Abstract
Due to the necessity of living conditions and the desire to seek alternative living environments, people have recently focused on virtual worlds. The purpose of this chapter is to provide information about what kind of activities people can do in Metaverse virtual worlds without being dependent on mediator platforms in a decentralized way. Moreover, information is given about the advantages of blockchain-based Web 3.0 technology in virtual environments. The advantages of integrating virtual reality technology into Metaverse virtual worlds and properties of non-fungible tokens are explained. In addition, the most popular Metaverse projects in the crypto coin markets are mentioned with the effects of these projects on society discussed.
TopIntroduction
Rapid developments in technology and the idea of getting rid of the monotony of life push individuals to seek alternative living spaces. Metaverse virtual worlds have been accepted as one of the alternative living spaces among people. Actually, the Metaverse is not a new concept. Virtual world platforms such as SecondLife, Blue Mars and OpenSim have had a large number of users for about 12 years. With the integration of virtual reality (VR) technology into Metaverse platforms, the world of Metaverse has begun to gain a completely different dimension. Users can feel themselves as if they are in a real world in the virtual environment by wearing high resolution goggles. Users can appear as they wish with their virtual avatars on Metaverse platforms and freely perform the activities they want in the real world. Users can attend commercial and artistic events, hold business meetings, carry out educational activities, explore places that are miles away hard to reach, as well as have fun with their friends in these environments. In the Metaverse universe, users can shopping in these virtual worlds by selling digital clothes. Thus, users can reveal their styles and differences with their avatars.
Concepts such as Web 3.0, non-fungible tokens (NFT), crypto coins and blockchain are closely related to the Metaverse world. With Web 3.0 technology, the centralized system will disappear. Thus, in the Metaverse worlds, users will be able to perform payment transactions by providing data flow securely with smart contracts without intermediary platforms and organizations. It can be thought that the language of Metaverses can be created in technologies based on blockchains considering that the internet language is HTML.
The purpose of this book chapter is to provide information about what kind of activities people can do in Metaverse virtual worlds without being dependent on mediator platforms in a decentralized way. The advantages and some limitations of blockchain-based web 3.0 technology in virtual environments were discussed. In addition, the most popular Metaverse projects in the crypto coin markets were mentioned and the effects of these projects on society were discussed.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Algocracy: An alternative form of government or social order driven by computer algorithms, especially using artificial intelligence and blockchain.
Sence of Presence: Users' feeling of belonging to the virtual environment.
Metaverse: A universe that refers to a shared community of online worlds where physical reality, augmented reality and virtual reality merge.
Virtual Reality: A type of virtual world that creates sense of presence in the simulation environment for users.
Virtual Worlds: Online computer-generated environments where multiple users in remote physical locations can interact simultaneously for different purposes.
Cryptocurrency: A digital or virtual currency that is secured by cryptography, which makes it nearly impossible to counterfeit or double-spend.
Non-Fungible Token (NFT): A unit of data that confirms a digital asset is unique and therefore not interchangeable.
Web 3.0: A new type of internet that accurately perceives the entered data and understands everything transmitted via audio or other media.
Blockchain: A distributed database that is shared among the nodes of a computer network.