Everyone is talking about the metaverse these days.

The original Metaverse platforms sell virtual land for millions of dollars. Another billion dollars will be invested in Metaverse startups. And Mark Zuckerberg recently rebranded his entire company to reflect his focus on building Metaverse.

The term “metaverse” is not new. It was first used by author Neal Stephenson in his 1992 novel “Snow Crash”. But as technology improves and we spend more of our lives online, more and more people are thinking about what’s next – and how the future could revolutionize both the digital and physical worlds.

Our team recently put together an internal presentation on Metaverse, who is working on it and how crypto will help make it happen. I thought the presentation was well done, so I’ll share most of the slides here.

Define metaverse

At Coinbase, our thoughts on Metaverse were heavily influenced by venture capitalist and author Matthew Ball (you can find his work here). Like Matt, we define Metaverse as:

Future of the Internet: A large-scale, continuous, interactive and interoperable real-time platform consisting of interconnected virtual worlds in which people can communicate, work, act, play and create.

The first version of the Internet, Web1, was about accessing static web pages. Web2 is about interactive, social experiences in closed ecosystems. And Web3 is about digital ownership in an open, decentralized environment.

Metaverse is the distant evolution of Web3. In its most complete form, it would be a series of decentralized virtual worlds connected to a fully functioning economy where people in the physical world can do whatever they can. .

The important thing is that Metaverse is not like games (an activity you can do in Metaverse) or virtual reality (a way of communicating with Metaverse). It also doesn’t look like Web3 (a distant ancestor of the Metaverse).

To illustrate this, here’s how some of the current platforms compare to our definition of the metaverse:

Elements of the metaverse

Although the full metaverse is many years away, it will be based on a foundation that is being built.

Like today’s Internet, Metaverse will rely on hardware and infrastructure, tools and standards, and regulatory frameworks – most of which are not yet fully developed.

But unlike today’s internet, there won’t be just one metaverse. There will be many metaverse and they will be interconnected. For this reason, it is important that each metaverse is trustworthy – that is, that people can interact directly with no middlemen – and without permission – that is, anyone can participate without the permission of the governing body.

To achieve this, Metaverse will rely on blockchain to transfer identity and property across virtual worlds, certificates to verify their identity, and payment tracks that allow anyone to buy, sell, and generate income on one platform.

Who is building the Metaverse today?

While we haven’t been able to come close to developing the full metaverse, different companies and organizations are experimenting with different elements of it. Most fall into three categories:

The Metaverse ecosystem is still very much in its infancy: emerging and undefined. That is also the nice thing about it. There’s a lot of focus on gaming, largely because it’s easy to monetize. But we’re starting to see a glimpse of what the future might look like.

Identity

Identity defines who you are, what you can access and do, and how you are represented in the world of Metaverse.

In Metaverse, our identities would have to include simple login, unique IDs, avatars for us, metadata that follows us, and authentication so that we can prove who we are. Here is where each of these pieces is today:

Where is Coinbase?

At Coinbase, we wanted to help bring all of the pieces of identity together – essentially creating an identity on the ramp into the metaverse.

That’s the idea behind our work with ENS, which helps create a unique NFT username that dissolves the wallet. Ultimately, this will allow users to carry a unique ID across different worlds in the metaverse.

We’re also working on technology that will allow you to buy your avatar, identify and maintain your public profile, and build trust. And we’re working on features like logging in with [Eth / Coinbase], which allows users to log in to any application in Metaverse.

Conclude

Ultimately, this is not about growing our business or making money. It’s about building an important part of the Metaverse ecosystem and helping cryptocurrency grow properly.

We know the metaverse will exist, and we know it will be a series of interconnected virtual worlds. Our goal is to make it easy for everyone to establish their identity and to gain access to these worlds in a simple, trustworthy and decentralized way.

If we are successful, Metaverse will enable it to reach its full potential – and keep it free and open to all.