Is Meta truly making the right choice pursuing the metaverse?

Introduction

In class, we discussed the web as a network and we saw that a network is not necessarily limited to just the web and social media such as LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, etc. It happens to be that Mark Zuckerberg’s company Meta has been working on the metaverse for quite some time and recently, it has been shown that Meta’s earnings are down significantly, investors are telling them to give up on it, and Meta is actually worth less than Home Depot now. They have lost approximately US$650 billion in market value. With all of these complaints, some questions everyone surely has includes:

• What potential/role does the metaverse have on social networks?
• Will the metaverse even be successful?
• Is listening to the investors and dropping the idea of a metaverse the correct choice?

The main question I wish to have answered from this is “How does the network of the metaverse actually look like?” as it seems to be something that is not agreed upon by the community.

Research

A research paper conducted by Liverpool John Moores University looked into the multidisciplinary perspectives on emerging challenges and opportunities of the metaverse. The paper looked into the use of the blockchain, the legal aspects of the metaverse, the numerous opportunities and challenges associated with it, and how COVID-19 actually acted as a way to accelerate the process significantly. The result of this paper is interesting as the metaverse is actually something that many people believe is meant to fail as it is something that they cannot process. Users are not well-educated on topics such as blockchain, hence the competitive market for blockchain at the moment, and the use of virtual realities as not only a social network, but a parallel world to ours at the same time.

Analysis

The metaverse aims to use NFTs to a large extent. A common misconception of NFTs is that it is just an image and it is something that you can just right-click and save. The truth is that NFTs are really anything digital. It is stored as a unique key on the blockchain that is very difficult to hack, but it is not impossible. The metaverse intends to take advantage of NFTs so that it acts as not only a currency but also as a unique identifier on the networks. This itself already introduces various different types of social networks such as recreational/communal networks and also work-related networks. This would allow interactive work meetings for those around the world. For example, if a person is in Australia, they could be physically present in the virtual world at a meeting in the metaverse. This would also be secure as each avatar would be considered an NFT which is stored on the blockchain. This leads to the opportunities of the metaverse which is supposed to mimic the real world as a parallel world. Taking this to the next level, a world named “Earth 2” is being made and it is supposed to be the metaverse equivalent of the earth itself. The potential of team meetings and social gatherings was already discussed, but there is also a potential for markets where users can buy and sell goods and services with a common currency. Examples of markets include the video game market or even a virtual land/housing market where users can buy and sell property. This not only creates a network for recreational/societal purposes, but it also creates a network for commercial purposes as well. A lot of users are also introverted given in-person interactions, so having a way to hide their appearance and use a virtual avatar is a way for them to be able to be more confident and create more connections. Decentralized search can also be used for more efficient searches. Typically with in-person interactions, a lot of manual labour is required, but when virtualized, overall efficiency in the metaverse is also better as everything is a lot more optimized and can be done faster. For example, something in the real world may not be searchable, hence resulting in O(nα) time, but the easily searchable metaverse contents would be done in O((log n)β) time. As for challenges, the current hardware for the metaverse tends to be very large and uncomfortable as it is strapped to the head. The tracking is also not enough for handling objects within the metaverse, so it is difficult/unintuitive to hold objects in the metaverse in comparison to real-life. There’s also a concern about the living conditions in the real world where users may be sucked into the metaverse and might forget about basic human requirements such as paying rent, having a meal, taking showers, etc. 

Conclusion

The article states that there are still many challenges to tackle related to “governance, ethics, safety, and security, etc”. Once again, this is another place for opportunities for network expansion in the metaverse. There will be new jobs for maintaining and developing metaverse equipment. It will need to get to a point where the equipment used is easy-to-use for the majority of the target audience and is comfortable at the same time. The software and controls would also need to get to the point where it is like real life, especially for picking up objects such as a virtual pen, mug, etc. The metaverse will lead to an expansion in the job network. There will be more jobs created, thus more new job nodes on the network graph and more diverse connections branching from the real world to the virtual world. It appears that the metaverse actually does have a large potential on networks whether it be social or informational. The metaverse still has a long way to go and at the moment, it is a mere prototype. There is a huge potential for the metaverse and people claim that there is a potential $758.6 billion market value by 2026 associated with it. It is still too early to claim that the metaverse is a terrible idea. It takes account of technologies and concepts that many are not aware of and this is probably the reason why people are so skeptical about it. Meta is attempting to research this and although their earnings are down, the metaverse is something Meta is passionate about and it is possible that they may be onto something very promising. It appears to be that, as of now, the network of the metaverse mimics the network of the real world, but it may be that the metaverse is much easier to traverse/finds solutions with or even create connections with leading to it becoming a more efficient realm that provides a greater experience for many in comparison to the real world.

Sources 

Dwivedi, Y. K., Hughes, L., Baabdullah, A. M., Ribeiro-Navarrete, S., Giannakis,
M., Al-Debei, M. M., Dennehy, D., Metri, B., Buhalis, D., Cheung, C. M. K., Conboy, K., Doyle, R., Dubey, R., Dutot, V., Felix, R., Goyal, D. P., Gustafsson, A., Hinsch, C., Jebabli, I., … Wamba, S. F. (2022, July 16). Welcome to LJMU research online. Metaverse beyond the hype: Multidisciplinary perspectives on emerging challenges, opportunities, and agenda for research, practice, and policy | LJMU Research Online. Retrieved November 9, 2022, from https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/17243/