Based on an article in Medium, the future metaverse is nothing more than a ubiquitous network, cryptocurrencies and cryptonetworks like Bitcoin and Ethereum, eXtended Reality (XR), an umbrella term incorporating virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR), and Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs).

In 5 years or more, we would be probably be able to see:

1. Each of us has an avatar that represents us and actively participates in various activities in this 3D virtual world. Each avatar is quite different just like each of us is different in the real world.
2. It may be a platform that each of us relies heavily on Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram for business and personal communication. You can have virtual business meetings in a room at workplace or anywhere, talking about project progress. You can invite your friends to climb the Alps mountains during the lunch break. People may use social media platforms less frequently, but turning to this modern technology to have more immersive experience.
3. There will have more advertising business on Metaverse. Each company would set up its own metaverse niche to do business. For example, Nike is teaming up with Roblox to create a virtual world called Nikeland. On it, Nike buildings, fields and arenas for players to compete in various mini-games will be built. The company plans to emulate sporting events such as a a soccer event during the World Cup or a flag football game during the Super Bowl. Users will be able to dress up their avatars in Nike-branded sneakers and apparel. We can imagine that Metaverse will be a fierce competitive place to do business and expand brand awareness.
4. More varieties of VR and AR games will be developed and the VR headsets will be simplified to become more lighter and comfortable to wear with. There may not necessarily need a big clumsy headset, but just a pair of glass that has the similar functions, even more.
5. We can expect blockchain, smart contracts and non-fungible token (NFT) business will become more popular. Gamers need to make a one-time in-app purchase. Businesses need a platform in universe for storing data and make payments and transactions in a fast and secure way. Blockchain technology just provides this convenience. It is decentralized, distributed immutable, owned and controlled by an individual user, without the need of permission or support of any centralized company. It is called Decentralized Finance (commonly referred to as DeFi) that relies on smart contract instead of centralized bank, brokerages. It all leverages blockchain’s safe feature of no single point of failure. Data are linked and chained together via cryptography. Therefore, the data is much harder to corrupt.
6. There will more NFT businesses since NFTs can be used to represent the real world items such as photography, art, music, videos, tweets, memes, real estate or anything that can be stored as a digital file. NFT is a perfect fit for metaverse since NFT holders can transfer digital property between different online environments. It represents an ownership, an exclusive right to have it and its value can be enhanced when keeping it. We can imagine, in 5 years, people carry NFTs and teleport on universe.
7. An open, decentralized economy featuring ownership will form and operate in a more fair, efficient and sustainable way. Maybe not in 5 years, but we can see its possibility there.

Overall, avatars and enhanced VR and AR headsets and glasses are imminent. More VR and AR gaming, business communications and ads on Meta are around the corner. Will a booming economy be far away?

Thanks for reading.