A first example of a metaverse with an online economy is the gaming platform Roblox and its currency, Robux. Users who buy Robux can spend it on experiences and items for their avatar. One example is architects who will design the extraordinary buildings in the metaverse and sell them on the open market, receiving payment in cryptocurrency that they can spend inside or outside the metaverse. NVIDIA, a company whose investment in the metaverse has led some to predict that it will one day surpass Apple, is just one of many companies striving to participate in the metaverse gold rush.
In the latest edition of the Metaverse Explained series, we will discuss the challenges associated with building something as ambitious as the metaverse and people's concerns about spending time in a virtual world. The advent of AR, blockchain and VR devices in recent years has led to the development of the metaverse. From renting space in coveted locations to basically tax transactions in their marketplace, developers of the best locations in the metaverse will be compensated accordingly for their efforts. Prior to the publication of Stephenson's novel, metaverse-like virtual environments had already appeared in some MMORPGs and other retro-futuristic novels, but none of them had dealt with the metaverse as clearly as Snow Crash.
So I would say that those who are completely closed off to all those things I just mentioned are not really part of the metaverse, because the metaverse is what unifies it.
