In recent months, the terms web3 and metaverse have often – and erroneously – been used interchangeably. Nothing serious: it’s normal to get confused when there are new technologies still in the embryonic stage, which began to be talked about in the same period and which is not yet clear how they will evolve. Moreover, between the metaverse and the web3 there are overlapping elements and based – just to further complicate the picture – on cryptocurrencies and blockchains. So let’s try to unravel the problem.
What is the metaverse
In the vision of the giants of Silicon Valley (starting with Meta, to whom we owe the popularity of the term coined, however, in the 1992 novel Snowcrash), the metaverse is the digital and immersive world in which we will transfer a growing part of our daily life. We tend to imagine it in virtual reality, but it is not a necessary condition.
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The characteristic of this environment is in fact to be open and freely explorable not only to play, but also to work, to meet friends, to attend big events, to go shopping and more. “Metaverso” is a label (the result of careful marketing) that today indicates various and separate digital environments that can be freely explored – some in virtual reality (such as VRChat or Horizon Worlds), others not (Fortnite, Zepeto, Roblox) – and which allow to live social experiences of various kinds, to participate in events, to shop to customize your avatar and more.
Talking about the metaverse risks being misleading: in some cases it would be more correct to speak of “social networks in virtual reality” and in other multiplayer and open world video games.
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Metaverse is a bit like the umbrella term under which it is possible to bring together very different digital environments. The real metaverse, as presented by Zuckerberg and others, will come true if and when all these worlds are linked together; for example, allowing us to move from one environment to another using the same avatar and to take our digital goods with us regardless of where they were purchased. In this way, the various small digital environments will become part of a single world: the metaverse, in fact.
What is the web3
The web3 instead aims to create a new decentralized version of the network, supported by a digital and participatory economy. As we read on OneZero, web3 platforms are “networks built on the internet that use consensus mechanisms such as the blockchain and allow the use of cryptocurrencies to encourage the collaboration of all members of the network”.
What does it mean? A few examples can help. Reddit, for example, is imagining of use cryptocurrencies to allow subscribers to participate in the governance of the platform.
Through their activity, users will be able to conquer special tokens (tokens). The more tokens you have, the more say you will have in managing the platform. In other cases, it is possible to earn these tokens because you have shared the free space of your hard disk on the blockchain, because you have won a race in some blockchain-based online game (this is the so-called GameFi), they have exchanged NFTs or you have won some bets on a platform like Augur.
Unlike the web 2.0 dominated by large social platforms, the web3 is therefore based on an economy in which we can all participate, which in some cases encourages sharing, in others competition and in others speculation. Many such platforms, based on blockchain, already exist.
However, these projects are separate from each other and are not (yet) part of an overall ecosystem, in which it is possible to move from one to the other with the same ease with which, using a browser, we move on the web. If and when this decentralized and interoperable (i.e. communicating) ecosystem is realized, then it will be possible to become part of a new fully digital economy open to all.
The most evident limitation of the web3, paradoxically, is precisely to provide for an active and economic participation, where it is likely that most users are perfectly at ease with today’s centralized platforms, which do not require either to invest money or to take part in governance. In short, the web3 does not seem destined to replace today’s one, but to integrate it.
How web3 and metaverse are alike
But if this is the case, why is there confusion between two realities that seem to be completely different? Some elements actually overlap.
NFTs, for example, are one of the most successful blockchain applications. These electronic certificates attesting the ownership of a digital asset are a clear example of a decentralized web3: I can take them with me on any enabled platform, I can sell them in exchange for cryptocurrencies and they have given rise to a speculative internet economy that anyone can participate.
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However, NFTs are also a crucial element of the metaverse. Already today some immersive platforms such as Blankos Block Party allow you to customize your avatars by purchasing digital accessories designed by fashion brands (such as Burberry) and certified through Nft. In other environments it is instead possible to open a virtual art gallery in which to “exhibit” one’s digital works based on NFT.
The concepts of web3 and metaverse they can also completely overlap. Decentraland is a blockchain-based environment in which about 500 thousand users actively participate. This digital world (but not in virtual reality) is freely explorable to socialize, participate in events or other. Above all, however, it is possible to buy land on which to build buildings according to one’s tastes and needs (there are also specialized architects). Decentraland is therefore an immersive social environment (“metaverse”) supported by an economy and distributed governance, based on blockchain and cryptocurrencies (“web3”).
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There is one last aspect to underline. Although this is still a future prospect, it is possible that one day the various metaverses will be linked togetherallowing my avatar to wrap up a business meeting on Horizon Works, pop into Fornite’s clothing store to buy a Balenciaga garment, and then go to a virtual concert on Decentraland.
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If indeed – in the more or less distant and desirable future – the digital world of the future will take this form, then it is likely that the interoperability and decentralization of digital worlds will be based on blockchain and cryptocurrencies. In short, the web3 could become the infrastructure behind the metaverse. But here we are really on the verge of science fiction.
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