Beginner's Guide to Blockchain XV: What is the metaverse?

5 min readApr 27, 2022

Hello and welcome to another article of our series Beginner’s Guide to Blockchain, today we are going to talk about the recently popular term, “the Metaverse”.

Before we start, you should know I write other articles about crypto-related stuff, which you could find interesting, if you want to read them here they are:

Now that we are ready, let's get right into it.

So you have probably heard the word“Metaverse”, from a friend or on social media, it is becoming very popular among people but also and more importantly, for companies.

You know that it exists but… do you truly know what it is?

if not, here it is…

What is the metaverse?

In short terms: the metaverse is a 3D online virtual world that connects people in all aspects of life.

It can connect a lot of platforms, similar to how the internet connects many websites that may be visited with a single browser.

The metaverse is basically any online 3D universe that mixes a lot of different virtual spaces. The metaverse will let people work, meet, game, and socialize together in this virtual world.

Where does the term come from?

Neal Stephenson coined the term in his 1992 novel “Snow Crash” to describe a popular digital world in his imagined future, a 21st-century dystopia where virtual real estate can be purchased and sold, and where VR goggle-wearing users inhabit 3D avatars of their own design.

So…. is it a new idea?

Not really, the term has been around for 30 years, and not just in a fictional way. Companies have had it on sight for quite some time, although it just gained popularity when Facebook changed its name to “meta” and announced that they will be launching theirs, that doesn't mean they invented it.

How can I get into it?

When you think about joining the metaverse you probably think about some ultra fancy virtual reality headset, walking in a super high-tech walking device like in the Ready Player One movie, but not really lol.

Although people do use virtual reality to experience the metaverse, it is just a small percentage, almost all of it is presented on 2D screens like phones, tablets, monitors, etc…

If you really want to get into it, here is my top 3 list of games you should try out to experience the metaverse for yourself:

my top 3 metaverse games

1. The sandbox

Picture: The Sandbox / Article by Chris Pace

The sandbox is a virtual environment in which gamers link their own Ethereum crypto wallet so they can create, control, and monetize everything that is going on within the game.

It has very unique features such as a thing called VoxEdit, which is a 3D voxel (square 3D pixels, like building blocks) modeling creation package where you can create your own models and then sell them into The Sandbox's own marketplace as an NFT.

Out of the 3, this one is the most crypto-related one.

2. Roblox

Now with something for all ages, Roblox comes in.

Roblox, which initially released its game on PC in 2006 hosts around 50 million user-created games although it has a lot of Metaverse functions, is most popular with teens because of the attractive and colorful aesthetic of the mini-games it offers.

Some examples of the games include “Adopt Me,” which mimics caring for pet animals, and “bloxburg,” a role-playing game in which players may work, buy cars and build and decorate their houses.

Items in this game (normally avatar accessories) can be sold by developers, and users can buy and resell them. Premium users who are older than 13 and have earned at least 100,000 Robux (the game’s currency) in their account can convert the game’s digital currency into real money.

And it doesn't stop with just online daily routine, Roblox has had concerts before, for example, the popular artist Lil Nas X, was the first-ever live virtual concert on Roblox, with over 36 million people watching it. This just indicates how big Roblox is and how much reach it has on people.

3. VrChat

Coming in next is VrChat, the people that play this metaverse game are not as young as the Roblox player base, around 58% of the players are over 21 years old.

It is a metaverse-like social game where you can choose your own avatar and in which 99% of the time you will be talking to new people you meet. Although this time it is a little different. Most users on this platform do use Virtual reality headsets, this way they can experience everything more deeply than through a plain 2D screen.

Some of them even go as far as getting haptic suits, a type of suit in which you can feel sensations around your body, from touch to an arrow being shot through you.

If you really want to meet new people and immerse yourself deeply into the metaverse, try this one out.

Closing thoughts

So yeah, that was a brief explanation of what the metaverse is, and I truly think it has tons of potential in the future, and I really hope companies lead it on a good path so everyone can enjoy this incredible thing called the metaverse.

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If you would like to hear more crypto-related stuff, make sure to follow @bychrispace on Twitter and on pretty much all other social media.

Chris Pace.

thechrispace.com