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Web3 Encyclopedia
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  • 😀Evolution from Web 1.0 to Web 3.0
    • Web 1.0 Web 2.0 Web 3.0
    • Key Features
    • Current Limitations
    • Future of Web 3.0
    • Learn: What Is Web3?
    • Learn: Will Every Brand Have a Web3 Strategy?
    • Learn: Big Ideas in 2023
    • Learn: The Web3 Paradox: Why Scaling Usage Alone Won't Lead to Mass Adoption?
    • Learn: Is Web3 A Marketing Buzz or Tech Revolution?
    • Learn: What is the relationship between blockchain and Web3?
    • Learn:Empowering Women in Web 3.0: The Role and Contributions of Women in Blockchain, DeFi, and dApp
    • Learn: Web 3.0 and the Future of E-Commerce
    • Learn: 12 ways ecosystem projects can attract more developers
    • Learn: How Web3 is Impacting Education?
    • Learn: Web3 And The Future Of Digital Advertising
    • Learn: Web3’s impact on personalization, trust and engagement
    • Learn: Web3-Powered Identity Management -- Unlocking the Benefits of Decentralization
    • Learn: Why Web2 companies fail in Web3 while others made it?
    • Learn: To Identify or Not in a Web3 World?
    • 🤫[Insider Series] McKinsey x Web3
    • TL;DR 👀
  • 💲Blockchain Fundamentals
    • Why is Blockchain So Popular?
    • Introduction to Blockchain
    • Blockchain Misconceptions
    • Blockchain vs Bitcoin, Database, Cloud
    • Consensus Mechanism
    • Public and Private Keys
    • Hash Functions and Cryptography
    • Sharding
    • Types of Blockchains: PoW, PoS and Private
    • Understanding Cryptocurrency
    • Coins vs Tokens
    • Blockchain Trilemma
    • Legality
    • Learn : Google’s Cloud Based Blockchain Node Service
    • Learn: How Blockchain, Digital assets, and Web3 Unlock Financial Inclusion Globally
    • Learn: Will Chinese-Made Crypto Soar Higher?
    • Learn: What Does MiCA Mean for Crypto in Europe?
    • Learn: Unraveling the Intricacies of Blockchain Forensics and Asset Tracking
    • Learn: Promising blockchain use cases in healthcare industry
    • Learn: The Role of Blockchain in Authenticating and Provenance Art
    • Learn: Blockchain-Based Digital Identity: Benefits, Risks, and Implementation Challenges
    • Learn: The Future of Energy Supply Chains
    • Learn: Revolutionizing smart contracts and cryptocurrency
    • Learn: Nigeria goes blockchain
    • Learn: A Game Changer for Online Gaming?
    • Learn: Is blockchain technology ready for high-storage applications?
    • Learn: Will Blockchain Technology Mark a Turning Point in Fraud Prevention?
    • Learn: Why ZK-rollups need data availability?
    • Learn: How will generative AI disrupt blockchain?
    • Learn: A New Blockchain for Generative AI?
    • TL;DR 👀
  • 🏟️Web3 Utilities
    • Decentralized Applications (dApps)
    • Cross-chain Bridges
    • DAO
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Learn: Is Community-building Essential for Web3 Startups?
    • Learn: ‘Decentralization Theater’
    • Learn: Crypto and AI- A yay or nay combination?
    • Learn: Dissecting the DAO
    • Learn: What is motivating Lido DAO to rise?
    • Learn: How to Turn Your Community Into a DAO?
    • Learn: The Key to Decentralized Decision Making
    • Learn: How Web 3.0 can disrupt the supply chain industry?
    • TL;DR 👀
  • 🪙Bitcoin
    • What is Bitcoin
    • Bitcoin's Blockchain Technology
    • UTXO Model and Transaction Fees
    • Bitcoin Mining and Mempool
    • Learn: What is bitcoin mining?
    • What are Hard Forks and Soft Forks
    • What is SegWit and the Lightning Network
    • Bitcoin Ecosystem
    • Can Bitcoin be Destroyed? Game Theory and Network Attacks
    • Learn: Crypto token supplies explained
    • Learn: What is crypto tax-loss harvesting, and how does it work?
    • Learn: Can Crypto Go Green? How to Invest in Eco-Friendly Cryptocurrencies
    • Learn: Why Did FTX Collapse? Here’s What to Know.
    • Learn: How Sam Bankman-Fried swindled $8 billion in customer money?
    • Learn: How much is Bitcoin worth today?
    • Learn: The Costs of Running a Bitcoin Node In Nigeria
    • Learn: Has 2022 Left Any Crypto Positives?
    • Learn: How Crypto Exchanges Can Be Free of Risk?
    • Learn: Greed, Lies and FTX: Is Crypto a Force for Good or Evil?
    • Learn: Is Crypto a Cultural Movement?
    • Learn: What are the consequences of crypto’s ongoing regulatory process?
    • Learn: Beyond the Crash and Embracing NFTs?
    • Learn: Understanding crypto bag holders and their mindset
    • Learn: Inscriptions: Just A Fad, Or A Real Threat To Bitcoin Becoming Decentralized Money?
    • Learn: How Bitcoin Ordinals Can Change the Future Of Mining?
    • Learn: What is a supernet?
    • Learn: Bitcoin Miners Celebrate 10 Years Since First ASIC, What Changed Since Then?
    • Learn: Bill Vs. CBDC – Why This US Congressman Wants To Block The Fed From Issuing A Digital Dollar?
    • Learn: Why Bitcoin Will Blow People’s Minds In 2025?
    • Learn: How the Howey Test Sheds Light on Cryptocurrency's Regulatory Gray Area
    • Learn: Cryptocurrency vs AI: A Complex Debate
    • Learn: Where the U.S. Government Went Wrong in Regulating Crypto?
    • Learn: The Nostr Privacy Paradox
    • Learn: Do algorithmic stablecoins have a future as centralized coins are under scrutiny?
    • Learn: Is Bitcoin Set To Revolutionize The Financial World With Its Superior Purchasing Power?
    • Learn: What is Shibarium, and what does it mean for Shiba Inu?
    • Learn: What is a crypto dusting attack?
    • Learn: Is the Adoption of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) the Future?
    • Learn: How Artificial Intelligence Could Revolutionize Crypto?
    • Learn: What’s next for EU’s crypto industry as European Parliament passes MiCA?
    • Learn: Why the EU Has MiCA and the U.S. Has Securities Law Confusion?
    • Learn: Six New Projects Looking to Mitigate Bitcoin Mining’s Energy Footprint
    • Learn: Who on Crypto Twitter chose not to pay for a blue checkmark?
    • Learn: What is the wash-sale rule in Crypto?
    • Learn: What is Pepecoin and can it flip memecoins Dogecoin and Shiba Inu?
    • Learn: Can you recover stolen Bitcoin from crypto scams?
    • Learn: What the ‘anti-mining bill’ means for the crypto industry in Texas?
    • Learn: Does the US have a crypto ‘tax loophole’ problem?
    • Learn: How users can stay protected?
    • Learn: How Crypto Revolutionize Cheaper and Faster Transactions?
    • Learn: Can NFTs and CFDs be BFFs?
    • Learn: A PR expert’s tips for memecoin projects
    • Learn: Why politicians aren't convinced about the Digital Euro?
    • Learn: How A 90-Year Old TA Theory Predicted The Sudden Bitcoin Boom?
    • Learn: Social Trading Platforms and CFDs: A New Paradigm in Investment
    • Learn: How could the Chinese economic crisis impact Bitcoin and crypto?
    • Learn: How do they compare: Bitcoin IRA vs. traditional IRA?
    • Learn: Why Tokenized Assets Are Safer During a Banking Crisis?
    • TL;DR 👀
  • 🛢️Ethereum
    • Bitcoin vs Ethereum
    • What can Ethereum do?
    • What is Ether (ETH)?
    • What's Unique About ETH?
    • What are Smart Contracts?
    • Energy Consumption?
    • Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)
    • Pros & Cons of Smart Contracts
    • Decentralized Applications (dApps)
    • Ethereum Token Standards (ERC-20, ERC-721 and ERC-1155)
    • Evolution of Ethereum
    • How to Get Your First Ethereum
    • Learn: Next Ethereum Upgrade — Shanghai Upgrade
    • Learn: Tipping Scale for Crypto Adoption: Usability vs. Accessibility
    • Learn: Major Publicly Traded U.S. Bitcoin Miner Files For Chapter 11 – Impact On The Market?
    • Learn: 5 altcoin projects that made a real difference in 2022
    • Learn: How Tether Can Be a More Stable Stablecoin?
    • Learn: Are the Ethereum Killers Still Deadly?
    • Learn: What Ethereum Tech Trends Are Weathering the Bear Market?
    • Learn: How Ethereum’s token burns are making it a deflationary cryptocurrency?
    • Learn: A few things to know about Ethereum's Shanghai Upgrade
    • Learn: The Role of Enterprise Ethereum
    • Learn: Understanding Layer 2 Scaling Solutions for the Ethereum Network
    • Learn: The Battle of Giants: Bitcoin vs Ethereum
    • Learn: Cryptography, Smart Contracts and Distributed Networks
    • Learn: The Memecoin Grift and How It Threatens Ethereum Culture
    • Learn: What Is Ethereum’s ‘Data Availability' Problem, and Why Does It Matter?
    • TL;DR 👀
  • 👛Wallet
    • What is a Blockchain Wallet?
    • Hardware / Software Wallet
    • How to Get Your First Cryptocurrency
    • Setting up Metamask Wallet
    • Learn: How to connect the Avalanche network to MetaMask?
    • Learn: How to pass on your crypto when you die?
    • Learn: What are hierarchical deterministic (HD) crypto wallets?
    • Learn: Pros and Cons of Digital Wallets
    • Learn : How Web 3.0 Wallets Are Redefining Digital Asset Security?
    • Learn: Open source: Buzzword or real security for crypto wallets?
    • TL;DR 👀
  • 🌕New & Rising Protocols
    • Binance
    • NEAR
    • Solana
    • Fantom
    • Polygon
    • Cardano
    • Polkadot
    • Cosmos
    • Harmony
    • Cronos
    • Optimism
    • Terra
    • Who Will Win the L1 Wars?
    • Learn: New Layer 1 Blockchains Are Expanding the DeFi Ecosystem But No Eth Killers Yet
    • Learn: Is an Increased Focus on Layer-2 Scaling and ZK Technology Justified?
    • Learn: What Are the Stakes in the SEC vs. Ripple Case?
    • Learn: What is The Graph, and how does it work?
    • TL;DR 👀
  • 📈Decentralized Finance (DeFi)
    • CEX vs DEX
    • CeFi vs DeFi
    • Algorithmic Stablecoins
    • Airdrop
    • Liquidity Pool
    • Impermanent Loss
    • Swapping
    • Wrapped Token
    • Arbitrage Opportunities
    • Staking
    • Yield Farming
    • Total Value Locked (TVL)
    • Gas Fees
    • Lending & Borrowing
    • Useful Tools
    • Activity: Uniswap & Pancake Swap
    • Learn: Automated Market Makers (AMMs) in DeFi
    • Learn: Crypto Moving towards ESG: What Is Regenerative Finance (ReFi)
    • Learn: What Is dYdX? Understanding the Decentralized Crypto Exchange
    • Learn: It's A Wrap - DeFi in 2022
    • Learn: Why DeFi should expect more hacks this year?
    • Learn: The Security Challenges of DeFi
    • Learn: The Promising Future of Decentralized Social Media on Web 3.0
    • Learn: Can CBDCs, Tokenized Deposits, Stablecoins and DeFi Coexist?
    • Learn: The Increasing Popularity of DeFi and Its Potential to Disrupt Traditional Finance
    • Learn: The future of DeFi is ReFi
    • Learn: DeFi aggregation
    • TL;DR 👀
  • 🙈Non-Fungible Token (NFT)
    • What are NFTs?
    • Case Study
    • Storage
    • Who are the Players?
    • NFT Marketplace
    • NFT Useful Resources
    • Activity: Mint Your Own NFT
    • Learn: How You Can Prevent Hackers From Stealing Your NFTs?
    • Learn: What Is an NFT Floor Price?
    • Learn: Should Bored Ape buyers be legally entitled to refunds?
    • Learn: China’s view of NFTs different from rest of the world’s
    • Learn: NFTs IRL: How Digital Collectibles Are Forging Offline Experiences
    • Learn: How NFT Brands Can Cut Through The Noise
    • Learn: How Web3 disrupts the music sector?
    • Learn: Unlockable content in NFTs
    • Learn: Why Meta Matters in NFTs?
    • Learn: Should NFT Marketplaces Become Centralized?
    • Learn: Hermès vs. MetaBirkins: The NFT Case That Could Have Major Trademark and Artistic Consequence
    • Learn: What are phygital NFTs, and how do they work?
    • Learn: What is NFT ticketing and how does it work?
    • Learn: Why Solana NFT marketplace is seeing less active users?
    • Learn: NFTs and Intellectual Property
    • Learn: How AI Is Changing Artistic Creation and Challenging IP Laws?
    • Learn: The Future of NFTs: Exploring Dynamic NFTs and Their Versatile Use Cases
    • Learn: NFTs in the event and ticketing industry
    • Learn: What is NFT rarity, and how to calculate it?
    • Learn: What happens to your NFTs when you die?
    • Learn: Dogecoin-Like Spike in Milady NFTs After Elon Musk’s Tweet, But Will It Last?
    • Learn: What are NFT royalties, and how do they work?
    • Learn: How developers aim to store crypto inside NFTs?
    • Learn: Generative Art NFTs: What Are They & Why Are They So Popular?
    • TL;DR 👀
  • 💗Metaverse
    • What is the Metaverse?
    • Metaverse Economy
    • Metaverse Companies
    • GameFi
    • Learn: Are We in the Metaverse Yet?
    • Learn: Can the Metaverse exist without blockchain?
    • Learn: Can the Metaverse Facilitate Sustainable Growth of Defi Systems?
    • Learn: What is the role of biometrics in the metaverse?
    • Learn: Can metaverse be the future court?
    • Learn: Metaverse Fashion Is on the Rise, but for Whom?
    • Learn: Sustainability in the Metaverse: Challenges and Opportunities
    • Learn: How To Build A Responsible Metaverse?
    • Learn: What is a VTuber, and how do you become one?
    • Learn: How proof-of-identity provides human experiences?
    • Learn: The “Metaverse” Next Frontier for Business: Impact And Challenges
    • Learn: The 5 Biggest Misconceptions About The Metaverse
    • Learn: Why culture and ownership are critical to the metaverse?
    • TL;DR 👀
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  1. Metaverse

Learn: The 5 Biggest Misconceptions About The Metaverse

The Metaverse is a giant online game. And it’s virtual reality. And it’s blockchains. Right?

PreviousLearn: The “Metaverse” Next Frontier for Business: Impact And ChallengesNextLearn: Why culture and ownership are critical to the metaverse?

Last updated 1 year ago

One thing the metaverse certainly is, it is confusing. In fact, Apple boss Tim Cook has implied he thinks that part of the reason it will never catch on is that no one is really . My view is that the metaverse is simply a catch-all term that’s being used to describe the next stage in the evolution of the internet–whatever that may be.

When it eventually arrives (and it will, unless we think the internet has evolved as far as it ever will), we might not even call it the metaverse. In fact, I hope we won’t, as I don’t particularly like the term. It already has too many negative and confusing connotations, from being an over-hyped bubble of speculative investment to being closely linked with the dystopian sci-fi universes where it first emerged.

But I do believe that many of the technologies that we vaguely group together today and call “the metaverse” will play a vital part in the next iteration of our digital lives–whatever we call it. And clearing up some common misconceptions could help us to visualize what it will look like and help to prepare for the day it arrives. So, here are five of the most common misconceptions that I come across when I talk to people about the metaverse.

The Metaverse Is Just Another Word For VR

VR–fully immersive virtual worlds that we experience through a headset as if we were actually there–certainly plays a part in many ideas about how the internet will evolve. Meta’s (formerly Facebook) Horizon virtual worlds are a good example of one company’s interpretation of the metaverse. VR fulfills one of the key elements of how we will interact with the online world in the future. It will be more immersive, with more of a sense of presence, allowing us to engage in digital experiences more closely to how we interact with the real world.

But VR on its own doesn’t offer a connected experience–it’s often solitary, and the metaverse will be about sharing experiences and interacting with other people. It also isn’t persistent, meaning that often when we switch it off, it vanishes. Changes we made to whatever environment we are interacting with might be reset, and other people who come along might have their own experience rather than building on whatever we have created. Its virtual worlds often exist as “instances,” which appear and disappear as we put on or remove our headsets rather than as persistent environments that we can share.

Add connectivity and persistence to a VR world, and we are getting close to something that might be described as a metaverse. However, other interpretations of the metaverse might be entirely two-dimensional, experienced through a screen or smartphone. Headsets can be big, bulky and expensive, and although they are becoming more common in industry, they haven’t yet become fully mainstream consumer technology. We will have to wait and see whether they will play an important role in how we engage with the online worlds of tomorrow, but it’s likely they will become smaller, lighter and cheaper, and therefore more practical as time goes by.

The Metaverse Is About Blockchains And Cryptocurrencies

Again, this is a view of some of those who are building certain metaverse projects—those that are lumped under the category of “” and built on principles of decentralization and shared ownership. There are many others, however, that believe it’s unlikely that the big tech corporations that own the present-day internet (and the governments that regulate them) will give up control of it; however, it may evolve in the future.

Cryptocurrencies are virtual money that is administered via a distributed ledger called a blockchain. Some believe that they will become the default method of storing value and paying for goods and services in the metaverse. And it’s certainly true that they provide advantages over traditional currencies in this regard. For example, allowing digital money to be sent and received without the need for a middle-man such as a bank or credit card company. However, they also often use large amounts of energy to power the required calculations. And because the cryptocurrency space is largely unregulated, it’s rife with scams, frauds and dodgy business models (the of the giant cryptocurrency exchange FTX being a prime example).

These are issues that are likely to improve in the future as regulators gain a better understanding of how they can work within the space and reduce energy usage. However, cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology are not essential to the concept of the metaverse.

The Metaverse Is Separate From The Real World

People often have the idea that the metaverse is solely about virtual spaces that bear little relation to the real world. But some of the most exciting and interesting applications revolve around creating “digital twins” of the world we live in, in order to help us to better understand and interact with it.

This can happen on many levels. As a very basic and simple example, a connected virtual world can be educational–the game Minecraft, for example, has been used to create virtual environments that can teach children how everything from mathematics to history works in the real world.

Going a little further, the digital twin is a simulation of a real-world system that can exist within a metaverse environment–in three dimensions via VR or in two dimensions on a screen. It could be anything from a car engine to a forest or the human body. Data is collected and fed into the simulation through sensors or other devices to make the simulation behave as closely as possible to reality, and we can alter parameters to see how they would affect the system we are simulating in reality. More advanced applications of this technology allow us to view and interact with the real world using augmented reality (AR) devices that project data from the simulation on top of what we see in reality. For example, a surgeon could receive real-time information about what they are seeing inside a person as they carry out an operation. Or an architect can experience the way a building will look and work on a site before a single brick has been laid.

There Will Only Be One Metaverse

It’s more likely that “metaverse” will be a collective term for the many different virtual worlds, working environments and simulations that will provide our online experiences in the future. Just as the term “internet” actually covers a variety of networks and systems, such as the World Wide Web, that serves up web pages, email networks, and the vast ecosystem of apps and services we use via our phones and smart devices.

But in my opinion, it’s unlikely that the future will bring us one unified virtual space, platform or technology that we simply call “the metaverse” and is our one-stop destination for playing, shopping, working, communicating with friends and relaxing. As we’ve seen with the current iteration of the internet, there are many platform providers–such as Facebook, Google or Amazon–that purport to offer everything we need to live our lives online. But in reality, they all tend to be strong in certain areas and weak in others. The next iteration is likely to be similar, with a number of platforms we can jump between in order to pick and choose the experiences we prefer.

The Metaverse Will Be Dystopian

In books and movies, there are often dark undertones to the idea of living our lives in a virtual world. In Ready Player One, for example, it’s a way of escaping from the unpleasant realities of life on a polluted and over-industrialized planet Earth. In The Matrix (spoiler alert), it’s a way for robots to enslave humanity.

Even more down-to-earth ideas about what’s happening already often cause us to express caution or distaste. Should we really be working toward a future where we spend more of our lives than we already do connected to screens? Are we harming the mental development of children? Or causing fractures to emerge in society as we spend less time interacting face-to-face and building interpersonal relationships with those around us? Does conducting even more of our day-to-day business and activities online mean handing even more power to global corporations that exist primarily to make money from us?

These are all very valid and real concerns, but to accept that they are all inevitable is a misconception. The concept of the metaverse could have the potential to enrich our lives in numerous ways, from building virtual communities that bring more people together to improving our skills and abilities in engineering, science and medicine.

Ultimately the way the metaverse–which, as we've discussed, really just means the digital side of reality–evolves will be down to us. If we are happy to accept giving corporations more power (or letting robots rule us) in exchange for comfort and convenience, then that’s what we’re likely to get. But if we insist that it should be implemented in a way that allows us to grow as a society while deepening our connection with each other and the “real” world around us, then it will be a benefit to us all.

It's uncertain as of yet how interconnected these networks might be. Some, such as the creators of avatar creation platform , are working toward a future where a virtual avatar can move between different metaverse platforms. And it’s possible that cryptocurrencies and blockchains will make it possible to move money and virtual goods in the form of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) between digital worlds, game environments and collaborative working tools.

This article first appeared in Forbes, written by

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