Facebook is investing $ 50 million in its own metaverse

Facebook has confirmed what has been speculated about for a long time. Company announced an investment of $ 50 million in the development of his own virtual world, commonly known as the metaverse. We will take a closer look at this in the article and explain everything important.

What is a metaverse

The term “metaverse” first appeared in the sci-fi novel Snow Crash of 1992. The term was a place where people flee to escape a dangerous corporate world. Since then, the metaverse has been referred to as a series of virtual experiences that have gained popularity, especially during the current pandemic. In general, however, we can understand metaverse as a virtual world with an incredible number of possibilities.

Many people imagine the future of the metaverse, as depicted in the movie and book “Ready Player One.”

In 2044, the world is a very inhospitable place. Oil has run out, the climate is devastated, famine, poverty and disease have spread. High school student Wade Watts, like most of humanity, escapes from the bleak reality into a virtual utopia called OASIS, where he can be as long as he wants. There are thousands of planets where you can live, play, but also fall in love. And like the others, Wade is obsessed with finding the golden egg, a special bonus hidden in this alternate reality. The creator of OASIS, James Halliday, died without descendants, and he decided to donate his fabulous wealth together with OASIS to a man who will solve puzzles and complete the tasks scattered in his creation.

In recent weeks, however, the term has gained more attention and concern about its potential ethical and social implications after Mark Zuckerberg said Facebook would be a metaverse company in five years. He described this success and progress as the successor to the mobile Internet.

Great Facebook plans

Facebook has announced that it will allocate $ 50 million to a two-year fund to begin work on a virtual metaverse vision. The September 27 announcement sets out Facebook’s plan to build its own metaverse, with funding to support global research and program partners who will build a platform in addition to in-house research.

“Metaverse will not be built overnight by one company. We will work with experts and industry partners to do that. “ indicates their notification.

Metaverse allows people to interact with each other through their avatar in a virtual environment. Funds will be disbursed through XR programs and Facebook’s research fund. Already in June this year, the first speculations about Facebook’s plan to build a virtual metaverse began to spread.

In its latest announcement, Facebook claims that its metaverse is not intended to make people have to spend more time online – it’s to make time online more meaningful. Despite the $ 50 million investment fund, Facebook believes it will take more than a decade for a comprehensive version of the metaverse to be available, which will include a wide range of products and services. To ensure that the metaverse is satisfactory in every respect, Facebook has also partnered with several universities and non-profit organizations representing minority groups, including Women In Immersive Tech, Africa No Filter, The University of Hong Kong and the National University of Singapore.

Metaverse and cryptocurrencies

At a time when Facebook is trying to mobilize capital to launch and develop its own metaverse, cryptocurrency developers have already made progress in creating their own decentralized and interoperable metaverse. Metaverse in the open world of society Decentraland contains a decentralized virtual world owned by the community built on the ETH blockchain. Users can create 3D environments, create avatars, or demonstrate the amount of digital content that can be monetized. The situation is similar Sandbox – An NFT-powered game in which players can buy digital land and create various gaming experiences that they can share with other users.

Development continues by leaps and bounds, and we see this not only in cryptocurrencies, where this sector has made enormous progress in a few years. A functional metaverse that would look like Ready Player One certainly sounds tempting. However, we will have to wait a few more years for the final form.