The Metaverse Handbook: Innovating for the Internet's Next Tectonic Shift

Table of Contents

Cover

Title Page

Foreword

Introduction

CHAPTER 1: A Vision for the Metaverse in 2032

Extended Reality Emerges

Your Own Personalized Metaverse

The Rise of Bots and Digital Humans

The Ubiquitous Metaverse

CHAPTER 2: What Is the Metaverse?

From Snow Crash to Meta

Defining the Metaverse

The Metaverse Represents the Next Digital Shifts

Preparing for the Metaverse

CHAPTER 3: Why You Should Care About the Metaverse Now

The Well-Timed Interest Geek

Interest Geeks of the Metaverse

Interest Geeks Over Power Brokers

CHAPTER 4: History of the Metaverse

La Réalité Virtuelle

The Early Internet

Early Virtual Worlds

Blockchain and Digital Assets

The Modern Metaverse

CHAPTER 5: The Metaverse Building Blocks

The Main Metaverse Tools

The Secondary Metaverse Tools

Building Your First Metaverse Asset

CHAPTER 6: Enter the Metaverse

Sandbox Metaverses

Gaming Metaverses

Miscellaneous Metaverses

The Mass Migration to the Metaverse

CHAPTER 7: Metaverse Assets

What We Will Own in the Metaverse

Metaverse Asset Management

CHAPTER 8: Challenges of the Metaverse

Interoperable Economies

Interoperable Graphics and Hardware

The Negative Narratives of the Metaverse

CHAPTER 9: Your Metaverse Plan

Designing Your Metaverse Plan

Further Reading at MetaverseQT.com

Index

Copyright

Dedication

About the Authors

Acknowledgments

End User License Agreement

The Metaverse Handbook

Innovating for the Internet's Next Tectonic Shift

QuHarrison Terry

Scott DJ SKEE Keeney

Foreword

Six years ago, in the summer of 2016, my friend Jaeson Ma and I found ourselves at a dinner in Munich, Germany with a couple of the founders of Ethereum. I don't remember exactly what led to our going to this dinner, but I'm glad we did. It was one of the most life-changing meals I've ever had. And I'm not talking about the food, which was good. For me, it was the conversation that was memorable.

I've always considered myself forward-thinking and a bit of an undercover nerd. But when Stephan Tual (then the CCO of Ethereum) started talking about blockchain and cryptography and digital currency, I'll be honest, it mostly went over my head. I could feel his passion for it, though. I could tell that this team was building something great. And it was clear they were giving Jaeson and me a look into the future.

As soon as I got back from Germany, I bought my first bit of cryptocurrency.

The following year when I was filming my documentary The American Meme, I stumbled on another revolutionary technology. I found a company that was doing full-body, 3D scans of celebrities and turning them into digital avatars. Of course, I had myself turned into an avatar.

Honestly, by this time, I was tired of going out and the whole LA scene. So, I built this virtual world where my digital avatar could have a social life, perform DJ sets, and hang out with my friends and fans in VR. I guess you could say that I built my first Metaverse in 2018.

The next piece of the puzzle—non-fungible tokens (NFTs)—came to me in 2019. The team at Cryptograph approached me to create a piece of digital art that we would auction off and donate the money to charity. Like crypto, the idea of NFTs was hard to understand at first. But once I learned the foundation of the tech and how it made digital ownership possible, I was really curious to try it out.

So, I drew a picture of my cat, Kitty, on the iPad. We then listed the NFT on Cryptograph in March 2020. And it ended up selling for 40 ETH (which was around $17,000 at the time). As a result, I won the Best Charity NFT of 2020 at the NFT Awards, which was super awesome.

I consider myself genuinely lucky to have found out about these technologies before most people. Not everyone gets this type of access to the innovators or their innovations so early. But I also think about all of the other celebs or brands who were introduced to crypto or NFTs or the Metaverse when I was and didn't do anything about it. They didn't have an open mind and couldn't see how digital life was going to evolve.

When you have influence, you are supposed to show people what's next. Whether that's social influence or cultural influence, that's your job. We're supposed to be vessels for bringing trends into the mainstream. And I love having that responsibility. I love contributing to the future and setting an example for a better way forward.

But I also know the value of this power. It's not to be abused. If you're going to show people a new wave, then you have to commit to riding that wave for some time. Since my first crypto purchase, my first Metaverse, and my first NFT, I've done a lot to keep contributing to this new age of the Internet.

I've collected more than 2,000 NFTs from so many incredible artists. I helped my friend Jimmy Fallon purchase his first NFT, which was a Bored Ape. I was a virtual DJ headliner at Metaverse Festival in Decentraland. And I built Paris World in Roblox, which is my own personal virtual oasis for hosting great parties and fun experiences for my fans.

These last few years, I've had more fun being social on the computer than I ever did in real life. My husband and I hosted a New Year's party in the Paris World Metaverse this past year, and it was honestly more fun than any party I've ever thrown. After we ran the numbers, we found that we had twice the number of people ringing in the New Year with us in Paris World than Times Square did. After that, I knew that the Metaverse was the future of partying (and social life, in general).

It's been truly great connecting with my fans in this new era for the Internet through my NFTs and Metaverse spaces. And my subtle flex throughout this whole time is how WhaleShark, one of the major NFT collectors, gave me a shoutout in a Bloomberg story saying that I was the road map of how a celebrity should enter the space. That was especially validating to hear.

I've had a lot of help on my Metaverse journey. And that's what is so great about this space. As a celebrity, we often get access to resources and creators to help us innovate. But this sense of communal help and collaboration is in the DNA of this industry. Everyone is eager to help you learn the ropes and navigate these new waters.

There are so many artists, developers, marketers, and technologists who all want to have an impact on the blockchain or in the Metaverse. Connecting and building with physical strangers (but digital friends) is incredibly common. All it takes is a few days in Clubhouse rooms or Twitter Spaces to find a team to work with or an idea to run with.

It's such an exciting time to be a creator, to have an influential brand, or to have a loyal fanbase. In so many ways, the Metaverse puts the power back into the hands of creators. Creators own their creations, control the entire experience, and receive royalties forever. Fans get to support their favorite creators directly and also have the chance to share in the economic growth of that creator.

We're in a major shift in how we operate as creators, influencers, and brands. Everything is going digital. I still love putting out new fragrances and sunglasses. The physical world isn't disappearing. But the Metaverse is like an inspiration pill. Once it's in your system, it's hard to think about anything else.

Just like social media manifested a huge diversity of influential figures and entrepreneurs, the Metaverse will manifest its own prominent influencers and creators who build a following on Roblox or in Decentraland or The Sandbox. And they may not even be the same people we tune into on YouTube or follow on Instagram today.

Because I played such an instrumental role in showing the world that being an influencer can be an entire profession, I'm incredibly passionate about playing a part in this next era for Internet creators. While some people may be satisfied with being just the first influencer in real life, my mission now is to continue to celebrate, empower, and uplift creators as the Queen of the Metaverse. Are you with me?

—Paris Hilton

Introduction

The Internet has evolved to the point where we can share and communicate almost anything we want across space and time. We find love through apps. We trust our digital neighbors to give us the best suggestions for food and housing. We place our most precious photographic memories in the hands of digital giants to protect for eternity.

The Internet has become this expansive virtual, shared space for almost anything you can think of. But surely this isn't the best version of the Internet. Like any form of existence, it must continue to grow and evolve.

So, what's next?

We believe the evolution of the Internet is the Metaverse—a culmination of the Internet and the boundless possibilities in augmented and virtual reality technologies.

We wrote The Metaverse Handbook to serve as a detailed resource for anyone seeking to understand the emerging changes to the Web in order to harness new digital innovations that are inventing the next phase of the Internet. This book is one part inspiration and one part education, exemplifying well over 100 creators who are building new digital tools and outlining how you can take steps to emulate these changes to digital commerce, digital community, and digital experience.

In this book, we explore and explain arcane topics such as the following:

Web3 development with blockchain-based websites

Changes to user digital identification through blockchain wallets

Digital asset creation and ownership via NFTs

Immersive gaming and social environments

Building blocks of the Metaverse

Pitfalls preventing us from achieving the vision of the Metaverse

The Metaverse Handbook is perfect for business professionals and decision-makers who must continuously think about digital innovation and strategize on new ways to reach consumers, as well as creators who rely on monetizing their creativity on the Internet.

The Metaverse Handbook illustrates these dense, futuristic concepts with easy-to-understand examples, approachable language, and concrete practical applications so you can easily grasp and retain the foundational and advanced topics contained within.

CHAPTER 1

A Vision for the Metaverse in 2032

Coca-Cola lovers will have a new place to hang out starting today and…can set up a virtual alter ego known as an avatar, which can then shop and dance at the Coca-Cola diner, visit a movie theater to watch short films, and soar around on a hoverboard.

Coca-Cola's CC Metro, an online island shaped like a Coke bottle within a larger virtual world called There.com, showcases a vision of the shared Metaverse where brands give their customers a virtual playground to explore, play games, meet people, and ultimately shop. It's a vision that is shared by many corporations and has recently gained a lot of steam. However, the aforementioned announcement of CC Metro is not from 2022. It's not even from this decade. Rather, that's a quote from The New York Times in 2007.

Before the digital aspect of our social lives was cemented on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn, there was a belief that social networks could and should be in 3D, virtual worlds featuring experiences much like the real world. Second Life and Habbo Hotel were onboarding hundreds of thousands of users. Disney jumped on the trend with their Club Penguin virtual environment. MTV created almost a dozen of these virtual worlds for each of their hit shows at the time. Second Life was getting investments from Internet visionaries, including Jeff Bezos, and partnering with brands such as Sony, Sun Microsystems, and Adidas for campaigns. Virtual existence was becoming a thing.

Although not as large as Second Life or Habbo Hotel, There.com was pioneering Metaverse economies right alongside them. There.com had their own virtual currency called Therebucks, which were converted at a rate of 1,800 Tbux to $1 USD. Tbux could be spent on houses, furnishings, and outfitting your avatar. There were ample activities ranging from training your virtual pet to racing vehicles to connecting with new friends over a game of cards. And communities were forming around special interests.

In the early part of the new millennium, it really looked like virtual existence would become a major part of our lives. That's why Coca-Cola invested in CC Metro. They even went so far as integrating the MyCokeRewards program into CC Metro, giving users a place to spend their rewards points. It didn't matter where your brand was showing up in these virtual worlds, just as long as you were there in some capacity—learning from this new behavior and testing ways to capitalize on it.

Ultimately, 2D social networks were more effective than virtual worlds at onboarding droves of users and providing instant gratification. As a result, it's Facebook, not Second Life or There.com, that is the nearly trillion-dollar social networking company.

Extended Reality Emerges

The year 2022 brought many of the same narratives we heard back in the early 2000s, except under the new moniker of the Metaverse. The commercial narrative hasn't changed much. Most brands view the Metaverse as a way to disguise an advertisement within the confines of a virtual experience, except that now the tech has completely changed.

Today, virtual worlds are largely being built on the back of the blockchain. Blockchain is a digital ledger that records transactions and information maintained and duplicated across a peer-to-peer network of computers, making it nearly impossible to record, edit, and hack false transactions. This allows creators to build digital scarcity into the social experience, turning everything from the game's land to the accessories our avatars equip into nonfungible tokens (NFTs). With blockchain as a new foundation of the Metaverse, the narrative has shifted to building a future that is user-owned, user-built, and ultimately for the user to reap the rewards. This is the rallying cry of the Metaverse today. It's an upgraded promise from the early Metaverses that were primarily social experiences with the occasional commercial opportunity.

Now, everyone is just $300 USD away from immersing themselves in a very impressive virtual reality experience. Consumer-ready virtual reality (VR) wasn't an option when Coca-Cola was building CC Metro. Furthermore, augmented reality (AR)—a real-world overlay of graphics and computer-generated information experienced through devices such as smartphones and smart glasses—was still the stuff of science fiction in the CC Metro world. The immersive technologies of VR and AR that are instrumental in the experience of the Metaverse are collectively known as extended reality (XR).

While current Metaverses like Decentraland are still accessed through the web browser, they will eventually collide with XR. The true vision of the Metaverse promises shared virtual experiences. And that is now in the realm of possibility for all builders, brands, and individuals.

In an interview with The Information, John Riccitiello, the CEO of Unity Technologies, predicts that VR/AR