The Metaverse 101 – Digital Buzzwords 2022

22 Feb

Breaking down the metaverse, digital real estate and NFTs

Facebook has been travelling a rocky road over the past few years and the end of 2021 was no different with the announcement of a name change. The app’s parent company, now named Meta, is hoping to repeat the success of its early years as a pioneer of technology. It wasn’t long before a new buzzword – the Metaverse – started doing the rounds, and it has people in the tech industry both excited and disturbed.

It’s not easy to keep up to date with everything that’s happening in the tech world nowadays. If you haven’t caught up with this new trend, here’s what you need to know about the Metaverse and how you can find your place in it as the internet evolves yet again.

breaking down the metaverse 101

The word Metaverse may be a recent buzzword, but it was coined back in the 1990s in a sci-fi novel by Neal Stephensen called Snow Crash. In the book, characters plug into a virtual reality rig featuring goggles, headphones, and controllers and spend hours each day living virtual lives.

Fast forward to 2022, and what used to be science fiction now sounds like reality for many of us – especially the under-40s.

  • Today’s Metaverse is the latest evolution of the internet, featuring full integration of online work, entertainment, the digital currency economy, and the blurring of lines between our physical and digital lives.
  • Web 2.0, which came to exist in the age of social media, threw us headfirst into a digital life with more and more people spending a significant part of the day scrolling Instagram, making YouTube and TickTock videos, and following their favourite influencer the way people used to follow Hollywood celebrities a generation ago.
  • The Metaverse also promises to give internet users full control of their personal data by encrypting it and decentralising it, thereby keeping it out of the hands of digital giants like Google, Facebook, and others.

life in the metaverse: what to expect

The pandemic and the lockdown lifestyle that it brought about has given rise to a wave of virtual living as people stay home, quit their jobs, and find new ways of thriving in the online realm.

Virtual work aside, the rise of virtual play and virtual finance have been major features of the past few years.

  • NFTs**, unique digital images stored in Blockchain which are selling for record-high prices, are redefining both the fine art and investment markets.
  • Recently it was reported that NFT images of Rolexes are selling for more than the original watch, showing just how remarkable this trend is.

**Sorry – for those of you wondering what on earth we are talking about here – an NFT is a Non-fungible token. None the wiser? Yah, neither are we (in all honesty) but basically, ‘non-fungible’ is something unique that can’t be replaced by anything else. Bitcoin for example, is fungible and you can trade it for another bitcoin, but a unique trading card is irreplaceable – trade it for another card and you get, well – another card!

And then, just as we are getting the hang of it, we have to wonder: what’s the point of owning a virtual watch that doesn’t even tell the time? For today’s on-trend citizens of the Metaverse 101, NFTs can provide some much-needed bling for their virtual properties.

online real estate

Yes, you read right – virtual online real estate is big business this year. Virtual spaces like Decentraland have been offering digital plots for sale where users can build houses and interact with their neighbours online.

Before investing in the Metaverse with your hard-mined Bitcoin though, you may want to consider that you’re not buying real property.

With an infinite amount of land available in the Metaverse, your digital home may not appreciate reliably over time – but there’s nothing stopping you from making a nice profit on that NFT image you bought on a whim.

secure data storage essential for future digital lives

With a new world of possibilities opening up online, securing your personal data has become an essential aspect of daily life. Our range of cloud storage solutions will help keep your vital info safe and encrypted in the cloud while you dabble in the metaverse!

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