The metaverse is a continuously running virtual experience which you can enter or leave at any time but it doesn’t stop to exist when you step back into the real world. The metaverse is made up of metaverse worlds which are the actual virtual experiences you visit and interact with. Conceptually you should be able to travel between these worlds relatively seamlessly and bring yourself and your belongings with you as one virtual representation of you.
Currently the metaverse and metaverse world concept is not fully developed yet, but it is well on its way even though we don’t know exactly how it will end up working.
Yes, there is only one metaverse. There are however multiple places within the metaverse that you can visit and do different things. Think of it as the internet, there is only one “internet” however you can visit many different websites and do an array of different things as you interact with them. The metaverse world is the same way but instead of websites you visit different metaverse worlds, where you will have different capabilities and activities you can participate in.
The metaverse conceptually is not owned by any group of people or a company. It would be like asking who owns the internet, to which the answer ultimately is no one person or organization. The Metaverse is a collection of metaverse worlds which can have creators, developers and owners. Some metaverse worlds are run by a DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) where a group of holders of a certain asset has the right to determine the future of the metaverse world.
Meta (Previously Facebook), the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and Oculus, recently changed the name from Facebook to Meta Platforms. That, together with their simultaneous push to claim the “Metaverse” word as their own, makes it seem like they are attempting to persuade the world that their experience is the Metaverse. This would however go against the concept of the metaverse, and there has been concerns and backlash to their approach.
A metaverse world is an experience within the metaverse that you can visit and interact with. Each metaverse world can look and function very differently. Some look close to the real world and have physics similar to it as well, and some are completely different where only the imagination of the creator(s) sets the limit. You should be able to travel between the metaverse worlds and bring your belongings with you, similar to how you currently “travel” between websites on the internet.
Currently there are no metaverse worlds live and up and running. There can of course be metaverse world concepts that I have not found yet or they are still in development. The closest to a metaverse world we have now are more similar to the experience of a game. Examples are experiences like Decentraland or the soon to be released The Sandbox. However, as of now they are quite walled off worlds, where you might be able to take your crypto wallet with you, but that is about it.
A hybrid metaverse world & real world is where the experience includes both realities. Partially the real world and partially the virtual world you are in when entering a metaverse world. This makes for a potentially brain twisting experience where the real world brings you what you are used to and the metaverse world brings a potentially very different kind of experience.
Full real world and metaverse world hybrid means that both are required for the experience to be experienced. You can see it as the metaverse world using the real world as a required element within the metaverse world, and without it the metaverse world would not function.
Partial real world and metaverse world hybrid means that a user can choose to be only in the metaverse experience. But the metaverse world enables the user to interact with the real world either forcefully at times or optionally depending on the user’s decisions.
Metaverse world index is a concept like the phonebook for getting the numbers to people or businesses or google for finding information or services online. As there are many metaverse worlds, the metaverse world index can be created by anyone to help users find what they are looking for in the metaverse.
From the real world there can be an index of the metaverse worlds either in a physical form much like a phonebook but likely with QR codes or similar, this would however be impractical for many reasons. A website is the likeliest way to go as that is the current way of browsing up to date information. The index can cover the whole spectrum of metaverse worlds or go for a subset of worlds that has certain characteristics, much like Gambling in Metaverse for metaverse worlds related to gambling.
You may want to be in the metaverse when browsing around for specific metaverse worlds, in this case an index or a hub would be the central spot where these experiences can be found. Think of it as the airport where you see the options, you can select where you’d like to go and you take off. But in the metaverse index/hub example you would teleport to the world you desire to enter.
The closest to this hub experience you can get today is when you mount your Oculus Quest 2 headset or any SteamVR supported headset, you are launched into a dashboard of options for which experience you would like to enter into.
Crypto currencies (crypto tokens) and NFTs can assist in achieving the true decentralized part of the metaverse concept. As the ownership of the assets is public and tamper proof records using the blockchain technology, it makes it transparent to who owns what and you can be sure that your assets are truly yours.
The crypto token part can handle holdings of financial assets, voting rights in certain metaverse worlds or have some other utility that the world requires. It is unclear if the tokens will be usable across the metaverse worlds or be walled off to each world. It may very well come to function like currencies do in the real world.
NFTs (Non-fungible token) as a topic is often brought up when talking about the metaverse. The way they are currently utilized is to buy, sell or trade certain items within different metaverse worlds. Items can include a vast array of different things such as, land ownership, buildings, airplanes, clothes or accessories for your character all the way to art.