Intro to the Metaverse
By now everyone has heard of the metaverse. But what exactly is it? And what role does Cherry Network play in making the metaverse a reality? Find out here.
Until recently, the concept of the “metaverse” has been the stuff of science fiction. Coined by Sci-fi novelist Neal Stephenson in his 1992 novel “Snow Crash”, the metaverse is a virtual world in which the story’s protagonist socializes, shops, and uses his avatar to dispose of his real-life foes. Fast forward thirty years and technological advancements have brought Stephenson’s vision of the metaverse closer to reality than ever before.
Metaverse 101
Metaverse, a portmanteau of meta- (meaning transcendent) and -verse (from universe); is a transcendent universe powered by virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), 4D audio, eye-tracking, motion sensors, and blockchains such as the Cherry Chain. All of these technological advances work together to provide users with the ultimate virtual experience within the virtual universe.
The most idealistic depiction of the metaverse is a virtual world offering parallel experiences to the real world with the potential for enhanced abilities — similar to the robot-powered world of “The Matrix” or the dystopian future of “Ready Player One”. In more realistic ideations, visitors to the metaverse use complex motion-tracking technology and virtual reality headsets to physically interact in a virtual world. People take the form of avatars to socialize, play games, and just live their lives in the metaverse.
The development of these fully immersive metaverse environments will herald a new era of interpersonal communication and interaction. Powered by Web3 and virtual reality, never before have creators and developers had access to the advanced set of tools necessary to embellish the bravest of ideas on the threshold of the real and digital worlds. While global conglomerates such as Meta (formerly Facebook), Google, and Amazon are quickly laying the groundwork to claim their piece of the metaverse pie, the metaverse in its truest form will be a decentralized, interconnected world where users on any platform or users of any product can interact.
The metaverse meets the blockchain
Until very recently, ownership of digital goods has been under the control of major digital platforms such as Apple, Meta, Google et al. If any of these companies were to cease operations, the digital goods you purchased from them (and you thought belonged to you) would also cease to exist. Blockchains, with their cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), enable, for the first time, verifiable ownership of digital goods whose ownership rights can be transferred without the need for a centralized third party. This is seen as a major catalyst for a user-owned metaverse with its own user-based economy.
Many of the inherent features of blockchain technology; trustlessness, immutability, and interoperability, make the metaverse an ideal environment for crypto and NFTs to flourish. The entire infrastructure of the metaverse can and will be built on the blockchain. Assets such as land, architecture, social spaces, creative content, basically anything that holds value in the physical world, will carry that value to the digital world on the blockchain. These assets will be in the form of NFTs that, once transferred to a user’s digital wallet, are verifiably owned by that user. People may trade their digital assets for the various digital currencies that underpin the economy of the metaverse. Utilizing NFTs furthers the concepts of permeance and digital identity contributing to more immersive metaverse experiences mimicking the social frameworks of our physical reality and furthering the illusion of a true metaverse.
There are a number of reasons why the blockchain and the metaverse are a match made in heaven:
Proof of ownership — assets contained in your digital wallet are verifiably owned by you
Permanence — Assets minted on the blockchain are permanent. Even if the metaverse provider were to cease operations, your assets would still exist on the blockchain
Trustlessness — assets can change hands in a matter of seconds without relying on a third party to validate the transaction
Interoperability — A defining characteristic of the metaverse is its interoperability. People across multiple metaverses will be able to interact due to blockchain standards
Governance — Decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) governance structures will give token holders voting rights to decide on the direction of the metaverse
The Cherry Ecosystem is well-positioned to be a major player in the metaverse space. Interoperability, scaling, privacy, and community DAO governance are expected to be integral features of an efficiently running metaverse and Cherry has all these ingredients necessary to become a core technology underpinning the digital universe.
As the metaverse continues to migrate from our imaginations to reality and as blockchain applications continue to scale and find new ways to innovate, the relationship between the blockchain and the metaverse is bound to grow stronger.
Our futures in the metaverse
The concept of ‘presence’: feeling like you are really there and feeling like other people are there with you, is a defining factor of the future of the metaverse. The ability of developers to replicate the presence of the physical world in the digital universe will determine what exactly the metaverse will be used for and who will actually use it.
The metaverse is developing steadily at an impressive pace. In addition to the ongoing developments of current tech heavyweights, blockchain-based competitors and collaborators are emerging daily with the goals of bridging different aspects of our real lives to the digital world.
If the metaverse does become the eventual successor to the internet, there are a number of critical questions to be answered. Who builds it and how do they build it are necessary considerations for the future of the economy and society as a whole. How will people’s privacy be preserved? Will the metaverse become a niche playground suitable mostly for gamers or will it become an integral part of everyday life? Will the metaverse be reserved for immersive experiences in the next great MMORPG or be utilized in the corporate world, in the medical field, in shopping, and in the arts?
No one can answer how the metaverse will look at the end of this year let alone how it will look at the end of this decade; however, it is close to universally accepted that the growth potential is tremendous. Whatever the future holds for the metaverse, we at Cherry know the metaverse is coming and the Cherry Chain tech stack with its focus on scaling, privacy, and interoperability will be an integral technological piece of this next great digital revolution.
Get involved!
There are many ways to get involved with the Cherry Community, whether you’re a large or small investor, a developer or a creator who wishes to join the Cherry Ecosystem.
As we ready our mainnet for launch, many innovators are getting in touch to leverage the unique capabilities of the Cherry infrastructure. Potential partners who are interested in a trustless, business-ready interface to decentralized file systems can get in touch via our social channels or hello@cherry.network to learn more. Among the available opportunities is a spot in our Cherry Labs program, where we incubate innovative startups who build on the Cherry stack.
Join the Cherry Community
If the Cherry mission of providing a truly trustless distributed file storage for decentralized applications speaks to you, then get in touch! Cherry’s technical overview can be explored by checking out the Cherry Lightpaper.
We’ve brought together a community of technologists, artists, and creators, and we want you to get involved. If this speaks to you, we invite you to join our growing community.
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To learn more about Cherry, visit Cherry.Network
