What Is the ‘Metaverse’ and How Does it Work?

What Is the ‘Metaverse’ and How Does it Work?

Shaun poses for photographs with a laptop showing his avatar in Decentraland in Seoul, South Korea, August 13, 2021. Picture taken on August 13, 2021. (Reuters)

The coronavirus pandemic has sparked huge interest in shared virtual environments, or the “metaverse”. Reuters takes a look at how it works:

What is the metaverse?

Metaverse, a term first coined in science fiction, is a combination of the prefix “meta”, meaning beyond, and “universe”.

It refers to shared virtual worlds where land, buildings, avatars and even names can be bought and sold, often using cryptocurrency. In these environments, people can wander around with friends, visit buildings, buy goods and services, and attend events.

The concept has surged in popularity during the pandemic as lockdown measures and work-from-home policies pushed more people online for both business and pleasure.

The term covers a wide variety of virtual realities, from workplace tools to games and community platforms.

Many of the new platforms are powered by blockchain technology, using cryptocurrency and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), allowing a new kind of decentralized digital asset to be built, owned and monetized.

What is blockchain?

A blockchain is a database that is shared across a network of computers.

Once a record has been added to the chain it is very difficult