The metaverse is quite possibly the future of the internet. To help our readers learn more about it, we've started this metaverse interview series.
These are the questions we've compiled to ask experts in blockchain, DAOs, NFTs, and game development, within the HackerNoon community. The series is intended for tech professionals to contribute their insights about the current state and the future of the metaverse.
If you too would like to start contributing to Hacker Noon, you can do so here.
If you also want to publish your thoughts about the metaverse, answer the template here.
HackerNoon Prompt: So let’s start! First, tell us a bit about yourself. For example, name, profession, and personal interests.
Daniel Jimenez, Engineer by profession, passionate about the crypto and blockchain ecosystem in general, especially about new trends such as metaverses, NFTs, GameFi, and TradFi.
Please sum up what the metaverse is in 1 to two paragraphs.
We could define a metaverse as a virtual space where each of us can create unique experiences parallel to our daily life, with the possibility of improving our fears, complexes and enhancing our vision of a better world.
With metaverses, imagination is the limit and if you use blockchain technology as a tool, the power to the user of these metaverses is beautiful!
Are you currently, directly or indirectly, working on building a metaverse?
I have generated some content written for The Sandbox, a blockchain metaverse
In your opinion, is the metaverse inevitable, or is it just another passing trending tech topic that'll lose hype?
I believe that the population with the pandemic has felt the need to have new spaces with which to interact as a society. Although Metaverses have been around since the 1970s, it is only with the pandemic that this topic saw its use cases enhanced. From online games for social interaction to events like those that take place in Decentraland will be a great trend to mark inside and outside the blockchain ecosystem. Newzoo said in its most recent report on this topic, metaverses are the future and we’ll see a lot of development within the space in the next 10years. Large companies like Facebook are already on their way to exploiting it.
Why is the metaverse such a revolutionary concept?
The metaverse is not only a way of interacting socially, but a personalized lifestyle adjusted to the needs of each user that allows us to show our true selves without worrying about our complexes or social rejections.
Personally, I believe that therein lies the revolution of this concept: the power that users have to freely show themselves to others without being exposed to social rejection.
What can people build in the metaverse that we can't build on the Internet, or in virtual reality today? What limitations of our current technology does the metaverse free us from?
In addition to social freedom, the metaverse has allowed us to express our creativity to the maximum: from virtual spaces to generate musical shows to the exploitation of virtual real estate with the power always being with the user/owner like we have never seen it before. While the internet allowed us the freedom to communicate and virtual reality allows us to enjoy its unique sensory aspects, metaverses add these two qualities and bring it closer to what we can do in real life like never before.
How are the metaverse and blockchain related? Can we build a metaverse without blockchain technology?
There have already been metaverses without blockchain, for example, Roblox, Second Life, etc.
But the big difference between these metaverses and the new ones powered by blockchain technology such as The Sandbox, Decentraland, SOMNIUM Space, for example; is that the user has control at all times of their digital assets / virtual goods. That is, an owner of a LAND in any blockchain metaverse will obtain all the benefits of their virtual parcel without intermediaries in addition to being able to decide what to do with it within the metaverse without central authorities. Your creativity is rewarded fairly unlike traditional metaverses.
How quickly do you think the metaverse will be developed? How much can we expect metaverse tech to grow in the next 5 to 10 years?
We are already making great strides in metaverses. But as I said before, Newzoo foresees a horizon of 10 years for us to see this type of experience as something common, spreading among the population. Now everything will depend on the fact that extraordinary conditions do not occur that accelerate this development and overcrowding, such as happened in the last two years with the COVID19 pandemic
What is your hope for the metaverse? Do you have any worries or does the concept pose any threats?
My hope is that we can have more blockchain metaverses that always guarantee the benefit with greater weight over the users and autonomous communities governed by the same users without central interference, something that is totally different from what we live in the real world and where blockchain technology has shown that it is possible to do.
This is contrary, for example, to Facebook's proposal of its metaverse that seeks to continue controlling users and generating wealth at the expense of the data that is exposed on its platform.
Thanks for your time! Any final words?
I hope that some of my answers or articles serve to help the development of new and better metaverses!