Abstract

When Neal Stephenson coined the term “metaverse” in 1992, no one imagined it could be the next great leap in the advancement of the web nearly 30 years later. Today, the metaverse is increasingly receiving the world’s attention as the next phase of the internet revolution, where users can visualise and experience the web with a natural user interface.
The word “metaverse” is a contraction of two words: “meta,” which means beyond, and “verse,” which is shorthand for the universe. The term universe typically describes the concept of a future iteration of the internet as a collection of shared, persistent, and 3D virtual spaces that are interlinked to create a virtual universe.
It is a collective digital space bringing together virtual worlds in a way that generates presence in Web3.0. An open metaverse, on the other hand, describes a decentralised digital space in which numerous blockchain-powered virtual worlds coexist. Coupled with the imminent decentralised evolution of the internet from Web2.0 to Web3.0, the open metaverse will have a profound influence in shaping the future of the “internet”.
The internet revolution that began nearly five decades ago sent the world from brick- and-mortar retail experiences to online shopping. With online storefronts, users can conveniently browse for products and buy them at the comfort of their homes, but without a shopping experience.
Now, thanks to the metaverse, shoppers can now have both convenience and an enjoyable shopping experience. For example, instead of shopping from a traditional Amazon.com, users could visit the virtual Amazon mall in the metaverse.
This evolution of digital experiences enabled by the power of XR and the metaverse will revolutionise every aspect of business, just as the internet has been over the past decades.
Ever since Stephenson coined the term, many concepts similar to metaverse have emerged, as summarised below:
Table 1: Brief history of the Metaverse
Year
Name
Description
1993
A multi-user domain (MUD), object-oriented (OO) system
MOO was a text-based online VR system that simultaneously connected multiple users.
1995
Active Worlds
Active Worlds was a distributed VR system that allowed users to develop custom 3D content and own them.
1998
There.com
There was a 3D online virtual where users appeared as avatars and could socialise and buy assets.
2006
Roblox
Roblox Corporation publishes the Roblox product — an online gaming platform and creation application.
2007
OpenSimulator
OpenSimulator was an open-source virtual world software that users could leverage to construct virtual worlds.
2014
VRChat
VRChat launched as a social VR platform, allowing users to publish avatars and 3D spaces implemented with external tools.
2017
Sansar
Sansar launched as a social VR ecosystem, enabling user-created 3D spaces and social spaces.
2019
Facebook Horizon
Facebook announces Facebook Horizon as a social VR world.
2020
Decentraland & Sandbox
Both Decentraland and Sandbox launched as a Blockchain-enabled metaverse with decentralised NFT marketplaces
2020
Core
Manticore Games unveils Core as an integrated game creation platform.
2021
Facebook Metaverse
Mark Zuckerberg announces that Facebook intends to develop a metaverse.
At reitio, we envisioned a future where bulk of the commerce today will exist on the decentralised metaverse over the next decade. In order to foster an open metaverse transaction, we have an ambitious goal — to bridge virtual worlds built on different blockchains to not just co-exist, but to interact and eventually create an economy where virtual assets could be transferred seamlessly from say, a Solana-based virtual world, to an Enjin-based virtual world
This will potentially unlock limitless value transfer and also enable virtual assets tagged with a real world value, to be migrated to another world, while retaining its value and utility
Further, most virtual assets (NFTs) are designed as e.g. Avatars or land, by professionals, and there is no means for ordinary users to create an usable Avatar or building.
This is where reitio will be the first mover in allowing anyone, regardless of design or coding experiences, to easily create customised virtual assets, or metaverse-focused NFTs, which they could trade, use and interact on their preferred virtual worlds anytime through a low-code creation tool, while at the same time, creating a new creator economy which is unbiased by nature.
Our slogan - Interact Beyond Worlds, closely reflects our vision and our goal to facilitate an Open Metaverse Finance (or MetaFi), and to value add to the buoyant metaverse economy, powered by our partners (metaverse projects, creators, stakeholders and more)