METAVERSE IN LAYMAN’S LANGUAGE
#Funfact: Zuckerberg is not changing Facebook’s name to Metaverse. He is changing it to Meta. They are two different things.
And the Facebook he is changing is not the social media, but the name of his company. So don’t be confused that the Facebook social media name hasn’t changed on your phone yet.
You won’t see it change anytime soon.
Mark wants to build a Metaverse with his company, Meta.
Ok, I know this is so much to take in, so read it slowly, this time from the beginning. You get it now, right?
Alright, Let’s move forward.
I know you might have heard about the Metaverse, and most of the time, you must have heard that Metaverse is all about VR and AR, but it’s way more than that.
Metaverse has three significant components: Web3.0, Blockchain, and VR/AR.
Let’s take them one by one.
Web 3.0.
Have you wondered what Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 are before even trying to understand what Web 3.0 is? Let’s talk about each of them shortly.
Web 1.0 is a website filled with just text. This text can be plain text or hyperlinks that lead to a website with more text and hyperlinks. Websites of Web 1.0 never had any form of image or videos in them.
Imagine how boring that would be for us at this advanced time. Lol
Web 2.0 is an advanced version of Web 1.0 that includes user-generated content. That is, the content generated by you and me. Yes, it’s the picture, videos, and text you see on YouTube, Social media platforms, websites, name them.
There’s one peculiar thing about Web 2.0. You get access to platforms where you can share your own content, unlike Web 1.0, where you don’t have access to share data on the internet, and only certain people have this access.
But there’s a problem with Web 2.0.
We can’t share our content without these platforms. The moment these platforms shut down, our whole data is lost, and we won’t even see where to share the other ones we have in our heads.
Do you remember the Social Media Saga where Instagram, Facebook, and Whatsapp, weren’t working? What did you do when they were not working? That’s the perfect scenario of what will happen when they never work again.
This is one of the things Mark wants to solve. You don’t need to be a part of the internet through a third party. You can be a part of it independently and still be able to communicate with your loved ones.
Hence, with Web 3.0, you can interact with people without this third party. This is where VR/AR comes in.
Do you see the contents you post on social media to get likes and comments? With Metaverse, your content can get you digital money in return. This is where blockchain comes in.
BLOCKCHAIN
The blockchain concept of Metaverse mainly involves just a part of the blockchain, called the NFT. NFT has a full meaning stated as Non-fungible Tokens.
Fungible means are replaceable. So, Non-fungible tokens mean irreplaceable tokens. But don’t see this as money. These Non-fungible tokens are your content that would have been on Social Media and websites.
Don’t be confused. Follow me.
Your content data turns to an NFT when you upload it to the blockchain at a price someone else will pay to acquire it. It’s just like buying and selling.
You’re the seller selling these NFTs that are your digital content, while someone else can be a buyer wanting to buy it at the price you fixed it. The price must not be fixed, though. It can be auctioned too.
I hope you get it now?
Let’s go over to VR\AR.
VIRTUAL REALITY (VR) AND AUGMENTED REALITY (AR)
Imagine closing your eyes and seeing yourself in another world. That’s Virtual Reality.
It’s called Virtual Reality because this world is not real. It looks animated, but you get to live in it like it’s real. Don’t think you will disappear and appear there like a ghost. Lol.
You can’t go into a virtual world without a persona. This persona is someone that looks like you, but it’s different from you. Just imagine it like the Barbie cartoons you’ve watched.
It’s a replica of you but in an animated form in this animated world. The sweet part about it is, you get to choose how this persona appears by changing the clothes, the hair, and anything you can think of.
And another sweet part is, you can create your own world and invite friends and family to it.
As regards Augmented Reality (AR), you get to see virtual objects in the real world. It’s just like calling Barbie to come and join you in your country so you guys could play or so she could tell you about the world she lives in.
So think of AR as a fake object in your world and VR as a fake you in a fake world. Got it?
Do you see that concept of having everything without anyone’s help? You don’t need any third party to make this virtual world or to control your persona. Though you can buy a virtual world and persona, you still have the power to make one by yourself, provided you have the technology.
It’s not like social media and websites where you have to depend on them even to get plug-ins and control your page for you. They could decide to delete your account, and you can’t do anything about it. Without them, you can’t do anything.
Understand?
TAPPING INTO THE METAVERSE
In every opportunity I see, I ask myself, how can I make money from this? And yes, you can make money from the Metaverse.
I will use two examples: making money as a Real Estate agent and as a Fashion Designer.
As a real estate agent, you could choose to buy a virtual world now and keep it for some years and then resell it at a higher price.
Or you could buy from a virtual world developer and sell to individuals or companies that want to buy the virtual world at a higher price.
You don’t always need to buy the whole world, though. You could buy just a part of the world, a digital land, and resell whenever you wish.
If you’re a real estate agent, this is a perfect opportunity to make money.
For Fashion designers, remember I talked about personas?
These personas won’t be naked. They need to wear clothes. There would probably be a company that would be creating digital clothes for the personas.
You could work for this company by creating sound designs for these clothes. You will make money with this because anyone that needs a persona needs to choose clothes too. If you are really creative with your designs, people will rush you.
You can even establish this fashion company that will create these clothes with mind-blowing designs if you don’t want to work for anyone. But you need to have good knowledge of technology or employ a developer.
This is all I have for you on Metaverse.
The more time we spend on this earth, the urgent need to learn a tech skill to succeed in this world.
Don’t dull. Learn a tech skill today!
Have a skill already and wondering how you can use this skill to tap into the Metaverse? Drop the skill in the comment box. Let’s talk about how far you could go with the skill in the Metaverse.
Please don’t forget to share this post with friends and family.
