With the cryptocurrency market spiralling downward and the bursting of the non-fungible token (NFT) bubble, many sceptics believe that the metaverse—a thoroughly immersive emerging version of the internet—is just another fleeting trend. Mathew Ball’s The Metaverse seeks to reassure the reader that it is not. Reporting that the term “metaverse” was mentioned more than 260 times in US Securities and Exchange Commission filings in 2021, Ball suggests that “the sheer number of companies that see potential value in the Metaverse speaks to the size and diversity of the opportunity.”
The three-part book provides more than just a definitive definition of the metaverse, which, despite mounting interest, many people still fail to fully understand. The first section delivers an overview of the technology in all its potential iterations. The second examines the ongoing technological infrastructure expansion that is necessary to grow and maintain it. And the final section predicts the societal changes that will arise as a result of expansive adoption of the metaverse.
Ball defines the metaverse as “a massively scaled and interoperable network of real-time rendered 3D virtual worlds that can be experienced synchronously and persistently by an effectively unlimited number of users with an individual sense of presence, and with continuity of data.” He refers back to this definition throughout the book to signpost various central aspects and elements of the technology as he details its potential. Ball also frequently and deferentially references the 1992 novel Snow Crash and its author, Neal Stephenson, who coined the term metaverse, as he presents the technology’s evolution through the lens of the development of the internet and the online video gaming industry.
In contrast to the open nature of the internet, the metaverse will be composed, at least has described as “the hardest technology challenge of our time.” Ball personally considers the current inability to host more than a limited number of individuals concurrently in one version of a virtual world to be the hardest problem to solve.
While much of the book is a breezy read, Ball sometimes wades into the details of what systems will be necessary for the metaverse to thrive. He describes, for example, the genesis and current state of internet payment rails, the “complex series of systems and standards, deployed across a wide network and in support of trillions of dollars in economic activity.” Here, he argues that the current control exerted by the major tech companies over payment systems will be the hardest nontechnical challenge for the metaverse to overcome. And while he seems agnostic as to the overall future of distributed ledger technology, he suggests that blockchains could become a key platform in reducing this control by the tech companies.
There is some debate as to when exactly the critical mass of relevant innovations will solve the technical and logistic barriers now precluding the metaverse. Like the internet before it, “Disruption is not a linear process, but a recursive and unpredictable one.” But when it does arise, the book suggests that many may see it simply as a successor to the current internet.
Ball distinguishes the metaverse from another proposed internet successor—Web3—“a somewhat vaguely defined future version of the internet built around independent developers and users.” The often-conflated concept aims to use blockchain technologies to become a more decentralized internet. Ball notes that while “the principles of Web3 are likely critical to establishing a thriving Metaverse,” confusing the metaverse for Web3 is like “conflating the rise of democratic republics with industrialization or electrification”—one is about governance, the other is about technology.
The book also outlines three nontechnical, but nonetheless critical, factors that will be essential to metaverse growth. The first is regulatory action to open up better payment solutions and increase standardization and interoperability. Online games—particularly Fortnite, Roblox, Minecraft, and even Microsoft Flight Simulator—have been described as “proto-Metaverses,” and they continue to provide a second essential non-technical factor: social acceptance. The third and final component crucial to the success of the metaverse will be the availability of useful and desirable experiences, including those related to education, lifestyle, entertainment, fashion, advertising, and industrial innovation.
