Understanding the Metaverse

Origin of metaverse

The term, metaverse was first coined in the science fiction novel Snow Crash published in 1992. In the novel, the protagonist travels between actual Los Angeles and the metaverse (a virtual world). The protagonist uses digital avatars to escape into this alternate reality. Recently, the term has become pervasive, because many companies have developed technologies to support the metaverse ecosystem.

The metaverse transition gained momentum after Facebook’s rebranding to Meta in 2021. Searches for metaverse on the internet rose 7,200% in 2021https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/mckinsey/email/rethink/2022/04/06/2022-04-06d.html. People often mistake the company Meta for the metaverse, but that’s not true. Let’s now understand what exactly is the metaverse.

To understand it better, let’s delve deeper into the following metaverse platforms that enable people to take the form of an avatar and socialize/play in real time. For these platforms, we’ll list their common characteristics to further our understanding of ...