The Metaverse (7 of 8)

The Metaverse is a concept well-known to sci-fi fans. It found prominent expression in the influential novel Snow Crash, where it is described as a virtual 3D reality in which humans can exist as avatars distinct from their physical selves. The concept of the Metaverse has been culturally influential among Ethereans, not only because of this sci-fi pedigree, but because of what Ethereum enables. Ethereum is becoming a base protocol for a network of virtual landscapes and communities similar to the Metaverse from its sci-fi origins. Several teams of developers have created large game-like worlds for users to embed themselves as avatars, to own this land on the Ethereum blockchain, and to interact with other users akin to massively multiplayer online games, and even to engage in trade of items that are created, owned and transformed on the blockchain (often, as NFTs; see "The Open Sea," Series 3).

This original plots just a partial sampling of lands from 4 such virtual worlds: Decentraland (red), Cryptovoxels (gray), Somnium Space (white) and The Sandbox (green). On Ethereum, it is likely that the emerging Metaverse will not be a single landscape, not a single platform, but an integrated system of platforms. Each platform can capitalize on its unique properties and strengths, and the entire user experience can benefit from all such development agendas by creating vortices between worlds (this, in fact, has already been implemented). On this plot, lands on these platforms are connected by edges that reflect common ownership. As seen here from just a partial sample of ownership data -- from about 1,000 bridges sampled for each pair of worlds -- there are hundreds of users who own across these four platforms. Zooming in on the PDF, one can see the first few characters of owner addresses, and each node represents a piece of land on that part of the Metaverse. There are thousands of lands and connections here. The edges connecting these lands mean they are owned by the same user. The visual that results is a depiction of this emerging Metaverse being stitched together by shared community and integrated functionality.

• 8 editions
• Square, high-quality JPG (linked in unlockable content)
• Scalable vector-quality PDF (linked in unlockable content)

Ethstory, Original 2 in Series 4: "0x00000 (Transforming)"

Prior series depict Ethereum's dynamism. Ethereum will transform yet more. An upgrade is now underway -- Eth2 -- the major transformation of Ethereum sometimes known as "Serenity." While Ethereum's developer community continues to innovate and expand on top of Eth1, in parallel teams of developers are beginning to implement and test Eth2. Both agendas continue to transform what is possible on Ethereum and blockchain. This is the final series of Ethstory. It is, approximately, where the story of Ethereum is at the time of this writing (mid 2021). The originals here depict this further transformation. All are based on actual data, structured and laid out in a manner that produces visuals that relay this future significance.