The Metaverse is a collection of every virtual world built using blockchain technology. They can be gaming planets or NFT galleries, curated lands, or digital streets.
The main thing to always remember when you think about the Metaverse is that it is not one place. It is the aggregate of the new digital spaces that people are calling the next iteration of the internet.
Media companies, music publishers, sportswear brands and cryptocurrency analytics platforms all have a presence in the Metaverse. So too do rock stars, rappers de, Care Bears and Smurfs. So it’s a broad church and there’s room for everyone.
What makes the Metaverse different from online social platforms like Second Life and Minecraft lies in the space between centralization and decentralization.
Those earlier iterations of digital spaces were tightly controlled by a single company from their own servers. Each time you left their world and went to a different one, you needed to sign up with a new identity.
The Metaverse allows you to use a single identity to travel across and through the growing network of virtual landscapes. This makes it more like a mirror of the real world. When you travel to new towns, cities and countries, you don’t need a new passport every time you arrive at a new destination.
Who owns the Metaverse?
Asking who owns the Metaverse is a bit like asking who owns the internet. No single person or organization has total control over the Metaverse. Rather, there are multiple stakeholders and developers who, all together, create the Metaverse.
Saying this, some platforms inevitably have to be the gateways to the Metaverse. Through blockchain technology, these platforms grant users the ability to manifest as an avatar inside the Metaverse.
But while places like The Sandbox and Decentraland exist as virtual ecosystems, creators can build and curate their own sections of it. If a person or a company creates an entertaining place that people want to come to, they can monetize this and keep the revenue.
So although some companies act as gatekeepers to certain virtual worlds, everyone is an owner inside that world. Whether you own land, in-game assets, avatars or digital fashion items, blockchain technology gives you ultimate ownership over them.
Also, Metaverse platforms have governance tokens that give holders decision-making power. Depending on how many tokens someone holds, they will have a greater and lesser say in how a platform develops.
How can you access the Metaverse?
Firstly, you need to know which Metaverse platform you want to enter. There are hundreds of these virtual worlds, and more are being developed every day.
As we’ve already seen, there are often costs associated with entering the Metaverse. You may need to mint a new avatar, find one on the secondary markets, or perhaps buy an in-game item as an NFT to join in the fun.
Another way to get into the Metaverse is by buying into tools that allow you entry via their own protocols. Metakey, for example, is a platform that owns land in multiple virtual worlds. They have an NFT which gives the holder access to Metakey’s Metaverse land.
Metakey also has its very own virtual world called New Ganymede, which acts as a ‘home for the brand and community, the proof of vision, and a bridge to the brightest worlds in the Metaverse’.
What are the best Metaverse virtual lands?
As you know, there are many different virtual worlds that fit into the Metaverse. Because they are all different, you can use DappRadar to research these virtual worlds to discover the one that suits you..
Here are some of the most popular and biggest virtual worlds currently building the next iteration of the internet: