The co-founder of Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin doesn’t think any of the companies’ current attempts to create a metaverse are “going anywhere,” singling Meta as one he thinks will “fail.”
In response to a tweet from Dialectic co-founder Dean Eigenmann, who believes venture capitalists may be wrong about what constitutes an ideal metaverse, Buterin said that while he believes “the metaverse will come,” he doesn’t think any of the current attempts by companies like Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta are “going anywhere.”
The “metaverse” is going to happen but I don’t think any of the existing corporate attempts to intentionally create the metaverse are going anywhere. https://t.co/tVUfq4CWmP
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) July 30, 2022
The metaverse is generally described as a highly interactive 3D online world focused on social relationship, with some of which are expected to be powered by augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR).
Buterin’s comments come despite the fact that several successful metaverse projects based on blockchain technology have recently been launched, such as Decentraland and The Sandbox. However, Buterin stated that their use cases are still unclear, adding that he did not think the Meta’s attempt to create a metaverse would be successful in its current form:
“We don’t know the definition of the ‘metaverse’ yet, it’s too early to know what people really want. So whatever Facebook creates today will fail.”
Meta has built a number of AR and VR apps, such as Meta Horizons Workroom, a VR room for colleagues to connect and collaborate on ideas. Meta has also built first-generation smart glasses that allow users to connect to the metaverse by recording audio and video and surround themselves with virtual worlds.
My critique is deeper than “Metaverse Wikipedia will beat Metaverse Encyclopedia Britannica”. It’s that we don’t really know the definition of “the metaverse” yet, it’s far too early to know what people actually want. So anything Facebook creates now will misfire.
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) July 31, 2022
My critique goes deeper than “metaverse Wikipedia will beat metaverse Encyclopedia Britannica”. It’s that we still don’t know the definition of ‘metaverse’, it’s too early to know what people really want. So whatever Facebook believes today will fail.
Other critics are of the opinion that centralized metaverses, such as those proposed by Meta and Microsoft, can affect the decentralization of ownership of goods and services within said digital worlds.
On the other hand, metaverse developers such as Decentraland and The Sandbox have joined various Web 3.0 projects to launch the Open Metaverse Alliance (OMA3), which focuses on building more transparent, inclusive, decentralized and democratized metaverses.
The Metaverse Standards Forum (MSF) also strives to build on these values and establish standards for a more open and interoperable metaverse. Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, Alibaba, Unity and Sony are some of the 35 technology companies that have become members of the MSF.
This mirrors well Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s letter to shareholders in October last year, in which he said that the metaverse is the next chapter of the internet, adding: “We’re seen as a social media company, but in our DNA, we’re a company that builds technology to connect people, and the metaverse is the next frontier.”
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