.
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