With the development of blockchain technology, a lot of ideas that were just theories before are starting to become real. One of them is the “metaverse,” which is a virtual world. How will this world affect the internet as we know it and the online economy?
Neal Stephenson first wrote about the metaverse in his science fiction book “Snow Crash,” which came out in 1992. The metaverse is a virtual world with all the possibilities of a real one. In the early 1990s, the idea was just a dream, but with the arrival of blockchain development services, it has become a part of very specific projects that have already attracted millions of people from all over the world.
There is now a fully functional economy in the virtual world thanks to cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), in which any virtual asset can be bought and traded. Those who have the good fortune to invest in virtual properties or create digital artworks for sale can already count themselves among the fortunate few who have amassed substantial fortunes. Not surprisingly, many specialists are enthusiastic about this field, and many claim that the blockchain and metaverses will revolutionize the Internet and digital culture as we know it.
Why is Blockchain the Important Technology For Metaverse?
Even though there isn’t a single idea of the metaverse yet and projects like Facebook Horizon and Google Blocks only partially use the idea, the ecosystem’s key operating principles have already been worked out.
When you look at the most important parts of blockchain technology, it becomes clear that it can meet the needs of the metaverse. Here’s a list of them:
Security
The fact that the metaverse stores data that is measured in exabytes brings up the question of how to store, send, and sync data safely. In this way, blockchain technology is very useful for decentralizing storage and data processing nodes.
Trust
Blockchain means that there are tokens, which are safe storage devices that can send encrypted information like virtual content, personal data, and authorization keys. In this way, the metaverse blockchain makes it easier for users to trust the ecosystem because third parties won’t be able to get their hands on private information.
Decentralization
Everyone needs to share the same view of the metaverse for it to function properly. Thousands of decentralised nodes can coordinate their efforts in a blockchain-based decentralised ecosystem.
Smart Contracts
These enable the governance of the metaverse’s economic, legal, social, and other ties between individuals and groups. As an added bonus, using smart contacts enables you to formulate and implement the fundamental laws that govern the metaverse.
Interoperability
Blockchain makes it possible for different systems and interfaces to work together and communicate without limits. This is important when it comes to the value and turnover of NFTs.
A Detailed Look at the Blockchain Use-Case in the Metaverse
Blockchain can be used in many different ways to build and run the metaverse development services. Here are some of the most important ways this technology is used.
Assets in the Game
Many people who know about blockchain say that games will soon be where the idea of the metaverse really takes off. They think that the players’ virtual assets will be given to them in the form of non-fungible metaverse tokens, and that eventually, players will be able to earn real money that can be used as a payment method within a certain ecosystem.
When blockchain technology is added to games, players can be sure that their assets will stay safe even if they quit the game, delete it, or have something bad happen in real life.
A lot of money is being put into this area, and people who work on new technologies are busy exploring it. The game “The Sandbox,” which is a virtual world with a built-in cryptocurrency based on Ethereum, is the best example of a groundbreaking new idea. Some of the most well-known brands in the real world are already part of the Sandbox metaverse ecosystem, which is interesting.
“Axie Infinity,” which has more than a million active users, is one of the most popular NFT games in the metaverse right now. One unique thing about this game is that players are rewarded with an internal currency. This is done to encourage new people to join the game.
Most important people, like Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook (now Meta), are sure that investors, developers, and regular users will use the metaverse in the coming years. We can be sure that this idea will become very popular very soon.
Virtual Currencies
One of the most obvious ways that blockchain technology is used in the metaverse is for settlements. It won’t be long before people shop in online stores. Since people are steadily buying more things and more people are shopping online instead of in stores, we can be sure that cryptocurrency will soon be used in a decentralised ecosystem.
In the game “Decentraland,” you can buy virtual property with MANA. This is an example of how virtual currencies are used in the metaverse. Deals worth millions of dollars have already been made in this metaverse, and this is just the start. Users will be able to buy virtual versions of everything they can buy in the real world in the future. This technology won’t just be used in games. The niche of DeFi, which is growing quickly, could become a place to try out virtual lending, borrowing, investing, and trading. In theory, this means that cryptocurrency could be used in any way.
NFTs
Many experts say that tokens that can’t be used to buy other tokens will be very important in the metaverse. These tokens will be used in digital art trading, where they are already commonly used, as proof of ownership of digital assets. Also, NFTs have a huge amount of potential to be used in any crypto-based metaverse projects that involve buying game assets, avatars, and so on. Also, if this area keeps growing, soon non-fungible tokens will be used as proof of real estate ownership.
An NFT is, in a broad sense, a key to certain parts of the metaverse (in other words, the right to control a certain part of the virtual environment). Aside from this, tokens will eventually be used as prizes in metaverse NFT games (instead of fungible tokens). At the same time, non-fungible tokens will be used to give value to specific digital assets. This is very important because almost any digital asset can be copied an unlimited number of times, and only a certificate of ownership built into a digital object can prove who the legal owner is.
Authentication of Self-Identity
In the metaverse, verifying one’s own identity is done in the same way that a social security number is given. The blockchain stores information about each user, like their age, what they do, how they look, and other details. This makes sure that the metaverse is as open as possible and stops people from doing anything illegal there.
Also, self-identity authentication makes it impossible for someone to do something illegal in the virtual ecosystem under a false name.
Real Estate
One of the most important digital assets in the metaverse is land. The main questions here are how to value a piece of virtual real estate and how to control this market if the metaverse really is a digital space that goes on forever. Here, the metaverse blockchain can be used as a kind of registry that keeps track of everything that happens with virtual real estate assets, like when they are made, changed, bought, sold, or gotten rid of.
Does Blockchain really help you Build the Metaverse?
Yes. Blockchain is an important part of the metaverse because it lets people in virtual reality protect their digital assets. Real blockchain projects like “Axie Infinity” and “The Sandbox” show this point. The metaverse is involved in both. With the metaverse crypto, users can make and sell digital assets in the form of NFTs and benefit from the domestic economy.
Experts agree that the idea of a full-fledged virtual ecosystem can’t come to life without blockchain technology. This is because, as we’ve said, users need to be able to own and sell their digital property safely by moving assets between platforms without permission from a central authority.
Because of this, the blockchain is now an essential piece of technology that lets you accurately identify any virtual object without a central institution. To build a fully evolved metaverse, every participant in the ecosystem needs to be able to identify a digital asset and track who owns it according to the logic of decentralization.
There can’t be a metaverse without a local economy. This helps explain why the metaverse and crypto will have to work together in the end. Blockchain makes sure that this metaverse market is honest and good for business. It is very important to use reliable algorithms to replace real assets with digital ones when making virtual reality. In this way, the metaverse blockchain is almost the only technical solution that could provide the right level of trust in economic transactions in the metaverse right now.
Blockchain also makes it possible to combine different ecosystems, which shows again how important this technology is for introducing the idea of the metaverse.
