The future of Metaverse is dominated by two competing visions, namely, openness and closeness. The term "Metaverse" (singular) is often used as if it meant a single entity. In reality, there is no, at least not yet. As for whether there is a single meta universe, it is the difference between an open meta universe and a closed meta universe. Since the concept of meta universe emerged, many groups, including technical experts, Mark Zuckerberg, password communities, game developers, etc., have adopted the term "meta universe".

The Closed and Open Metauniverse

Zuckerberg's Meta, Horizon Worlds and Epic Game's Fortress Night are two examples of "meta universe", which fundamentally limit the use of digital assets in their own ecosystems. These "meta universes" are like virtual silos that are controlled by a single organization and prevent the use of digital assets outside its boundaries. On the other hand, the "open meta universe" will be interconnected. Just like multiple websites and services can exist independently on an interconnected network.

The dream MMORPG "Runescape", which dominated in the mid 2000s, was also launched in the same month. Mazewar is the predecessor of today's games. It appeared on ARPANET as early as 1974. ARPANET is the predecessor of today's Internet. Any meta universe that has failed to add new content to this model, which has been decades old, is just using marketing language to appear very avant-garde. In addition to decentralization, a key part of any future meta universe will be user generated content. Just like the Internet today.

Virtual cross chain future

According to some people, the closed meta universe is the current norm, which is only the result of our technical limitations. In order to realize this vision, there are many repair methods that can enable blockchain based virtualization to interact with other platforms. The recently developed solution enables blockchain people to communicate with each other and can be used to create a larger and more interconnected online.

In addition, just because a virtual is "closed" does not mean that it is not a meta universe. Projects like Overview implement the infrastructure of Web3 interoperability and are more willing to regard them as different concepts of the same thing. The meta universe should be a collection of all sub meta worlds, in which each sub meta universe is like a city or a country in reality. According to our definition, all sub elements and their full interoperability are considered to be the ultimate form of the meta universe.

The open meta universe is on the way

One organization trying to pave the way is the Metacosmic Standards Forum. Its goal is to create a common interoperability standard by gathering as many stakeholders as possible. The organization was established in June 2022 and already includes Google, Huawei, Adobe, Intel, Verizon and accounting giant PricewaterhouseCoopers. Even Meta, the pioneer of the closed meta universe, participated.

The group will focus on a number of areas, including developing consistent terminology and guidelines across the technical domain. The forum hopes to provide hacker marathon, prototype, plug-in and open source tools in a timely manner. Its establishment itself is an encouraging sign. The future meta universe is expected to be as open as the Internet before. Fingers crossed, the final result will be a unified meta universe.

conclusion

There is still no exact definition of what the meta universe is, but it has developed and shrunk over time. Most users of this word accept that it will be some form of virtuality - or multiple virtualities. In the Web3 community, many people believe that it will involve digital assets such as NFT and cryptocurrency, and will use smart contracts to create an untrusted, decentralized online space that is not controlled by any company. However, it is clear that not everyone agrees with this.