The terms ‘web3’ (Web 3.0) and ‘metaverse’ have been so heavily promoted by the cryptocurrency and gaming industries that it is easy to think it’s a niche terminology with little overall business value. That would be wrong. Each technology offers valuable business opportunities — but their synergy could change the nature of the future internet.
Web3 fundamentally comprises the blockchain technology that underpins cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrencies are still searching for legitimacy beyond an a risky and highly speculative investment opportunity. They haven’t found it. They are loved by speculators and widely used by criminals but largely shunned by a business world that prefers the greater stability of fiat currencies (Bitcoin dropped in value from around $60,000 in November 2021 to less than $18,000 in June 2022).
Nevertheless, cryptocurrency paints itself as the future of global finance (not impossible, but a long and hard road). By promoting the underlying technology as web3, and describing it as the future of the internet, it gains some credibility for its own futuristic claims.
The metaverse is any technology that provides an immersive experience, so that users feel as if they are part of the experience rather than just spectators of a flat or moving web page. The gaming industry has been moving in this direction for years – but the reality of fully immersive virtual reality is still largely in the future.
Nevertheless, the metaverse potential goes way beyond gaming, driven by the human preference to talk ‘in person’. Immersive virtual reality on social platforms will allow people to meet and talk face-to-face, will bring remote workers together more effectively than Zoom, will allow genuine distributed learning from junior school to metaversities, will facilitate effective remote medical consultations – and much more.
The synergy between web3 and the metaverse will come from the greater need for fine-grained and secure access control into, and identity within, the metaverse – something that can be effectively delivered in a secure decentralized manner by web3’s blockchain technology. It is the focus on identity within the metaverse, and the ability for web3 to deliver that identity securely and across multiple metaverses, that leads some commentators to describe web3 as the enabler of the metaverse.
Continue reading: https://www.securityweek.com/securing-metaverse-and-web3
Web3 fundamentally comprises the blockchain technology that underpins cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrencies are still searching for legitimacy beyond an a risky and highly speculative investment opportunity. They haven’t found it. They are loved by speculators and widely used by criminals but largely shunned by a business world that prefers the greater stability of fiat currencies (Bitcoin dropped in value from around $60,000 in November 2021 to less than $18,000 in June 2022).
Nevertheless, cryptocurrency paints itself as the future of global finance (not impossible, but a long and hard road). By promoting the underlying technology as web3, and describing it as the future of the internet, it gains some credibility for its own futuristic claims.
The metaverse is any technology that provides an immersive experience, so that users feel as if they are part of the experience rather than just spectators of a flat or moving web page. The gaming industry has been moving in this direction for years – but the reality of fully immersive virtual reality is still largely in the future.
Nevertheless, the metaverse potential goes way beyond gaming, driven by the human preference to talk ‘in person’. Immersive virtual reality on social platforms will allow people to meet and talk face-to-face, will bring remote workers together more effectively than Zoom, will allow genuine distributed learning from junior school to metaversities, will facilitate effective remote medical consultations – and much more.
The synergy between web3 and the metaverse will come from the greater need for fine-grained and secure access control into, and identity within, the metaverse – something that can be effectively delivered in a secure decentralized manner by web3’s blockchain technology. It is the focus on identity within the metaverse, and the ability for web3 to deliver that identity securely and across multiple metaverses, that leads some commentators to describe web3 as the enabler of the metaverse.
Continue reading: https://www.securityweek.com/securing-metaverse-and-web3
