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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
- Sprache: Englisch
An incisive glimpse into the future of the internet In Step into the Metaverse: How the Immersive Internet Will Unlock a Trillion-Dollar Social Economy, future tech strategist, entrepreneur, and thought leader Dr. Mark van Rijmenam delivers a startlingly insightful discussion about how the world as we know it will fundamentally change as the physical and the digital worlds merge into the metaverse, impacting the everyday experiences of people, companies, and societies. The author maps out the extraordinary opportunities and challenges facing business leaders, consumers, regulators, policymakers, and other metaverse stakeholders trying to navigate the future of the Internet. In the metaverse, you can be who you want to be, where you want to be, and companies and consumers are only restricted by their own creativity how they can benefit from the immersive internet. With engaging commentary on issues ranging from avatars, identity and digital fashion to non-fungible tokens (NFTs), blockchain and the economics of the metaverse, this book also offers: * Discussions on the importance of an open and interoperable metaverse build on the web 3.0 paradigm if we want to reign in the control of Big Tech over our identity, data and lives. * Explorations of the enormous--and largely untapped--potential for metaverse entertainment, including gaming, music, media, and sports and how brands can engage with their customers in novel ways and how digital twins will change how we work and innovate. * Considerations related to the dangers of an always-on, immersive internet, including data breaches, avatar imposters, mental health issues, corporate and state surveillance, and the need for metaverse law. A fascinating read you won't be able to put down, Step into the Metaverse belongs in the hands of executives, managers, and other business leaders who play a role in digital transformation or execution. It's also an invaluable resource for anyone interested in the future of technology, the internet, and social interaction.
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Seitenzahl: 445
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022
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Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
About the Author
Foreword
Preface
Note
2032
Introduction
Welcome to the Metaverse
Notes
Chapter 1: The Future Is Immersive
From Web 1.0 to Web 3.0
From AR to VR to XR
What Can the Metaverse Become?
Six Characteristics of the Metaverse
An Endless Blue Ocean
Notes
Chapter 2: Creating an Open Metaverse
Open vs. Closed
The Hybrid Web
An Open Economic System
Note
Chapter 3: Be Who You Want to Be
The Rise of the Avatars
Digital Fashion
iCommerce
A Cambrian Explosion of Identity
Note
Chapter 4: Be Where You Want to Be
Virtual Worlds
Gaming in the Metaverse
Sports in the Metaverse
Media and Entertainment in the Metaverse
Education in the Metaverse
Power to the Creators
Note
Chapter 5: Unbounded Creativity for Brands
Beyond flash
The Power of an Immersive Community
The Era of Experience Marketing
Creativity, Community, and Co-Creation
Chapter 6: Exponential Enterprise Connectivity
A Changing World
The Future of Immersive Work
Digital Twins
The Role of Governments
Chapter 7: The Creator Economy
A Vibrant Metaverse Economy
Why Tokens Matter
Challenges of NFTs
Digital Real Estate
Economic Mechanisms
From DeFi to MetaFi
Notes
Chapter 8: Digitalism in the Metaverse
Technology Is Neutral
Dangers of the Metaverse
Verification, Education, and Regulation
Surveillance or Empowerment
Chapter 9: The Future of the Metaverse
BCI: The Future of Immersive Experiences
A Renaissance of Art, Creativity, and Innovation
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
References
Index
Copyright
Dedication
End User License Agreement
List of Illustrations
Chapter 3
Figure 3.1 Type of avatars
Chapter 6
Figure 6.1: Four tiers of the metaverse
Guide
Cover
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
About the Author
Foreword
Preface
2032
Introduction
Begin Reading
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
References
Index
End User License Agreement
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Praise for Step into the Metaverse
“Mark has created a comprehensive introduction covering the history, the current state and a look into the future of the metaverse. This book is a fantastic dive straight down the rabbit hole whilst wearing a jet pack, and you'll come out the other side fully able to work out what it means for you, and your company or organisation.”
—Paul Hamilton, Ogilvy Managing Director Growth & Innovation and Founder of metaverse design agency vTogether
“I've been obsessed with the Metaverse since I first read Snow Crash many years ago. I've written thousands of words on the Metaverse, work in the industry, built VR experiences, and write a weekly newsletter covering the topic…. and yet I learned so much from Mark's book. There were still whole aspects of the Metaverse I hadn't considered. Even if you think you're educated on the topic, pick up the book. You'll come away from it filled with new things to research and explore, new connections you hadn't made in your mind yet.”
—Daniel Sisson, Writer, consultant, and XR developer
“Van Rijmenam provides an extremely thorough explanation of the many facets of the metaverse. If you're just starting to learn about the concept or you are already well-versed in some of its pieces but want to see the 10,000-foot gestalt, this book will be illuminating.”
—Rabindra Ratan, Associate Professor and researcher of metaverse technologies (i.e., avatars, online game4s, VR) since 2005
“A comprehensive and candid coverage of the opportunities and challenges posed by the metaverse and Web 3. A must read for entrepreneurs and business leaders.”
—Avinash Kaushik, Founder & CEO, Waka Metaverse Suite
“Step into the Metaverse is a timely book as Web3 unfolds into a third dimension that promises new ways to interact, collaborate, and engage with other individuals, products, services, entertainment and more.”
—Raghu Bala, CEO, NetObjex
“[Mark van Rijmenam’s] illuminating book on the beginnings of the metaverse is a light in the darkness for the curious and the bold.”
—Matthew Brewbaker, CEO of VEU Inc./Enterverse
“Van Rijmenam takes us on a journey through the state of the art in the metaverse, exploring both the myriad opportunities presented by this evolution of cyberspace, as well as threats to its potential, including a lack of standardisation and regulation. This nuanced exploration of the fledgling industry is a must-read for anyone interested in the space, demonstrating The Digital Speaker’s deep knowledge as one of its first inhabitants.”
—Sam Johnston, investor and CEO at Acumino
“In Step into the Metaverse, Mark van Rijmenam takes a comprehensive view of the converging forces that will fuse and someday become a future paradigm for human growth, prosperity and existence. That is, unless we f* it up.”
—John Gaeta, Creator, Inventor, Executive
“A comprehensive tour of vital contemporary metaverse discussions!”
—Neil Trevett, President, The Khronos Group
“Van Rijmenam provides an extensive exploration of the metaverse. He surfaces timely questions of ethics and sovereignty. At this moment, while our next digital reality is still being constructed, this discussion is critical.”
—Tiffany Xingyu Wang, President & Co-Founder, Oasis Consortium
“Dr. Mark van Rijmenam does a masterful job sharing a promising vision of the nascent metaverse while also being pragmatic about the challenges and gaps in existing solutions.”
—Alec Lazarescu, Founder, VerseTech Metaverse
“The next chapter of human existence is being formed right now, and as you ‘step into the metaverse’ you’ll fully understand the power of the convergence of technology, consumer trends, brands and reinvention of personal self expression.”
—Justin W. Hochberg, CEO & Founder, Virtual Brand Group
Step into the Metaverse
How the Immersive Internet Will Unlock a Trillion-Dollar Social Economy
Mark van Rijmenam
Foreword
Science-fiction stories such as Snow Crash or Ready Player One have described the metaverse as a virtual world of unlimited potential for entertainment and value extraction. In the metaverse depicted in these books, a centralized entity controls the metaverse, including all data, digital assets, and the people entering it. This is a dystopian future that by no means is impossible to happen in the real world, given that we have already built a centralized, closed, proprietary, and extractive internet. The current Web is governed by shareholder supremacy instead of user centricity, and we all have become addicted to “free” access to these platforms.
The downside of all these “free” services has been the degradation of privacy and the lack of control over our own data and identity. That is why I started Outlier Ventures in 2014, because I felt the need for a different story. It is a story where end users can regain control over their digital lives, driven by the convergence of technologies such as blockchain, crypto, artificial intelligence, and mixed reality, among others. Over the years, we have invested in dozens of companies that are building Web 3.0 technologies across all three key layers of Web 3.0 innovation: infrastructure, middleware, and applications.
Web 3.0 technology will enable a decentralized, permissionless, open digital economy centered around the user and identity and data portability. It will allow us to create a fairer, more inclusive internet. It is vital that we embrace this paradigm shift toward decentralization, especially now that we are at the dawn of the metaverse, or the next iteration of the internet.
If Web 2.0 and the social Web enabled data harvesting at a large scale, imagine what can happen in an immersive digital environment. The possibilities to collect and analyze our data will grow exponentially, enabling corporate or state surveillance at unprecedented levels. That is why we need an open metaverse, owned and controlled by users instead of a select group of tech elites.
When I first heard about Step into the Metaverse, I appreciated the vision of Mark van Rijmenam to write a blueprint for an open metaverse. The metaverse will unlock an entirely new economy, where the lines begin to blur between the physical and digital worlds, or our virtual lives and physical lives. Looking at the metaverse from an economic perspective raises important questions about how inclusive it is and who can participate in the digital economy and who cannot. Van Rijmenam does an excellent job discussing how we can ensure an open metaverse economy, where interoperability of digital assets, a self-sovereign identity, and cryptocurrencies play a vital role.
Web 3.0 technologies are vital for an open metaverse, and the companies we are supporting at Outlier Ventures are all contributing to this. In an open metaverse, everyone can finally contribute to and benefit from the first truly universal and permissionless economy humankind has ever known. In Step into the Metaverse, Mark van Rijmenam succinctly explains how we can build this immersive internet that can deliver magical digital experiences while incorporating a fully open economic system, enabling the interoperability of digital assets and changing our society from one of value extraction to one focused on value creation.
—Jamie Burke
Founder & CEO
Outlier Ventures
Preface
On October 28, 2021, the digital world stopped when Mark Zuckerberg announced that he was pivoting Facebook from a social network to the metaverse—the future of the internet. At the same time, he claimed the next iteration of internet and rebranded Facebook to Meta. Although Zuckerberg said all the right things—we need an open, interoperable* metaverse powered by the users—few believe him. In fact, there was a Forrester survey that showed 75 percent of the 700 respondents not trusting Zuckerberg with building the metaverse.1 Research by WSJ showed that of the 1,058 US internet users interviewed, 72 percent do not trust Facebook much/at all. This matches my own simple survey on LinkedIn, where 78 percent of the 469 people indicated that they do not trust Zuckerberg with building the next iteration of the internet.2 Time will tell how successful he will be, but if users and content creators can choose between a world owned and controlled by one person or a world owned and controlled by those creating it, I think I know the answer.
In the past months, I have gone down the rabbit hole of the metaverse. As part of my research for the book, I have spoken with almost 100 creators and creatives all involved in building the metaverse and another 133 completed a long survey about the metaverse. They are the pioneers of this new internet, and they are all building an open, decentralized, inclusive, and interoperable metaverse.
I hope you will enjoy this journey as much as I did uncovering this magical world where we are only bound by our own creativity. In this book, I will share my vision for the metaverse, what it can become, and how it will change our identity as well as how we play, socialize, shop, and work. If we manage to develop an open metaverse, the trillions of dollars generated will be shared with all creators and creatives. But beware, there are dangers lurking on the road ahead that we need to think carefully about to avoid making the same mistakes as we did when building Web 2.0 or the social internet. I realize that every chapter of this book can be an entire book by itself as there is so much happening when it comes to the metaverse, and the world is constantly changing. However, I tried to keep it brief while covering as much as possible. I will start with offering a glimpse of what the future might look like when the metaverse is here, in 2032. Enjoy!
Note
*
Interoperability is a crucial aspect, and I will discuss it in-depth. It basically means that you can take your data and digital assets from one platform to another, something that is not possible today.
2032
Ae, one of the latest AI virtual assistants, and Daryl, a young intelligent man from a small village in the south, stood in holographic form on the other side of Laya's large oak desk. Behind them, a virtual presentation sat floating in the air.
“Good morning, Prime Minister,” Ae's neutral soothing voice announced. Laya's chief of security always had reservations about using Ae, but the software worked well, and with the founding of the M.C.P, the Ministerial Cyber Police, Laya disregarded his old-school aversion to new tech.
“Can we just get this over with? Today's the first day I'll see my family in months,” Laya told them, AR glasses resting on the bridge of her nose. Ae and Daryl exchanged a knowing look and got to work.
Daryl began his spiel in his usual tone, updating the Prime Minister on three key programs, New Skills, Cultural Protection Program, and Blockchain Plus. Daryl started with New Skills, an initiative added onto Universal Basic Income with the idea to support and encourage redundant workers to retrain and transition into future-proof jobs. After, Daryl covered the Cultural Protection Program, a program created to reassure the older citizen, a group who've witnessed so much change within such a short amount of time.
Ae took over for the third. With an uncanny-valley smile, she stepped forward and changed the presentation to display the latest on Laya's education reforms, and an update on the Treasury's Blockchain Plus program.
They discussed the most pressing issues for another hour and, at the stroke of nine, Laya bid a “good morning” to her assistants, and with a touch of her glasses, she was alone. It was the first day in two months she'd put aside to spend with her family and she'd be damned if anything was going to keep her from it.
Laya stood up and walked over to her Communication Wall. There, she removed a sleek lightweight metal-coated headset and walked to the middle of the room where a 6×6 box had been outlined on the floor. On the far side of the box, a comfortable but sturdy-looking safety chair sat. Most VR zones had one considering how tiring VR could be. Laya stood in the middle of the outlined box, put her gear on, switched on the smart lidar system that captured her movements, and issued a command.
The screen illuminated, and suddenly she was standing in a digital twin of her office. It was almost exactly the same in every way, down to the panic button under her desk and even the pile of coats hanging in the corner. The only difference was a data screen with live economic projections and headlines floating above her desk.
Using her default avatar, Laya walked over to a digital wardrobe. The glowing doors opened automatically, spiraling away into nothingness. She cycled through a few outfits and avatar choices, before settling on a light tan suit. It had an air of casualness, ideal for family and any unannounced digital paparazzi.
With another slightly different wave, she raised a group of tabs. Swiping through a few, she stopped on People. There at the top of the list, a contact labeled “Terry XOXO” sat. Having pressed the name, Laya selected the “Travel to” option.
Laya's vision turned black for a moment, spare a small ball, roughly the size of a basketball, spinning in front of her, slowly filling with color. The moment the ball was fully colored, Laya found herself in front of an endless row of squash courts, all styled in various fashions. She still hadn't quite gotten used to how instant everything was, when only a couple of years ago lag was pretty much expected no matter where you went in the metaverse.
To her front was the back of her husband's digital twin. He was intensely watching a match of hyper-squash between two avatars. One of which looked like a salmon, the other George W. Bush. The avatars smashed a golden ball back and forth, dashing and jumping in ways only possible in the digital realm.
“Terry,” Laya called, almost retracting at her own unfamiliar loving tone. She hadn't heard her own voice sound so sweet in what felt like an eternity. She moved closer toward him, her real smile projected onto her digital twin.
Terry turned, excited to see his absent wife. They hugged, virtually, their feedback sensors warming as they did.
“What happened to brunch?”
“Nothing, I was just watching some hyper-squash while I waited,” Terry explained. “I'm already there.”
* * *
Terry was wearing his AR glasses, enabling him to enjoy his wife's holographic presence and his food at the same time. From Laya's perspective, she was sitting in Al Pancho's digital twin and looking at the digital twin of her husband.
Al Pancho's was one of many holo-restaurants that now called the mall their home. These establishments were designed with both the physical and digital guest in mind, letting friends, family, and lovers share meals while sitting in restaurants separated by hundreds of miles. Laya ate a brunch prepared by her kitchen staff, Terry from Al Pancho's.
Once they'd finished, Laya waved her holographic hand over a physical card machine, held by a waiter wearing a pair of Al Pancho–branded AR glasses, who then handed Terry a physical receipt.
Terry pushed his face towards Laya, “Thank you for brunch, honey.” He was putting on that cute voice he does sometimes. “Although I do wish you could've been here in person.”
“I know. I do too, but we'll see each other tonight. I promise.”
“It's fine. When I see you in person, we're always haunted by your security anyway,” Terry added with a raise of his eyebrows and his voice slightly deflated.
Terry walked out into the mall, Laya's hologram automatically tethered to his movements. As they strolled, various adverts, both physical and digital, subtly changed. The words Laya, Terry, and husband and wife seemed to repeat across a few of them. To Laya's annoyance, one particularly aggressive ad for menopause supplements popped up in Laya's path, floating about 3 feet off the ground.
Terry knew she hated those adverts, so he reached out and grabbed the advert and then tossed it across the mall like a frisbee.
“Oh, look,” Terry added, changing the subject quickly. “D'Argento is having a sale. How about that necklace we saw last time?”
Laya started smiling again. She connected her holographic hand to Terry's digital hand, and together they strolled into D'Argento, an upmarket jewelry store for both the physical and digital jewelry lover.
The inside resembled a classic turn-of-the-century jewelry shop. The glass display cases of various shapes and sizes were full of beautifully crafted items of aesthetic pleasure. Above and besides the physical pieces, digital jewelry floated and glowed. Signs stating NFT certified and Unique Digital Items were proudly displayed in AR fashion.
Together, they perused the selection, eventually agreeing on the same necklace they'd flirted with a few times before. Terry paid this time, swiping the palm of his hand across the card machine. Once the payment was confirmed, the necklace appeared in Laya's digital inventory.
After she equipped the necklace, they stood there for a moment admiring their buy in a virtual mirror, giggling and whispering sweet nothings like they did when they were younger. In the midst of Terry telling Laya how beautiful she looked, a red flash appeared in the corner of Laya's vision—the word Ae on the screen. She had to take it. For a brief moment, Laya had forgotten about her age, about her job. “Yes, Ae? I asked not to be interrupted.”
“Ahh, duty never takes a day off, Prime Minister,” Ae quipped as she strolled into Laya's vision.
“And apparently you never listen to your programming.”
Ae narrowed her eyes at Laya but kept the conversation focused. The Cultural Protection Program had just landed a celebrity spokesman, pleasant news to Laya's ears, plus it was almost time to go to Mia's school for her show. Mia was Laya's 15-year-old and eldest child.
Laya thanked and dismissed Ae. She turned to her husband with a sad look in her eye. She was so grateful for Terry. Many other men wouldn't support a spouse with a job like this. But Terry, Terry got it. She wondered how she would've coped 20 years ago before the metaverse helped them steal days like this every now and then. Before we had virtual AI assistants to do the paperwork.
They said their goodbyes and promised to see each other, in person, for dinner that evening.
With that, Laya brought up the central directory and opened a door to The Imperial College of Arts' new metaverse performance space.
* * *
It was always the sound first. As Laya stepped through the door the noise of a full hall poured over her. A wave of conversation, laughs, and cries from excited kids and teens reverberated through her headset. She adjusted the volume on the right side of the headset and looked around the large, darkened hall.
A stage sat at the far end, brightly illuminated by invisible lights. She looked up and noticed the hall just faded off into blackness, never actually coming to a ceiling, just an endless void.
Ms. Hutchkings, the school's principal, had turned up to personally guide Laya through the crowd of mixed avatars. Digital twins, some sporting tuxedos, others shorts and T-shirts, lined the hall. Some more outlandish avatars were also dotted about, including what looked like a Ninja Turtle, or at least some type of giant walking reptile.
They found their way to the designated viewing area, and within minutes, the hall fell silent. A row of masked faces appeared center stage. The show had begun. Students began showcasing content they created in their Content Creation Module, a module added to the national curriculum as part of Laya's 5-Step Modernization Program.
About 30 minutes in, Mia's digital twin came on dressed in a tutu. Mia had tweaked the color scheme and appeared black and white, almost film Noir-esque.
She stood center stage and took a ballet pose, as she softly moved, a black bar appeared at the bottom of Laya's vision. Bach - Air on the G String, Suite No. 3, BWV 1068 gently scrolled across in a small white font. The haunting sound of a stringed orchestra rose through Laya's ears as her daughter gracefully began moving with the music. As she moved, her fingers would leave brush strokes behind them, hanging in the air.
Mia danced beautifully, the changing colors flowing out from her hands as she did. Dark blues, a deep green, violet, gold, blacks, whites—a palette of colors drifted out from her hands staining the air. At the piece's crescendo, Mia struck a pose in front of the picture she'd just birthed. From a thousand seemingly random lines and colors, a vision of Vincent van Gogh's The Starry Night had formed.
Mia bowed to the audience. Cheers and whistles swelled from the crowd, with the occasional digital firework being let off too. Laya jumped up in excitement, waving like a madwoman to her daughter on stage who, thanks to a family setting on the avatar filter, could see her mother and gave an excited handwave back.
Laya had missed this. She'd missed being around when her kids did incredible things. With a smile on her face, a single tear slowly rolled down Laya's real cheek, catching in the reservoir where her headset meets her face.
Laya kept cheering for her daughter, but eventually, the crowd settled, and the next student came on.
Laya moved out of the viewing area, and having beckoned a door, she went backstage. Unable to see her daughter in the crowd of frantic students and teachers, Laya pulled open her menu—a rather simple trick achieved by winking your right eye—and invited Mia to a private chat. As Mia accepted, their avatars were compelled together and the surrounding sights and sounds darkened.
“I'm so proud of you, sweetie,” Laya told her daughter. The pair chatted for a while about the show, the song, the whole thing. They'd obviously missed each other and were in dire need of some mother-daughter time.
Right in the middle of their celebrations, the red flashing light appeared once more. It's Ae again. Hiding her annoyance in front of her daughter, she apologized and answered. “Does this need to go through me, or can Daryl handle it?”
Ae explained how Sweden had just announced the same education reforms that Laya was working on. They'd just secured a contract with one of the tech-goliaths to supply all Swedish schools with the latest headsets and lidar systems and even build the Swedish government a metaverse embassy, something all governments were beginning to do.
Mia stood there watching her mother speak with an invisible person, Mia's enthusiasm slowly fading as she remembered why her mom's job annoyed her so much. Laya looked at her daughter knowingly. She gestured her hand and muted Ae, midway through a breakdown on the details of the Swedish deal.
“I'm so sorry darling. You did so well today. I'm super proud. I'll see you at home later.”
They exchanged loving emojis, and Mia disappeared back into the crowd. Laya unmuted her mic. “Save the details for later, Ae. Can you locate my other one? Zack should be finishing school soon.” Within moments, Ae had a position.
“He's in the Pondbox,” Ae reported, her tone preempting Laya's disappointment.
* * *
Pondbox was a newer region of the metaverse. She had told Zack, her 12-year-old son, not to go there as the whole area was Non-GAC Protected. GAC was Government Anti-Cheat software.
The region had hundreds of new experimental game types, content, and NFTs, but it lacked any guidelines or rules. It reminded Laya of the internet in the early 2000s, when she used to scroll sites like FunnyJunk and the earliest version of YouTube. And just like the internet back then, there was a boatload of bots and catfish phishing for passwords and a whole lot of unrestricted adult content. It was not exactly a place a parent wants their 12-year-old to hang out.
Ae had tracked Zack down to a password-protected shoot-'em-up concept a rouge programmer had dreamt up. Using her Ministerial Digital ID, Laya went straight past the password-protected door. On the other side, she saw Zack and Mia talking. The words, “Can't you just lend me yours?” rang out just as Laya stepped through.
They all turned to face each other, Zack and Laya looking equally confused. Mia's expression, on the other hand, didn't alter and had a certain, almost, uncanny quality to it.
Zack hated it when his mom checked in on him. “Mom,” he explained. “You don't need to check up on me.” Zack turned back to Mia. “Now, stop bugging me. Ask Mom.” He then turned his back to them, taking the stance of a soldier in the midst of an invisible battle.
Laya knew something was up. She reached out her left hand, freezing both avatars, and lifted her right to the panic button on her headset, opening a direct line to the M.C.P. and an emergency exit to her right.
Back in the real world, in a nondescript building halfway across the country, a well-rehearsed parade began. A team of programmers and coders donned headsets and wrist-mounted devices. The gentle sound of a low humming interrupted by the occasional murmuring bounced off the dimly lit blue wall. The sign “M.C.P - Ministerial Cyber Police” shone dustless in the well-ventilated room.
Dragging Zack's avatar, Laya stepped through the emergency exit. As the door closed behind them, multiple M.C.P agents appeared around the fake Mia. Laya and Zack were now in a digital twin of their own back garden, permanently set to a mid-summer's afternoon. Laya unfroze Zack and guided him to sit in his real-world safety chair.
“Zack…,” Laya started softly, “You know that wasn't your sister, right?”
Zack was confused at first, but his expression quickly changed into one of shame and embarrassment. Through tears, Zack confessed to his digital mom that he was going to lend Mia their home password. “She said she'd lost it,” he reasoned.
Laya comforted her son as best she could, but no words could replace a real hug. She felt a sudden sadness wash over her as she so desperately wanted to comfort her son.
“I'll be home soon. I love you.”
* * *
Determined to get home, Laya replaced her headset with a pair of AR glasses and marched out of her office door. As she did, the red light flashed again. “This better be important.”
“Always, Prime Minister.” Ae's normal neutral voice was now cheery. “A UN published report just announced the 2024 Supply Chain Resilience project a resounding success. Smart Contracts and a UN-backed Central Digital Currency are now firmly established.” Ae's uncanny smile peaking slightly in the corner as she gave the news. “The WWF also published a report earlier this afternoon claiming the metaverse reduced traffic pollution,” Ae quickly added.
An hour later, Laya's driver pulled into her family home's tree-lined driveway. While her government-issued autonomous 4×4 could drive itself, this was one time Laya listened to her security and stuck with a human driver.
“We're here, Prime Minister,” a tired voice announced from the front of the car.
Laya sat there for a moment, taking shelter from the bracing wind and looking in through her kitchen window. As she sat in the cold and dark, she was warmed by the sight of her smiling family. Well, her smiling Zack and Terry, with Mia just sitting on the kitchen side, scrolling what Laya assumed was an AR social feed. Laya took it all in, soaking in this rare moment of peace.
Laya burst through the door, loudly announcing her presence to the household. Excited, Zack and Mia came running from the kitchen and embraced their mother.
“We haven't seen you in so long,” Mia told her mother through dewy eyes.
“It was only a few hours ago.”
“Mom…,” Mia pulled back slightly to look at her mother in the face. “We haven't seen you in 64 days. I've been counting.”
As the evening went on, Laya basked in the physical company of her family. Sitting around the same table for the first time in months, they regaled each other with stories from school and work. Midway through their meal and halfway through one of Terry's anecdotes, that flashing red light appeared in Laya's eyes. Her family knew what that meant, and a saddened silence descended on the table. Terry, trying to hide his disappointment, stood to hug his wife.
“If they need you, go. We love you.”
Laya raised her hand to her glasses but hesitated. Instead of answering, she removed them. Her family looked confused. Happy, but confused, as Laya calmly put her glasses down on the dining room table. “If it's important, they'll send someone.”
Introduction
On November 13 and 14, 2020, American rapper, singer, and songwriter Lil Nas X, also known as Montero Lamar Hill, appeared on the virtual stage on Roblox, the global gaming platform especially popular among children. As a first for Roblox, the concert attracted an incredible 33 million attendees, enjoying a unique performance inside the virtual world.3 For Lil Nas X, who is often regarded as a trailblazer, the virtual concert provided a unique opportunity to connect with millions of his fans when physical shows were not possible due to the pandemic. While in-person concerts are capped by the capacity of the stadium and the laws of physics, anything is possible at a virtual show to wow fans, and they can offer a magical experience. Lil Nas X debuted his new single Holiday during the concert, and by all measures, the virtual show was a massive success. It generated a lot of publicity for both Roblox and the rapper, launching a new entertainment format for Roblox and generating almost $10 million in virtual merchandize such as digital costumes, accessories, and avatar skins, which users could purchase using the in-game currency Robux.4
Lil Nas X appeared as a larger-than-life digital twin and transported users to four different themed worlds, from the Wild West to a Wintery snow-filled world. Roblox’s users regarded the unique experience well. Though some children would have wanted to watch the show alongside their friends, it was impossible to bring together all 33 million attendees on one server due to the current hardware constraints. Above all, it would have been utterly chaotic. Hence, players saw only around 50 other attendees watching the live performance, making it feel a bit empty. Apart from the occasional glitches expected from such a novel experience, the concert was a blazing success.
Less than a year later, in October 2021, Decentraland organized not just one concert but an entire, four-day metaverse festival with 80 different artists.5 Decentraland is a fully decentralized 3D virtual world controlled by a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) where users can build their own unique digital experience and interact with others. The biggest drawcards for the virtual festival were Deadmau5, a Canadian electronic music producer and DJ, and Paris Hilton. Roblox and Lil Nas X targeted its young players, while the Metaverse Festival was focused more on the tech-savvy crypto community. Users could purchase digital merchandise using the in-game’s crypto MANA, such as digital wearables for their avatars,6 and all attendees received a nonfungible token (NFT)* in their wallet as a Proof of Attendance.7
When you started reading this book, you might have wondered why does a business book on the metaverse start with a fictional story and discussing two virtual events? Am I in the right place? Well, yes…you certainly are. The two concerts, and the many other concerts that have taken place in games such as Fortnite,† show that the lines of the real and virtual worlds are starting to become intertwined experiences working in tandem. The fictional story shows what the metaverse can become, and it won’t be long before we live in such a future. In its most basic form, the metaverse is where the physical and the digital worlds converge into a phygital experience, augmenting both the virtual and the physical worlds. As we will discover, the metaverse will radically change our society and offer experiences that until recently would have seemed magical. The first glimpses of the metaverse can already be experienced, and people around the world are living, experiencing, and exploring it. In the coming decade, the metaverse will come alive, and it won’t be too long before unique hybrid experiences will become a (virtual) reality.
Welcome to the Metaverse
The rise of these massive interactive live events (MILEs) is a first indication of where the internet is heading and the opportunities that come with the next iteration of the World Wide Web. Who would have thought a few years ago that 33 million people could attend a concert at the same time? All could experience it from the best possible vantage point and sharing that experience with friends who are scattered across the globe, creating collective memories in times when physical connections were not possible. Online entertainment and socializing in virtual gaming environments are very normal for Generation Z (those born between mid-to-late 1990s and 2010) and especially Generation Alpha (those born after 2010), even before the pandemic hit.
Already, Generation Alpha, the first generation to be born entirely in the 21st century, will have a completely different perspective on the (digital) world than previous generations. These kids are born in an age when the iPad was introduced, Facebook became the dominant social network, and massive multiplayer online games (also known as MMOs) attract millions of players. You might be familiar with the 2011 video of a one-year-old baby easily navigating an iPad but struggling with a paper magazine because she couldn’t pinch and zoom. To her, the magazine was broken.8 Although Gen Alpha is, of course, also very familiar with physical artifacts such as children’s books or coloring books, the fact that these children can so easily navigate the digital realm from an early age is an indication what we can expect as their brains are wired for the digital world from the start.
Ten years later, the baby has grown up in a world where the internet is everywhere, always available at the push of a button, and online interactions are as normal as physical interactions. She looks at the world from a completely different perspective than Millennials, let alone the Baby Boomers who currently run the world. As such, she feels very comfortable immersing herself in a virtual world with endless possibilities and opportunities, despite all the problems that come with that, as we will see later in the book. To her, the metaverse has always been here, and the more advanced our (digital) technologies will become and the more the physical and the digital merge, the better she will be able to navigate this so-called phygital world.
One of the amazing new experiences that the metaverse has brought already is these massive interactive live events. To Generation Alpha, these MILEs offer substantial benefits over real-world concerts. First, they are easy to attend. Children do not need to ask for permission from their parents because they don’t have to go anywhere. They can attend from the comfort of their home. Second, they can appear at the concert in their favorite outfit or character, using the avatar as an extension of their real-world personality, creating the ability for the ultimate self-expression. If your child feels like going to the concert like a unicorn, they can, and it probably doesn’t cost the world to be a unicorn either. Next, their friends from around the world will also be at the concert. Note here that Generation Alpha has friends from all over the world from the start. They have made close friendships with people they might have never met in real life and probably never will meet physically. To them, globalization is not something that is bad, but an opportunity to meet new people and learn more cultures, albeit completely virtually. Finally, they will have front-row seats at the concert, even if they happen to be late for the show. In fact, they can stand next to their favorite singer while he or she is performing, taking a screenshot of the experience and sharing it with their friends who could not be there. Once the concert is over, your children are already home in time for dinner. The best thing is that next week, they can go to another concert, without paying $100 for an entry ticket that allows them to see their favorite artist from afar in the physical world. For many children, the virtual concerts offer as good an experience or even a better experience than traditional physical concerts.
The metaverse will provide benefits like these interactive concerts and many more as portrayed in the fictional start that will be hard to ignore for both consumers and organizations. The metaverse offers a new way of doing business, connecting with customers, and collaborating with colleagues. As we will see, those companies who have already stepped into the metaverse are already benefiting from it, creating increased brand loyalty, optimizing product design and creation processes, becoming more sustainable, and generally increasing their bottom line. Similar to those companies who were first to adopt the internet when it appeared in the 1990s and those companies who were first to venture onto social media when it appeared in the late 2000s, those companies who have already entered the metaverse will reap the benefits from this new trillion-dollar social economy that will be created this decade.
However, as we will also see, it is not business as usual in the metaverse. Yes, the immersive internet is another channel that you need to master as an organization, but it is a channel that requires your full attention. It will require significant up-front investments, trial and error, and strong connections with your community. After all, designing a series of nonfungible token (NFT) collectibles related to your brand or creating an immersive digital version of your headquarters for your customers to explore during the pandemic is a lot more capital- and resource-intensive than creating a social media campaign. In addition, “datafying” processes and embedding operating equipment with sensors to create digital twins (virtual representations of physical processes or assets) that will provide valuable insights to constantly monitor a remote production facility and continuously improve its output is easier said than done. Finally, moving from Zoom or Teams to a virtual reality meeting room where employees from around the world can come together, collaborate, and spend potentially even more time in the virtual world requires a significant change in employee behavior. As we know, building the technology is the “easy” part, while changing user or employee behavior is a different ballgame.
Of course, for the metaverse-natives (Generation Alpha and, to a lesser extent, Generation Z), embracing the metaverse is easy. The challenge lies with the older generations who are not accustomed to an omnipresent immersive internet and persuading them that embracing virtual and augmented reality offers new opportunities, including amazing experiences.
This book aims to help you understand the metaverse, what it is, how it will work, how you can benefit from it, and how we should build it. Of course, no book on the metaverse is complete without referencing its origin. The metaverse is a term coined by novelist Neal Stephenson in his famous 1992 novel Snow Crash (Bantam Books, 1992). The novel defines the metaverse as a place where people use virtual reality headsets to interact in a digital game-like world. The novel has enjoyed cult status, especially among Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, and HBO is turning the book into a series. The same applies to the book Ready Player One (Crown Publishing Group, 2011) by Ernest Cline, which was turned into a movie by Steven Spielberg in 2018, where the protagonist depicts the metaverse as a “virtual universe where people go [..] for all the things they can do, but stay for all the things they can be.”9 Both sci-fi books see the metaverse as a digital universe that we interact with using virtual reality. This falls short of the actual metaverse that is being constructed at this moment, where virtual reality is only one channel to interact with the metaverse. In addition, both authors depict the metaverse as commercially owned and as a way to help people escape the dystopian reality of the future world. While this is certainly a possibility for our own future, we do have a chance to prevent a dystopian future where a small elite controls the metaverse and our planet is distraught by climate change. It will be a long and challenging fight—those in power generally are very reluctant to relinquish it to the community—but one we cannot afford to lose. If anything, the dystopian future as described by Stephenson and Cline is not something to look forward to, so we should ensure we build an open, decentralized, and community-driven metaverse and fix the mistakes of Web 2.0.
With this book, I aim to give you the tools to create an open metaverse so that we avoid ending up in a worse version of today. I hope it will help you navigate the immersive internet, and, more importantly, it will discuss how we can build a metaverse that is open, inclusive, decentralized, and not controlled by Big Tech.* After all, we should avoid making the same mistakes as we did when building Web 2.0. When Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the Web, he envisioned it to be decentralized and open, with data to be controlled by the user, but we ended up with silos controlled by Big Tech.10 Now that we are entering the next phase of the internet, and with the technology ready, we can fix what we did wrong. After all, a closed metaverse controlled by Big Tech or the state will very likely result in a dystopian nightmare that we should avoid at all costs, as we will see.
We will also discuss what can go wrong in the metaverse. Not to scare you from entering the metaverse, but just as cybercriminals are active on the current internet, hackers and scammers will also constantly patrol the metaverse, on the prowl for their next victim. The metaverse will be hacked, and everyone must be aware of how the metaverse can damage society, organizations, and individuals. With more and more devices connected to the internet—it is expected that by 2030 there will be 125 billion devices connected to the internet, with 7.5 billion internet users—there will be ample opportunities for cybercriminals to hack you, your business, and the metaverse, inflicting damages totaling $10 trillion, already in 2025.11 As described in the fictional story, it will be relatively easy for cybercriminals to pretend to be someone else in the metaverse; if someone looks like your sister and sounds like your sister, we are quickly to believe that she is your sister. But even this problem is relatively small compared to a metaverse flooded by harassment and toxic recommendation engines that create immersive filter bubbles, further dividing and polarizing society and harming individuals.
The first chapter will dive into what the metaverse is and could become because a shared understanding of this new concept is important if we all want to benefit from it. What are the characteristics of the metaverse, and how do these impact our experience? We will begin our journey at the start of the dotcom bubble when the internet arrived for the first time. Web 1.0 allowed personal computers to connect, and the internet arrived in our living room, but only sometimes would you go on the internet. Web 2.0 arrived with the smartphone, although there is no set date when exactly the mobile internet started. It brought the internet closer to us, allowing us to be always online, but we still have to make an effort to “go on the internet,” as in getting your phone or opening your laptop. The next iteration of the internet will be an internet that is always there. It is always on, and you are always connected to it, potentially even when asleep, e.g., your Apple Watch tracking your sleep. It will be ready to interact with whenever you want or need to.12
This immersive internet requires new hardware solutions, as without augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), we will remain observers instead of active participants of this virtual world. We will discuss what AR and VR are, where we are now, and where we need to go before it becomes mainstream and the physical and digital worlds truly converge. We will also dive into the key characteristics of the open metaverse and how we can create a metaverse that delivers the most value to society.
Then, in Chapter 2, we will explore how we can achieve an open metaverse that empowers its users instead of enslaving them and what the benefits of such a metaverse will be to society.
In Chapter 3, we will explore the rise of avatars and digital humans —2D or 3D representations of our identity in the digital world—and how these digital identities will redefine what it is to be human. We will investigate how avatars will change our identity and why reputation will become even more important in the virtual world. Of course, avatars cannot walk around the metaverse naked, so digital fashion and digital products will explode in the coming years, offering brands a new approach to connecting with their customers in ways that are sustainable and environmentally friendly.
Once we understand who we can be in the metaverse, we will discover what we can do in the metaverse in Chapter 4. Humans have always tried to escape reality, be it using story telling around a fire to reading a book, but now for the first time, we can create our own space and invite anyone from around the world to join and have a social experience away from daily life. Of course, users who prefer a solitary immersive experience can also find that in the metaverse. There will be millions of metaverse spaces similar to the current internet, and knowing your way around the metaverse will improve your experience. Therefore, we will dive into how to traverse the metaverse and have an immersive experience while listening to music, gaming, playing sports, shopping, and learning.
Of course, the metaverse will not only be for fun. For organizations, it will mean serious business. Increasing brand loyalty, developing digital twins, collaborating in virtual reality—the future of work will revolve around the metaverse. Chapter 5 will discuss how brands can step into the metaverse, including numerous examples of brands who have already ventured into it, and what brands can do to become successful in the metaverse. Chapter 6 will explore how location data and the Internet of Things (IoT) will be the driving force to propel homes, offices, factories, supply chains, and entire cities into the metaverse. Although many enterprise metaverse environments will be closed walled gardens to provide privacy and security, the consumer version of the metaverse will work only if the metaverse is an open and inclusive space controlled by users instead of Big Tech. Zuckerberg might have claimed the metaverse with his rebranding to meta, but he should never own and control it.
In Chapter 7
