One of the foundational principles of Web 1.0 is the hyperlink.This deceptively simple device allows to reference any arbitrary page on any arbitrary website. The power of this cannot be underestimated, and certainly in the last 25-odd years the exponential expansion of the web has been made possible by it.
One thing that is very interesting about the hyperlink is the property that it has of suppressing the concept of distance. A web page author can link to any other (public) page on the internet, with no restrictions, and more importantly, instant access to that page. This means it is possible to navigate through the information (or entertainment) on the internet with (essentially) no waiting time. To get from one place to another, there is no need to get in a car, bus or plane and physically change location.
Now it would conceivably be possible to replicate this in part by having a large collection of texts that reference each other. This is why libraries exist: it has long been true that it is more economically viable to copy a book (even before the invention of the printing press!) rather than travel each time you want to read it. But with the advent of the hyperlink, that fact has now been reversed: it is more economically viable to go to the “book”, as distance is now suppressed.
Of course, this is not literally the case, it is just the experience that one has using a web browser. The point is simply that the copy of the information does not need to be accessed until the precise point in time when you wish to obtain it. In effect, it is exactly as if you could travel instantly to the library where the page you wish to read is located, read it, then leave again.
So how does this relate to the metaverse?
Web pages are no longer static, and have not been for a long time. If you consider a social network, or a web app, there are many forms of dynamic web page, some of which have a social component. These pages make it feel like you are present, in some manner. One speaks of being “on” Twitter, or Discord.
As a side-note, not all web apps have this property. One is not “on”, say Jira, or Turbotax, rather one “uses” these apps, just like traditional software.
The metaverse is composed of these social apps, where one can “be”, and between which one can instantly move.
However, the experience is still lacking a lot. The social dimension is still severely limited. It is possible to be aware that other people are using the platform at the same time, but their presence is limited to status indicators, essentially. This is where 3d technology shines. It is possible today to build environments which allow a netizen to freely move around, have experiences, and interact with others. So it stands to reason that 3d spaces should be common by now for the social web. And in fact, companies as large as Meta are already making billion-dollar bets in this direction. But it does not yet seem to be the case. Most metaverse applications are dead zones, with the odd curious user moping around trying to look as if they meant to be there. Why is this, and how can we fix it?
Part of the solution in our view is the hyperlink. Once it is possible to link to a specific place in a specific metaverse application, then whatever experience is to be found there will automatically be available to anyone in hyperspace. This in turn means it will be possible to drive traffic to specific hyperplaces at specific times.
There is a second problem however, which is portability. Let's imagine that it is possible to link to a specific place in a 3d environment, maybe an event in the metaverse, or a building. If you click on that link, your browser will load the 3d environment, but it does not know which settings to apply. Which avatar should you use? Which interface language?
Now traditionally, websites have implemented solutions to this kind of problem using cookies and site-specific settings, usually saved by the website itself. But as the complexity grows, both in the type of user-specific data (avatar), and in the possible interactions between participants (voice, video, transactions), this model becomes unscalable.
Two examples come to mind immediately.
The first is the user's avatar. This should be customisable, which takes time. When a user arrives in a new environment, they do not want to have to spend time setting this up.
Secondly, person-to-person communication sometimes involves private data, which the platform should not have to save somewhere. This is obviously even more important in transactions: users may wish to send money to each other. This should be enabled without the environment ever having access to the money.
A blockchain based identity solves these problems. Identity, financial secret information, and even avatar preferences (assuming the presence of at least a common standard) can be transmitted from a web wallet without leaking any private information to the 3d platform. It would be trivial to implement token sending from avatar to avatar using something like Metamask for example.
So there we have it. The metaverse, understood as the virtual hyperspace created by the existence of the hyperlink, and inhabited by virtual avatars whose unique identity is founded in the blockchain consensus, exists already. It is currently known as Web 3.0, but that is just a current nametag. It has been coming into existence since the invention of the hyperlink.
At Eldora, we are in the process of making this hyperspace socially navigable.