The importance of an open metaverse

The importance of an open metaverse

Digitisation has progressed and grown from Web1, the first worldwide web built on open source technologies and open standards such as HTML/HTTP. These protocols served as the foundation for technological giants such as Amazon, Microsoft, and Apple. Then came the Web2 shift; the technology was primarily focused on user-generated content; the most significant innovation brought about by this progression are social networks such as Facebook/Meta, Twitter, and many more.

Notably, the majority of Web2 technologies were based on the same open and standard Web1 technology. The internet on which the web is built was the result of work from the 1960s to 1990s from research labs and universities largely in the public sector. As not-for-profit, they focused on establishing open standards for ease of information sharing. The only difference is that user-generated content and information on Web2 platforms are contained within siloed ecosystems. Today the internet Web2 giants such as Amazon and Google come from the foundations laid in the internet era.

We are once again at a crossroads in the evolution of the Web into a new decentralised iteration known as Web3. Through features such as value exchange and decentralization, Web3 aspires to shift the paradigm of previous iterations. Users will now be able to get value in exchange for the content value they contribute, and decentralised systems will be built to empower users. In another sense, however, Web3 is an attempt to return to the earliest visions of the open web, built on a common neutral network.

As the inventor of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee said: “The web was designed to be decentralised so that everybody could participate by having their own domain and having their own webserver and this hasn’t worked out. Instead, we’ve got the situation where individual personal data has been locked up in these silos. […] The proposal is, then, to bring back the idea of a decentralised web.”

With Web3, who we are online as individuals is becoming increasingly significant, and it will become even more so in the future. Most significantly, Web3 contributes to the development of a framework and infrastructure for the metaverse, an activity-based immersive ‘always on’ digital environment. Therefore, in this article, we will investigate the concept of the metaverse and the importance of interoperability to enable a sustainable digital world.

What is the metaverse?

When you think of an HTML interface, you are looking at a product of the Web1. At the dawn of the internet, the HTML interface was a basic and straightforward way for individuals to engage with the digital world. With the introduction of video calls and other features, the second version of the worldwide web, Web2, resulted in a more sophisticated and social media-oriented way to use the internet.

In comparison the Web3 is a complete paradigm shift, bringing an improved interface that will expand to spatial computing, AR wearables, virtual reality, and other connected devices, enabling unprecedented levels of creativity and engagement. Our ability to connect more in the digital world of the metaverse will result in the formation of entirely new marketplaces and the emergence of new protocols and ecosystems. As metaverse guru Matthew Ball explained: “The Metaverse will not develop as the internet did. Public institutions, military research labs, and independent academics led the latter’s development because they were effectively the only ones with the computational talent, resources, and ambitions to build a World Wide Web, and few in the industry understood its commercial potential. None of this is true when it comes to the Metaverse.”

The importance of ‘interoperability’ in the metaverse

One of the most popular and most powerful Web2 platforms, Facebook, recently announced a rebranding as Meta, a metaverse-focused company. Meta and other Web2 juggernauts such as Amazon, Facebook, and Apple are developing and acquiring the technology and toolsets needed to build their ‘walled garden’ version of the metaverse.  These platforms all want to establish their own rules for what the metaverse should be like, but they refuse to give up their feeling of propriety ownership.

Gaming ecosystems such as Unity used to be the sole understandable concept of the metaverse, but as new standards are developed, there is bound to be more uncertainty about a metaverse built on open standards and easy interoperability. “For the Metaverse to thrive, we need developers to thrive. And this means making it as easy to take a virtual immersive educational environment or AR playground from one platform to another as it is to move a blog or newsletter,” argues Ball.

The rise of centralised Web2 platforms in the Web3 world may stifle the development of decentralised systems in the metaverse. The epitome of Web20 is siloed ecosystems, harvesting your data to turn a profit through hyper-targeted advertising; if each platform sets its metaverse standards, the risk is that Web3 will simply become a more hi-tech version of the current siloed ecosystems. As Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney warned in 2016 when talk of the decentralised web was starting to become popular, the metaverse is going to be “far more pervasive and powerful than anything else. If one central company gains control of this, they will become more powerful than any government and be a god on Earth”.

The Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA), created in 2003, is one alliance that has had a significant impact on the World Wide Web. It was a group of global companies who came together to make it simple to connect and enjoy photos, music, and video across networked consumer products, PCs, and mobile devices. This, according to the Alliance, meant that industry collaboration and standards-based interoperability resulted in attractive products. This collaboration resulted in the simple, innovative digital products that we now have on the market, including TVs, DVD and Blu-ray players, games consoles, and digital media players.

BigONE believes that a similar partnership for Metaverse companies would aid in the establishment of a common standard protocol for metaverse interoperability. The key challenge for such open standards to be fit-for-purpose for the metaverse is this: they need to offer a compelling financial incentive to developers above and beyond a ‘wall garden’ platform from a Meta or a Disney.

There are grounds for optimism. Take the example of venture capital platform Outlier Ventures which is working on an operating system called Open Metaverse OS, a decentralised set of tools and technologies designed to operate only through open standards and APIs. In addition, they’ve developed a framework for assessing metaverses and toolkits for creating “user-centric” metaverse solutions based on Web3 principles.

While Boson Protocol aims to provide a decentralised platform for commerce, “a peer-to-peer system which replicates the benefits of a market intermediary, without the disadvantages of centralised systems”. There is already an open standard that allows for inter-operability from the get-go, with a payments system that is metaverse-friendly: the blockchain and the cryptocurrencies that sit on top of it.

What lies ahead?

The world is starting to get a taste of what the metaverse can offer to our lives and businesses. People can now work in a foreign company from the comfort of their own home, blurring the divide between the physical and digital worlds. We have to understand that metaverse is another unit, another, another universe that we can play in and do a lot of things and activities together in a virtual space. If I wanted to order some fried chicken or pizza, I could do it in the metaverse and have it delivered to us.

BigONE and I believe that there will be several metaverses or different types of personalised digital worlds where people can connect. Still, the most important thing is that there will be a standard and that these platforms will be interoperable in such a way that developers can profitably build new services. The metaverse may be still in its early stages, and there is much to learn, but one thing is sure: interoperability is required for an open metaverse to succeed.

 

Original Source: https://e27.co/the-importance-of-an-open-metaverse-20220106/

Anndy Lian is an early blockchain adopter and experienced serial entrepreneur who is known for his work in the government sector. He is a best selling book author- “NFT: From Zero to Hero” and “Blockchain Revolution 2030”.

Currently, he is appointed as the Chief Digital Advisor at Mongolia Productivity Organization, championing national digitization. Prior to his current appointments, he was the Chairman of BigONE Exchange, a global top 30 ranked crypto spot exchange and was also the Advisory Board Member for Hyundai DAC, the blockchain arm of South Korea’s largest car manufacturer Hyundai Motor Group. Lian played a pivotal role as the Blockchain Advisor for Asian Productivity Organisation (APO), an intergovernmental organization committed to improving productivity in the Asia-Pacific region.

An avid supporter of incubating start-ups, Anndy has also been a private investor for the past eight years. With a growth investment mindset, Anndy strategically demonstrates this in the companies he chooses to be involved with. He believes that what he is doing through blockchain technology currently will revolutionise and redefine traditional businesses. He also believes that the blockchain industry has to be “redecentralised”.

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Anndy Lian, Metaverse, and Cryptocurrency: The Nitty Gritty – An Interview with Stashaway

Anndy Lian, Metaverse, and Cryptocurrency: The Nitty Gritty – An Interview with Stashaway

Metaverse has been talk of the town ever since Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg rebranded Facebook into Meta and shared with the world his aspirations and goals in this “metaverse”. But what exactly is metaverse? What does the future hold for us?

Anndy Lian, Chairman of BigONE Exchange gets into the nitty gritty of metaverse with Stashaway,  an intelligent wealth management platform run by roboadvisors.

Metaverse, much like NFTs, is not something new in 2021. It has been talked about seriously since 2018 in a book that Anndy wrote – Blockchain Revolution 2030. Dating further back, ‘metaverse’ was known as a ‘virtual world’ and its origins are mostly credited to Author Neal Stephenson’s 1992 dystopic, sci-fi novel Snow Crash, and many see a more recent inspiration in Earnest Cline’s 2011 novel Ready Player One.

“Metaverse,”, says Anndy, “is more like a bridge between the virtual world and the real world.”. It is speculated that everything that can be done in the real world can be mimicked and reproduced in the metaverse – and maybe even more. It is not as minuscule as having meetings, or creating a cute profile or meme in the metaverse. Imagine what you can do in real life – work, earn your keep, enjoy entertainment – these are what the metaverse promises.

There is a hype around metaverse right now and with the help of Facebook and a few other big companies, people are looking at tech stocks and good crypto companies to invest in. It’s only been a couple of months since the topic of metaverse surfaced and many may argue that it is too early to start investing or paying attention to the market. One concern is that users who are into the metaverse are buying land – digital land – and keeping them. It is of no surprise that they will must have been quite hefty. “It may look like an investment now but you are really just gambling because there is no clear indication right now which metaverse is going to be the next big thing. There are a lot of things to uncover and discover,”, Anndy explains.

The media features news that are trending and people often just listen to them without doing their own research. It is imperative that these people understand that we are only in the beginning phase of metaverse. Taking Google and Yahoo as an example, in the past, everyone thought that Yahoo would be the biggest leader in search engine, but despite both of them being billion-dollar companies, Google clearly has the biggest advantage right now. “Whoever is the leader now may not be the leader at the end,”, emphasises Anndy. There a lot of building blocks that we have not seen and as we progress on, we will get a clearer investment perspective and that would be a better time to invest.

Decentraland (MANA) and The Sandbox (SAND) are the two biggest players in the metaverse right now and the competition has extended to its users – much like Apple versus Samsung. In terms of metaverse, Anndy believes that it is good for everyone to work together and unite such that there would be one metaverse for the whole world. “Ideally, I hope everyone can be united and do what’s needed to build the metaverse up,”, says Anndy.

It is a common misconception that the metaverse is all about cryptocurrency. It is without a doubt that cryptocurrency is one of the aspects of metaverse that connects everyone, however, looking at it from a deeper level, there is also a tech aspect. One of which is Web3.0 that will be coming to improve engagement and enhance safety. Apart from cryptocurrency, NFTs are definitely a part of the concept as well. We may have seen virtual galleries showcasing NFT artworks around the world – and this is only the beginning.

Another common misconception of the metaverse is that it is closely interlinked with virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR). Due to the portrayal of Ready Player One, many believe that we have to wear headsets or sit in a special chair to experience the metaverse in 5D. Thinking back to a conversation with a friend, Anndy brought up that we are all restricted by our physical bodies where we grow old and sick. “If it continues to be like that, how about connecting our mind into the metaverse?”, questions Anndy. This may not be too far-fetched an idea either. Greg Daniel’s 2020 sci-fi television series Upload portrayed Anndy’s thoughts perfectly. The premise of the series is that humans are able to “upload” themselves into a virtual afterlife of their choosing. Now isn’t it wonderful to be able to live even after death?

In a metaverse, there are a few foundational aspects needed to flourish. First and foremost is the ability to let people earn money. Many games such as Axie Infinity have been released where players can play to earn and this attracted the attention of billions of people. Secondly, is the formation of a strong community. With a community, bigger and more valuable things can be built upon as long as they play their part. The third and final point is that whatever is earned from within the metaverse can be brought out and utilised in the real world. “Great importance should be put on these 3 points. I’ve yet to see the 2nd point happen so I’m really looking forward to it,”, says Anndy.

We certainly hope that adoption of cryptocurrencies will be boosted in 2022 as it is a very good opportunity for things to mature. Due to COVID-19, things will definitely have to open up across borders and across different worlds. “As adoption increases, there’ll be new money and new people. The metaverse will be very very different,”, says Anndy. The metaverse that we all imagine should not be something that is too far away. In Anndy’s words, “Let’s shoutout to Elon Musk; maybe he could help to boost the development of the metaverse.”. Cheers to that!

 

Podcast:

https://www.stashaway.sg/podcast/entering-the-metaverse

 

YouTube Video:

Anndy Lian is an early blockchain adopter and experienced serial entrepreneur who is known for his work in the government sector. He is a best selling book author- “NFT: From Zero to Hero” and “Blockchain Revolution 2030”.

Currently, he is appointed as the Chief Digital Advisor at Mongolia Productivity Organization, championing national digitization. Prior to his current appointments, he was the Chairman of BigONE Exchange, a global top 30 ranked crypto spot exchange and was also the Advisory Board Member for Hyundai DAC, the blockchain arm of South Korea’s largest car manufacturer Hyundai Motor Group. Lian played a pivotal role as the Blockchain Advisor for Asian Productivity Organisation (APO), an intergovernmental organization committed to improving productivity in the Asia-Pacific region.

An avid supporter of incubating start-ups, Anndy has also been a private investor for the past eight years. With a growth investment mindset, Anndy strategically demonstrates this in the companies he chooses to be involved with. He believes that what he is doing through blockchain technology currently will revolutionise and redefine traditional businesses. He also believes that the blockchain industry has to be “redecentralised”.

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Metaverse: The Next New Internet Era, Meta Talkz with Anndy Lian

Metaverse: The Next New Internet Era, Meta Talkz with Anndy Lian

Anndy Lian is an early blockchain adopter and experienced serial blockchain entrepreneur who is known for his work in the government sector. Currently, he is appointed as the Chief Digital Advisor at Mongolia Productivity Organization, championing national digitization. He is also the Chairman, Asia for BigONE Exchange. He was formerly an Advisory Board member for a Hyundai subsidiary and Advisor to Asia Productivity Organization.

 

What was your journey like to get where you are?

The journey is great. I have never regretted it a bit. I have experienced the good and bad times for cryptocurrency and blockchain. From times where big companies and governments laugh at my vision to right now demanding advice on how they can buy plots of land on metaverses.

Things have changed so much.

 

In a simpler phrase, what is your company exactly doing?

I am the Chairman of BigONE Exchange. BigONE is a global cryptocurrency exchange that provides a platform for trading various cryptocurrencies. It was founded in 2017 and registered in the Netherlands. The group operates in Russia, Brazil, Vietnam, Seychelles, Singapore, Japan, and Indonesia, providing marketing, investment, and blockchain technology research & development. We are constantly ranked top 30-50 on Coinmarketcap.

 

What about Metaverse are you most excited for in the future?

The ability to overlap and live in both digital and physical lives simultaneously gets me excited for the future. Imagine you can be earning twice as fast if you live in both worlds. Isn’t this what most of us are dreaming about?

Your experience in the metaverse will be greatly enhanced with the introduction of virtual reality (VR) based wearables. Again, imagine traveling the world in the comfort of your home. The VR equipment will be an alternative to your computer screens and will bring the internet to the next level.

 

Why should we be paying attention to the Metaverse?

Innovations like metaverse bring many new opportunities. It is the beginning of a new era within our time. In metaverse, you are not just browsing the web but you are in the web, in another universe.

If you think mobile devices and the internet change our lives. Then metaverse will succeed both of them. If operated in the right manner, it will change the way we interact in the same way that mobile devices have changed society today.

“Embrace the technology. Get ready for the future.”

Meta Universe may be the next new Internet era that will succeed the mobile Internet.

 

About Disrupt ™ 

Disrupt ™ is the voice of Latino entrepreneurs around the world. We are part of a global movement to increase diversity in the technology industry and we are focused on using entrepreneurship to grow new economies in underserved communities around the world. We enable millennials to become what they want to become in life by learning new skills and leveraging the power of the digital economy. We are living proof that all you need to succeed in this new economy is a landing page and a dream. Disrupt tells the stories of the world top entrepreneurs, developers, creators, and digital marketers and help empower them to teach others the skills they used to grow their careers, chase their passions and create financial freedom for themselves, their families, and their lives, all while living out their true purpose. We recognize the fact that most young people are opting to skip college in exchange for entrepreneurship and real-life experience. This Podcast was designed to give them a taste of that.

 

 

Original Source: https://disruptmagazine.com/metaverse-the-next-new-internet-era-meta-talkz-with-anndy-lian/

Anndy Lian is an early blockchain adopter and experienced serial entrepreneur who is known for his work in the government sector. He is a best selling book author- “NFT: From Zero to Hero” and “Blockchain Revolution 2030”.

Currently, he is appointed as the Chief Digital Advisor at Mongolia Productivity Organization, championing national digitization. Prior to his current appointments, he was the Chairman of BigONE Exchange, a global top 30 ranked crypto spot exchange and was also the Advisory Board Member for Hyundai DAC, the blockchain arm of South Korea’s largest car manufacturer Hyundai Motor Group. Lian played a pivotal role as the Blockchain Advisor for Asian Productivity Organisation (APO), an intergovernmental organization committed to improving productivity in the Asia-Pacific region.

An avid supporter of incubating start-ups, Anndy has also been a private investor for the past eight years. With a growth investment mindset, Anndy strategically demonstrates this in the companies he chooses to be involved with. He believes that what he is doing through blockchain technology currently will revolutionise and redefine traditional businesses. He also believes that the blockchain industry has to be “redecentralised”.

j j j