Web 3.0 is not the same as the Metaverse

More recently, the terms “metaverse” and “Web 3” have been used interchangeably. While they both point to a vision of a better future internet, it’s important that the two concepts don’t get confused or become a source of ideological disagreement around how we want to continue building the internet.

The Metaverse Development Company takes its name from the 1992 sci-fi novel “Avalanche” — more of a vision than a concrete reality. Many people imagine it as a synchronized, persistent, 3D immersive world with unlimited concurrent users. It’s a digital place where we spend most of our time working, studying, playing, entertaining and more.

The Metaverse feels vague and speculative, because it is; it hasn’t really taken shape yet. While some technologists want to nail down the vision along the lines of Meta’s Ready Player One-style keynote, the reality is that the Metaverse needs everyone’s input and participation to really take shape. It should encompass the confluence of different iterative efforts and technological advances, and have no discrete endpoints.

Web 3, on the other hand, is a more specific paradigm that provides explicit solutions to specific shortcomings of the Web 2 Internet. It’s a reaction to the walled-garden ecosystems created by platforms like Facebook and YouTube that have resulted in people’s data being extracted, their privacy violated, and their ability to control the content they create suppressed. Web 3 turns this model on its head because it directly addresses the issues of ownership and control.

By being built on the blockchain, data is open and distributed, and co-owned by a peer-to-peer network. Thus, users own their data, peer-to-peer transactions can bypass middlemen, and data exists on the blockchain as a public good that anyone can contribute and monetize.

We’ve already seen incredible new consumer behaviors emerge in Web 3 initiatives, such as creators being able to sell their content as non-fungible tokens (NFTs), games that help people earn a living by playing games to monetize games and the community-organized investment collective (ConstitutionDAO) mobilized enough funds to bid on the US Constitution at a Sotheby’s auction.

While Web 3 is a powerful tool that could change the way we manage data, govern and exchange money, the Metaverse Development Services slowness of clearing blockchain transactions limits its application settings and use cases. As enticing as it may sound, a purely decentralized internet model is not practical. So while it can be argued that Web 3 is a key building block of the Metaverse, it is only one component of a larger sum.

By acknowledging that Web 3 and decentralization are just the cornerstones of the Metaverse, it opens up opportunities for other types of contributors, not against them.

When Meta (formerly Facebook) announced its vision for an AR/VR-centric Metaverse, there was an outcry that Big Tech would dominate the Metaverse, forcing the platform to operate as a closed ecosystem again.

What people miss is the innovation and focus that Meta is driving is mostly on hardware and 3D user consumption and input interfaces, which frankly don’t exist today. Facebook is trying to solve the immersion problem, and it’s an important one. think about it. Many of us have spent the past two years on Zoom and are exhausted. What would it be like to wear a VR headset all day?

If we expect to spend more and more time happily in virtual worlds, we need more immersive, natural and expressive virtual interfaces. Meta’s developments in AR/VR and motion sensing technologies will not disrupt Web 3 and decentralization efforts. In fact, the best-case scenario is when people start building Web 3 applications in the emerging 3D form factors of AR/VR and holographic projection.

Another lurid argument is that Web 3 will make Web 2 obsolete. Again, it’s hard to imagine such a reality. Despite certain flaws of the Web 2, there are still many products that can operate more efficiently without the use of blockchain. Platforms like Discord or Twitch help people communicate and broadcast in real time at scale. Companies like Uber or DoorDash effectively queue demand and match it with supply.

Like it or not, centralization works. OpenSea, the largest NFT marketplace out there, is fundamentally a centralized marketplace that simply facilitates transactions on the blockchain. Coinbase is another example of a centralized exchange that supports cryptocurrency trading. In both cases, these intermediaries charge transaction service fees like any other Web 2 marketplace.

While these hybrid products don’t quite align with the decentralization ideology, they are key “bridging products” that help in greater adoption of Web 3 elements by appealing to the mainstream. Similar to how Snap Stories was a popular teen product but struggled to adopt among older users, Meta’s adoption of Stories helped it become a mainstream product for all demographics.

When new technologies and paradigms emerge, it can often be considered a revolution. But what we’ve seen throughout history is that they tend to build on existing foundations from past eras. Email is still a huge part of our everyday lives, but it’s a protocol invented during the Web 1 era of the Internet.

Jon Lai, general partner at investment firm a16z, has a solid view of the Metaverse Development solutions’s path in this episode of “Hello Metaverse.” “There’s a lot of building that hasn’t been done yet. Blockchain, games to make money, different types of jobs, virtual economies, all of these are like stepping stones [as well as] UGC [user-generated content] platforms and scaling content creation…it Not this shiny product from some.