first level title

secondary title

Origin

The word "Metaverse" is composed of the prefix "meta" (meaning "beyond" and "meta") and the root word "verse" (derived from universe "universe"), and the literal translation is "metaverse". This concept first came from Neil Stephenson's science fiction novel "Snow Crash" (Snow Crash) published in 1992. It refers to a parallel digital world that is separated from the physical world but is always online. (avatar) to live freely.

secondary title

detonate

On March 10, 2021, the sandbox game platform Roblox, the first company to write the concept of "Metaverse" into its prospectus, successfully landed on the New York Stock Exchange, and its market value exceeded 40 billion US dollars on the first day of listing, becoming the detonation of "Metaverse". A landmark event in the technology and capital circles, Metaverse is therefore considered a new frontier for digital economic innovation with a very bright future.

Roblox is not the pioneer of the virtual world. As early as 2014, Facbook acquired Oculus for $2 billion. Zuckerberg posted a related statement, also citing the concept of "Avalanche" and looking forward to the future of the virtual world. In 2021, the latest VR products released by Oculus will also ignite the market. The high cost performance and user experience are widely sought after by users, driving the rise of consumer VR and the market's imagination of virtual reality.

secondary title

What exactly is the metaverse?

Wikipedia's description of the metaverse is: a 3D virtual space with the characteristics of link awareness and sharing based on the future Internet, showing the characteristics of convergence and physical persistence through virtual augmented physical reality.

A number of practitioners and experts have given their understanding and definition of the Metaverse from different perspectives:

——Professor Zhu Jiaming, Director of the Academic and Technical Committee of Digital Asset Research Institute

first level title

The proposition of metaverse is more grand than virtual space or virtual economy. It is not only a parallel world where people live in the digital field in the real world, but also a comprehensive application of a series of technologies, with an independent value chain.

secondary title

Basic Features of the Metaverse

Roblox CEO Baszucki proposed that the basic characteristics of the "Metaverse" include: identity, social interaction, immersion, low latency, diversity, anytime, anywhere, economic system, and civilization.

Metaverse has six characteristics: permanence, real-time, no access restrictions, economic functions, continuity, and creativity. Metaverse is not equal to "virtual space" or "virtual economy", nor is it just a game or UGC platform. In Metaverse, there will be an always-on real-time world, and an unlimited number of people can participate in it at the same time. It has a fully functioning economy that spans the physical and digital worlds.

In short, the characteristics of the "metaverse" = creation + entertainment + display + social interaction + transaction + present + openness, and people can realize in-depth experience in the "metaverse".

secondary title

The Technological Basis of the Metaverse

Professor Zhu Jiaming believes that from a technical perspective, the "Metaverse" of technical significance includes the content system, blockchain system, display system, and operating system, and is finally presented as a 3D interface that transcends the limitations of the screen. , The holographic platform era after the mobile era. The technology cluster supporting the "Metaverse" includes 5 sectors:

First, network and computing technology: including spatial positioning algorithms, virtual scene fitting, real-time network transmission, GPU servers, edge computing, reducing costs and network congestion;

Second, artificial intelligence;

Third, electronic game technology: such as game engines that support game program codes and resources (images, sounds, animations);

Fourth, display technology: VR, AR, MR, especially XR, continuous iterative upgrade, virtual immersive reality experience ladder, and continuously deepening perception interaction;

The metaverse is based on "hard technology", including computers, network equipment, integrated circuits, communication components, new display systems, mixed reality equipment, precision free-form surface optical systems, and high-pixel high-definition cameras. The industrial chain formed by Metaverse includes micro-nano processing, high-end manufacturing, high-precision maps, optical manufacturing, etc., such as diffractive waveguide lenses, micro-display and chip manufacturing, and related software industries. Ultimately, the operation of the Metaverse requires energy in physical form.

secondary title

The Value Chain of the Metaverse

The value chain includes seven levels: Experience; Discovery; Creator economy; Spatial Computing; Decentralization; Human Interface; Infrastructure).

image description

This is the model proposed by Jon Radoff: a vision of a future Metaverse powered by creators and built on a foundation of decentralization.

first level title

The concept of metaverse originated 30 years ago, why did it detonate recently? Timing, location, or harmony? All three are just right.

secondary title

Time: The epidemic has accelerated the speed of digital migration

In April 2020, American rapper Travis Scoot held an immersive virtual concert in the game "Fortnite". The performance lasted only 10 minutes and attracted 12.3 million direct players.

secondary title

Geographical Advantage: Technological Development and User Growth Become the Foundation of the Metaverse

As we all know, only by having as many users as possible can we better build the actors of the Metaverse, and the high growth of global Internet users in the past 10 years has built a solid foundation for creating the content of the Metaverse. According to statistics, as of the end of May 2020, the number of global Internet users reached 4.648 billion, accounting for 59.6% of the world's population. In the past 10 years, the average annual compound growth rate was 8.3%, and the average daily online time of users exceeded 6 hours.

secondary title

Renhe: Individual digital social interaction, creation needs and capital investment needs are simultaneously rising

On the other hand, the boost of capital and giants has also contributed to the outbreak of the metaverse concept, making these concept stocks one dark horse after another: Roblox, as the first stock in the metaverse, created a valuation of 40 billion US dollars on the first day of listing. The market value has soared 10 times; the old game development company Epic announced in April this year that it had obtained US$1 billion in financing for the development of metaverse business; Facebook not only deployed in the VR headset Oculus, but also launched a beta version of the new VR social platform Horizon; Tencent By investing in Roblox, it holds a 40% stake in Epic.

first level title

The physical world is constantly migrating to the digital world, and the digital survival of human beings is the general trend. In the process of "crossing parallel universes" from the real world to the digital world, what is the status of the Metaverse? Is it a flash in the pan or a new habitat for digital existence?

secondary title

The source of the vitality of the metaverse

The digitization process can be roughly divided into digitization related to objects and digitization related to people, of which Metaverse is a part.

image description

The border of the metaverseThe digitalization related to things focuses on the digitalization of objects or systems and processes, which points to the improvement of productivity

. This includes not only the digitization of business, but also the newly constructed business in the digital space.

Business digitization is achieved through digital twins. In layman's terms, digital twins are to copy real-world physical objects or systems, processes, etc. into virtual space to generate a "clone", and the two eventually form a "digital twin", reflecting the whole life of the corresponding physical entity product cycle process.

The digitization related to people points to the adjustment of production relations, which includes not only the digitization of organization and working methods, but also the digitization of life.

The epidemic has accelerated the trend of digitalization in people's work and life. The digitalization of organization and working methods makes the working area no longer restricted, the working time and place are extremely free, and the management mode is more flexible. As the digital mirror world of people's lives, the metaverse is closely related to people's needs for games, social interaction, and creation.

As the digitalization of life accelerates, more and more people are willing to spend more time participating in the virtual world. Playing games, experiencing, socializing, creating, entertaining, shopping, etc. in the virtual world is a window for people to break through physical limitations. Realize the dwelling place of higher dimension freedom, this is the source of vitality for the metaverse to maintain rapid development.

secondary title

Metaverse brings the logic of the real world into the digital worldThe Metaverse brings the logic of how the real world works into the digital world. In the Metaverse, what matters most is interaction, social or economic interaction between digital individuals.It can be said that the metaverse operation = digital individual + social logic + economic logic, the essence of the metaverse is a digital world embedded with emotional needs and free markets.

Digital individuals form new social relationships during interaction, which requires social and emotional connections such as social interaction, sharing, recognition, and empathy, and follows economic laws such as independent transactions, clear property rights, and freedom of contract.

In the future, individuals in the metaverse can participate in different worlds and lives with different identities. Personal life requirements in the digital world pay more attention to personalization, scene, real-time, interaction and content.

In the Metaverse, real humans and the virtual humans they create are forming new social relationships and emotional connections, building a "post-human society" on the virtual new continent.

secondary title

The metaverse is dynamically evolving, and its boundaries will continue to expand

When the digitalization of society deepens, a reasonable guess can be made based on the operating characteristics of the metaverse, and the boundary and scope of the metaverse will continue to expand. According to ARK investment fund research, Metaverse's revenue will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 17%, from the current US$180 billion to US$390 billion in 2025.

first level title

V. Conclusion

V. Conclusion

Kevin Kelly, founding editor-in-chief of "Wired" magazine, mentioned in the book "Inevitable": At the core of every significant change in our lives today is some kind of technology. of falling apart. These forces (referring to the 12 trends of technological power) are not destiny, but trajectories. They just tell us which direction we will go in the not-too-distant future, of course.

The metaverse is one of the inevitable paths. Professor Zhu Jiaming believes that "Metaverse" provides a new path for human society to realize the final digital transformation, and it shows an all-round intersection with the arrival of "post-human society", highlighting a world that can be compared with the era of great navigation, the era of industrial revolution, the era of A new era of equally historic significance for the space age.

Blockchain Research Institute is a one-stop platform for blockchain knowledge learning and investment services. We try to export the difficult knowledge in various fields of blockchain to users in the form of popular science courses and articles, and dig out for the majority of investors. Deterministic and stable investment opportunities will eventually open up the path of cognition and wealth. We were established in January 2017, with 100,000 community users, 30 branches around the world, outputting more than 100 blockchain science courses, and writing more than 1 million words of popular science articles.

Disclaimer: This article is the author's independent opinion, does not represent the position of the Blockchain Institute (public account), and does not constitute any investment opinion or suggestion.

-END-