Metaverse is confusing even for Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin
In a recent tweetEthereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin says it’s hard to define “metaverse,” one of tech’s most popular buzzwords.
Buterin says that the term is being merely used to describe things that “feel” meta.
As U.Today reports, many big companies — from Walmart to Chevron — have jumped on the metaverse bandwagon with their recent patent filings.
The trend was kickstarted by social media giant Facebook changing its name to Meta in late October. Such an audacious bet on virtual reality prompted plenty of other companies to explore the metaverse.
The confusing term was originally coined by writer Neal Stephenson in his groundbreaking novel “Snow Crash,” which was published in 1992.
However, the term itself doesn’t actually refer to any specific technology or experience. Instead, is a catch-all term for an amalgamation of technologies such as virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and big data.
Moreover, a fully functional metaverse, accessible to any virtual user, does not yet exist. Making immersive metaverse experiences possible would require innovative types of display technology that might not be possible right now. Additionally, developers should integrate spatial audio and high-quality holograms.
Buterin notes that the metaverse attempts to replicate “some aspects of realness” in the virtual world even though these aspects are “polar opposite.”
Despite growing skepticism and the stock market crash, Meta isn’t giving up on its metaverse plans. The company recently announced that it will be launching a full-fledged Metaverse Academy in France.
