[Xangle Originals]
By Ponyo
Translated by LC

Summary

•  The Metaverse is a virtual world that is expected to have the ability for participants to take part in social and economic activities
• There are seven attributes that frame the Metaverse: Persistence, synchronicity, trustless, openness, economy, interoperability, and composability
• A virtual world or games with a high degree of freedom such as Roblox and Minecraft aren’t actually the Metaverse

“Metaverse” suddenly came into the spotlight when the Facebook Group rebranded to Meta in October 2021. Since then, this magic word has been taking the world by storm thanks to the craze over non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and P2E games like The Sandbox and Decentraland. Companies are trooping into this space, and books on Metaverse poured out in 2021. With much excitement in moving into Metaverse, it is accompanied by some issues; many companies, especially the Web 2.0 platforms, are using the M-word to boost the stock price. What exactly is the Metaverse? This article will walk you through the definition and core attributes of the Metaverse with an example.

What is the Metaverse?

According to CEO Simon Kim of Hashed, a no. 1 South Korean blockchain-focused investment firm, there is still no consensus around the true meaning of the Metaverse and how it works, but “the Metaverse we think is a virtual world where social and economic activities take place.” The core attributes of the Metaverse are the following (based on Matthew Ball and Hashed CEO Simon Kim):

• Persistence: The Metaverse will exist regardless of time and place
• Synchronicity: The Metaverse will be a living experience that exists consistently for everyone and in real-time
• Trustless: Participants do not need to know or trust a third party. Platform companies control the existing gaming or online services; each user shares an individual connection with the platform, so a user’s items and characters are in the hands of those companies. On the Metaverse, participants should not worry about system manipulation and trust that their assets are safe and sound. Moreover, no one should be able to access the personal data and information of others
• Openness: Everyone will be able to log in freely, participate as system developers, and there will be no cap on the number of participants. Services controlled by a centralized entity cannot be called the Metaverse
• Interoperability: The Metaverse will allow a participant to use his or her virtual items across different experiences on the Metaverse 
• Composability: Just like in DeFi, every service on the Metaverse must be public and linked to be able to create new services with added features
• Economy: Participants will be able to supply goods and services in exchange for value recognized by others (via NFTs)

Aside from the above, more attributes of the Metaverse are under debate, but they were excluded from the list as much of the Metaverse remains unclear.

Roblox vs The Sandbox

As an example, based on the list of attributes above, Roblox is referred to as the Microverse, whereas The Sandbox is closer to the Metaverse (refer to the appendix below for more details).

Conclusion

Starting in the second half of 2021, Big Tech names, as well as online gaming, social network, and entertainment companies began their moves to position themselves for the world of the Metaverse. The arrival of the Metaverse has brought mixed propositions between the web 3.0 community that is focused on creating a decentralized web and the web 2.0 platform providers that want to maintain the existing centralized web. Identifying the better alternative will not be an easy task; discussions should be focused on covering the broader spectrum rather than arguing over the pros and cons. As seen from the Web 3.0 craze, the voices demanding ownership and reward for the work that produces value is getting louder, so it is highly likely that the Metaverse market will evolve around the decentralization philosophy. To this end, The Sandbox or Decentraland seem more promising than the Microverse like Roblox.

Appendix

Roblox

• Trustless (X): Users must entirely trust the Roblox Corporation; if Roblox decides to get rid of my characters one day, I have absolutely no power to stop them from doing so. Or, although this would almost never happen in real life, the Roblox administrator could suddenly turn my character into an ugly pig and even then, all I can do is just sit there and watch.
• Openness (X): The Roblox Community cannot participate in development and operation and must follow the rules set by the company at all times.
• Interoperability (X): Roblox items can only be used within the Roblox ecosystem as they are not interoperable with Minecraft or Fortnite.
• Composability (X): Roblox’s different services and functions are not built with composability, meaning they cannot be connected with other games to create new services.
• Economy (X): Players can earn or purchase Robux, a premium currency within the world of Roblux, to spend on items like premium clothing and accessories. Each game has its own in-game purchases, set by the developer, who gets to decide how much these costs and what they do, so general users cannot monetize their virtual experiences (it is not a P2E game). The company generates almost all of its revenue through the sales of Robux, so they are using the players’ money to fill their own belly.

The Sandbox

• Trustless (O): The Sandbox is an Ethereum-based gaming ecosystem where any player can freely access the game data, ensuring that the games or assets will not be manipulated even if they don’t trust Animoca Brands.
• Openness (O): The Sandbox will delegate full control of the game operation to The Sandbox DAO and open all layers related to The Sandbox to the community, allowing its governance token holders to make proposals and have input on changes to the ecosystem.
• Interoperability (O): Every in-game asset on The Sandbox is automatically converted into NFTs (ERC-721 and ECR-1155) via the Voxedit, allowing users to easily verify authenticity and ownership. The assets exist in The Sandbox ecosystem as NFTs, so players can interoperate them in the Metaverse even when the game crashes.
• Composability (X): There are plans, but no actual use cases yet.
• Economy (O): The Sandbox is a P2E game in which players build games and other creative creations. Users can monetize their time on the platform, keeping 95% of SAND (The Sandbox utility token) as revenue share.