Ethereum's Vitalik Buterin Challenges the Hype: Metaverse Still Misunderstood

Metaverse has gained tremendous momentum in recent years, attracting the attention of large companies around the world.

But ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin believes the Metaverse concept is still “poorly defined” and needs to have several elements to be meaningful.

Dissecting the metaverse

During a question and answer session session While speaking at the BUIDL Asia conference in Seoul, Buterin pointed out a common misconception of associating the Metaverse solely with virtual reality (VR). The ethereum co-founder argued that virtual reality often leads people to imagine complex environments, while real needs tend to be simpler.

He illustrated this by suggesting that what people really want is the functionality of a laptop without the physical device itself, essentially implying that while VR may have its uses, it doesn't necessarily constitute a true Metaverse experience.

“To me, the Metaverse is one of those things that is very poorly defined. More like the name of a brand than a product. It seems like everyone has this abstract idea that there is a virtual universe that everyone can participate in and that the virtual universe isn't actually owned by anyone. But the challenge is that they are often connected to virtual reality.

But with virtual reality, the kinds of things people really need end up being much simpler. Basically you want a laptop without a laptop. That's very useful, but it's not a 'verse.'”

True metaverse fusion: crypto, virtual reality, artificial intelligence

According to Buterin, a true Metaverse experience can emerge from combining elements of the existing virtual world, including certain aspects of cryptography, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence, rather than trying to directly create a Metaverse-like environment.

“What I hope is most similar to a metaverse and really makes sense is not something that tries to be a metaverse. But something that takes all the different virtual world things that we already have, including some of the cryptocurrency, virtual reality and artificial intelligence, and combines them in the right way.”

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