Will metaverses evolve into a unified Metaverse? Multiple interoperable and/or proprietary metaverses?

For stakeholders, the distinction will prove to be important. It will define how businesses capture value depending on their position and shape the business models available.

At present, most definitions of the concept – often blurring the line between metaverse and Web 3.0 – combine two ideas:

•  Spatial computing. An environment in which primitive objects interact in real-time according to the laws of physics – gravity, optics, fluid dynamics – in a virtual, 3-D space, as they do in, say, videogames.
• Digital assets. Individual ownership of digital objects and identities in an environment that permits portability, transactions, and decentralized, peer-to-peer e-Commerce. Such as non-fungible tokens or smart contracts.

This vision, we’re often told, will merge the physical with the digital and, because of the scale and variegated nature of the physical world, will propel its digital twin beyond the grasp of any Big Tech monopolist, promoting the idea of a freed and unified metaverse.