Explore the new language of the metaverse using this guide
Welcome to the world of non-fungible tokens, GameFI, P2E, and altcoins
When it was first used, the word metaverse was part of the science fiction world, appearing in a 1992 novel by Neal Stephenson called Snow Crash. Now it has become part of the everyday world around us, evidence that the world of science fiction is fast becoming the world of science fact.
Read More »Even Mark Zuckerberg has renamed Facebook to Meta, a shortened version of the term.
What is the metaverse?
The term metaverse has gone through a number of revisions, but it has now become a catch-all that combines augmented as well as virtual realities as they are experienced and distributed on the internet.
For Facebook, the term Meta refers to the company’s plans to build an online world in which people can interact and communicate using virtual reality headsets. Through these headsets they will live in a new world in which it seems that the characters are real and the virtual world is one in which they can walk and talk as well as interact with other people who are living in this new world.
A significant part of the metaverse is that created by crypto gaming companies. Some of these companies refer to their world as the “Dark Metaverse.” In this world players join together to create their own tribes or clans, they buy and sell virtual land, and they earn cryptocurrency and non-fungible tokens.
The crypto gaming world has created a number of new terms and concepts that have sprung into life. For many of us the terms are confusing. They involve concepts that are difficult to get your mind around. Increasingly, however, it is becoming important to understand them if you are to find your way around this new world.
What they mean
Let’s look at some of these crypto terms with the help of New York-based Crypto Games, a provider of news about the crypto world.
• Token
A token usually represents a cryptocurrency denomination. It can be traded on the blockchain where it can be used for investment or other economic uses.
• Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs)
NFTs are units of value that represent an ownership in one-of-a-kind digital assets. Included are forms of digital art or other collectibles that are digital.
• Decentralized applications (DApps)
This term refers to applications that are designed by a team of developers to be used on a blockchain. The apps usually let you perform actions without the use of intermediaries, Crypto Games explains. As a result a considerable amount of decentralized financial transactions are performed using DApps.
• Altcoin
This term refers to any method of currency that is an alternative to Bitcoin. Among them is the leading crypto currency Ethereum as well as the smaller crypto currencies that seem to be being created almost daily.
• GameFI
This is a general overall term that is used to talk about the financial aspects of gaming. It derives from a combination of Game and Finance. As such it focuses on introducing real-world financial values to those who are enthusiasts of virtual gaming.
• Play to Earn (P2E)
This term applies to a gaming model in which those taking part are motivated to keep playing with the use of monetary rewards. UFO Gaming, for example, lets players earn assets during the game in the form of NFTs and to trade goods through the UFO dollars that let them earn real cash when they play games that are complex.
What the future holds
The new virtual world of the metaverse today is just the start of virtual experiences that open up opportunities for artists, creative designers and gamers. In this new world new forms of communication will stretch across countries and will create new forms of universal payment.
The potential value of the metaverse runs into trillions of dollars, Crypto Games predicts. Soon it will be common to conduct business, buy products, and communicate with one another wherever you live through a virtual world, previously imaginable only in science fiction.
