The new age of exploration: Staking a claim in the metaverse 

The world as we know it was largely shaped by early explorers who characterized what is now known as the Age of Discovery. For better or for worse, this period saw the exchange of ideas and technology around the world, without losing the shared reality of humanity. At the current stage of development, metaversesees early explorers once again playing a key role in shaping a new, immersive future that blends physical and virtual reality.

Central to this new era of exploration is the concept of spatial ownership in the metaverse.Secure the right to own, control and create new types of extensions virtual reality Experiences within the virtual space are emerging as a means of claiming rights in this brave new world. Ownership is just as important in the metaverse as it is in the real world.

Apple CEO Tim Cook recently said: his view As to why the metaverse is not yet popular, he said: In some respects he is right. Seeing competing companies offering competing visions for the metaverse, the average person is increasingly confused as to what the term means.

Don’t overthink it. The metaverse is simply a 3D space that we can explore. What the Metaverse will ultimately become is not within the influence of any particular company or founder, but from what individuals collectively create and do in this 3D space. An “open” metaverse does not bet on the vision of any particular company, but invites all participants and allows people to play an active role in shaping it.

An open metaverse is essential, as new virtual worlds are supposed to be across corporate walled gardens. Users should be able to freely interact with each other to create and control virtual worlds and experiences, regardless of the platform they use to access the metaverse. By involving people directly in the process of building these new landscapes, we can remove many of the concerns people have about participating in a closed metaverse. This is evidenced by the drop in Meta’s stock price. 73% in 2022 Investors speculate that the company is wasting tens of billions of dollars trying to “own” the Metaverse.

Don’t miss the reality, enhance it

This kind of speculation calls that possibility into question. metaverse as a whole. It is the industry’s job to demonstrate the benefits of these virtual worlds and provide real-world use cases that prove their utility and enjoyment. One of the notable improvements is to make it more immersive within the metaverse. Attempting to bridge the gap between virtual and physical reality by creating digital copies of worlds rather than creating cartoon-style worlds to escape to, the Metaverse has its own more grounded appeal. .

This version of the Metaverse seeks to enhance reality rather than escape it. The use cases are endless. From enabling companies to remotely onboard employees, to providing highly realistic and visually accurate virtual tours of new office locations in the real world, to the same experience in the same settings as in a virtual environment. There are even mixed reality music concerts that offer The same is true for physical participants.

From web domain to social domain

Spatial ownership is a key concept that enables open metaverses and 3D. digital twin of the earth that is not built or controlled by a monopoly. Spatial ownership allows users to own virtual land within the metaverse. Use non-fungible tokens (NFTs) represents a unique digital asset that can only have one legal owner at a time and cannot be counterfeited or altered. In the Metaverse, users can purchase NFTs linked to specific parcels representing ownership of these “properties.”

Spatial ownership in the metaverse can be compared to buying a web domain on the Internet today. Similar to physical real estate, some people buy web domains speculatively in hopes of selling potentially popular URLs or rights to unique URLs in the future. In contrast, some people buy to lock down control and ownership over their own little piece of the web. Domains are similar to luxury real estate in that almost every business needs a domain, and many brands look for the same or similar names. A perfect domain name helps a business to monopolize its market and gain the largest share of his web visibility in that niche.

These concepts are Web3 In the form of spatial ownership of virtual real estate. Similar to buying a web domain, the user can become the landowner of her NFT and obtain freehold title to the virtual land to control their own experience in the metaverse across defined locations. . Early explorers of the metaverse purchased and mapped virtual equivalents of real places, such as famous landmarks and popular hotel franchises. This grants you the right to publish or share content in these virtual spaces or choose to sell these locations to the original physical land owners.

Overcome cognitive bottlenecks

Skepticism certainly applies to an open metaverse built on spatial ownership, but there are plenty of reasons to be bullish about its long-term popularity. Our brains are wired to process spatial information. Two-dimensional information represents a cognitive bottleneck that reduces the bandwidth and range of information that the brain can process. The transition from the 2D internet to the 3D AR/VR metaverse is inevitable. This is because it is the method of least resistance for humans to consume information.

Moreover, as we have discussed here, the success of the metaverse does not rest on the shoulders of any one organization, but is shaped by its users in a way that we collectively decide. Once again, we are witnessing a rekindling of the age of exploration, this time in the Metaverse. The role of the Metaverse companies and platforms is to provide people with the virtual spaces and tools they need to contribute to the mixed reality experiences we all create and define the next phase of our reality.

Diego Di Tommaso is the co-founder and COO of OVER..