Gaming has always been a powerful driving force in technology due to its ability to push the boundaries of hardware and software capabilities. Add to that the Metaverse, and it could be a breath of fresh air for the crypto industry. But right now, as we can see, crypto-based games and metaverses aren't making much progress.
To get a better understanding of the current state of crypto and metaverses, and what the third wave of crypto hype will be, we spoke to Pavel Prigolovko, co-founder of EverX, and delved deeper into the world of metaverses.
What's the difference between gaming and metaverses?
First of all, let’s define the term “Metaverse” and its features:
- An open world where user-generated content is of the utmost significance
- Users have control over their assets
These two statements are changing the game for the entertainment industry, as the factors they speak of open up new opportunities for in-game economies and real-world assets. But what is the Metaverse, really?
For some people, it's just a game. But is that it? Games like Roblox, Minecraft, and others can be described as "proto metaverses": they are geared toward young people with a lot of time on their hands. However, there is no true ownership, and, as a result, no true assets. Therefore, these might be called “private metaverses.”
Our position: there are no public metaverses yet
Until the iPhone came along, all other attempts were proto smartphones. The iPhone brought a sleek and user-friendly interface, revolutionizing mobile devices. Similarly, the iPhone of metaverses is on its way and will be the first public metaverse to make a breakthrough in the industry.
What are the prerequisites for a first public metaverse?
Just as Netscape and the iPhone resulted from parallel technologies surfacing publicly and paving the way for a future that was more advanced than ever before, so today's developments underpin the future:
- AI is changing industry
- Production requires less creators
- Decreased production costs
- Objects created in seconds vs. days
- Specialized equipment; software generates photo quality from real objects
We can expect dramatic changes and new possibilities as these evolving technologies continue to improve, and the Metaverse is clearly one of the areas that benefits from deep AI integration and usage.
A major wow factor is the evolution of graphic engines, which have the ability to achieve photo-like quality in real-time with almost unlimited complexity. Moreover, the next step is modeling the physical properties of surfaces and liquids, which will take the gaming and visual experience to the next level.
The entertainment industry deserves a special mention for driving the evolution of these engines. Engine software has evolved to unify production pipelines for all content creators, from movies and mini-series to games and metaverses. This means that all of these creations can be made using the same people and studios, with Unreal Engine as the dominant platform.
Content accumulation
The concept of unification has become increasingly popular in the tech world, and it involves reusing available assets from multiple sources. This approach has already been utilized in the "digital twin" approach, where virtual replicas can be created of whole cities. The assets are unified and made available for reuse, and cost reduction thus becomes a possibility, leading to exponential growth in content creation and accumulation.
As technology continues to advance, new hardware is on the horizon to revolutionize the way we experience virtual reality. Despite the fact that VR adoption has been questionable over the past decade, there is a current buzz that suggests it could turn on a dime.
In fact, HTC has launched a new VR product, while Apple’s VR/mixed reality headset might already be launched in June. With major players in the tech industry investing in VR/AR, it's clear that this technology is here to stay, and we can expect to see more exciting use cases and features.
Forecasting the future
The inevitability of emerging digital twin worlds in the real world cannot be ignored. As technology advances, the concept of creating digital replicas of physical objects and systems is becoming popular, including in the manufacturing industries, which has led to an increase in personnel training, design, and construction efficiency, resulting in increased value.
In the construction and supply chain sector, the need for quickly and accurately made goods has become pivotal, and it is possible to create a quality-driven and super-fast supply chain that could lead to market ownership. However, competition is inevitable, and only a few will take the cake and dominate the market, leaving everyone else behind.
The launch of the next generation of AR glasses is imminent, and it addresses the main problem with VR – users can barely wear VR headset for an hour, but AR glasses can substitute a smartphone for 6-10 hours of screen time. This will increase user adoption and attention, with features like virtual clothing and interactive communications making the experience more engaging, creating a loop cycle for a new era of content.
In a statement made in 2021, Bill Gates predicted that metaverses would soon become the go-to platforms for hosting office meetings, and it's no surprise that Mark Zuckerberg has been ambitious as regards his belief in the potential of metaverses to transform the way people interact and communicate.
Competition for the Metaverse backend: how will it look?
Currently, VR/AR content is limited to isolated use cases due to a lack of efficient hosting and streaming capabilities. However, the real potential held by hosting metaverses and digital twins with transfer of digital assets between each other is that it could create a network effect, just like when the first social media arose, and this might become a reality even sooner than we think.However, with metaverses on the horizon, the need for robust backend solutions comes to the fore. Major players like Meta, Microsoft, Apple, and Google, as well as Chinese big tech, will be competing to host metaverses and digital twins, taking them under the control of centralized backends, which is the main threat for public metaverses.
The industry will split into private/permitted, and public/permissionless camps. Ultimately, private/public and regulated/decentralized will find a way to coexist, allowing metaverses to flourish while ensuring fair competition and innovation.
Cryptocurrency plays a huge role in the future of metaverses. While the first two waves of crypto hype failed to produce widespread adoption, achieving mostly peer-to-peer transfers, the third wave offers a real chance for worldwide usability at consumer level.
The digital twin concept, which involves creating a replica of real-world assets, presents the first large-scale public use case for metaverses. This opens up new opportunities for crypto in terms of creating and trading virtual assets. And this is excellent news for the crypto industry, which is likely to skyrocket once again on the back of increased adoption and usage within metaverses.
As history has shown, one stellar project can jumpstart a trend that others will follow. For instance, buying a square meter of land in New York for just $1 could become a reality in the Metaverse, potentially leading to a $1.5 trillion inflow and driving the crypto market cap to $30 trillion (a x30 increase from the current market cap).
A decentralized backend solution for hosting metaverses
A better name for public blockchains is decentralized backends. Fun fact: some “blockchain” platforms don’t even have blocks. To truly enjoy real ownership of digital assets, information must be stored in a programmable, permissionless, and immutable way. This is where blockchain (decentralized backend) comes in, offering a secure and transparent way to store and process data in a decentralized and trustless manner.
Added to that is the next generation of NFTs (non-fungible tokens): MetaNFTs, which are mutable (not static) and composable NFTs. Multiple MetaNFTs will be able to be composed into a unified whole.
It should be taken into account that this must work well for over 1 billion people using several items simultaneously. It’s impossible to create such solutions on EVM chains since they use a single chain approach, and ERC standards are monolithic.
Everscale – an ideal backend solution for metaverses and dApps
Everscale is the ideal backend solution for all types of decentralized applications, including large-scale public metaverses. One standout feature of Everscale is its integrated storage capabilities. Drivechains provide a seamless and efficient way to store and manage data on-chain. An example of a perfect fit for storage on Drivechains is media storage for NFTs.
Another key feature of Everscale is its support for atomic smart contracts, allowing developers to create microservices for end-users. Everscale also employs a distributed programming paradigm, providing greater performance and scalability. This approach ensures that the Metaverse can support a large and diverse user base without sacrificing performance or reliability.
To further support scalability, Everscale’s architecture supports dynamic multithreading and dynamic sharding through Workchains and processing shards, bringing unlimited scalability and ensuring that metaverses can grow and evolve without limitations.
Finally, Everscale supports asynchronous interactions, meaning that users can interact with the Metaverse in real-time with almost zero latency or delay. This is crucial for creating a seamless and highly immersive experience for users and gamers.
Summary
Even though the current state of metaverses and mixed reality is far from mass adoption, it’s obvious that disruptive technologies such as AI and blockchain are here to stay. Creation of digital real-scale cities is no longer an issue, as operational costs and resources required for producing top-notch 3D graphics, even for entire worlds, are constantly decreasing.
Utilizing AI and cloud computing, game designers will sooner or later create the first digital twin – a real-scale city, and at that very moment will start monetizing it by selling digital assets and property.
With this first digital twin, we’ll witness an endless flow of new digital twins and projects, as the process follows a clear and easily understood narrative. Anyone will finally be able to buy a square meter in New York or any other place in the world for just a few dollars. In less than half a year, AI applications have attracted the attention of almost 1 billion people, and it’s highly likely that the third wave of crypto hype will demonstrate a similar spike.
The only question is whether the current blockchains (decentralized backends) on the market are ready for such a huge influx of users. As regards Everscale, its architecture and scaling potential already allows it to become a decentralized backend for hosting digital twins.
