Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin Says There’s No Coherent Definition of Metaverse

In a recent tweet, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin claims that it is hard to define “metaverse,” one of the most popular buzzwords in tech.

Buterin says that the term is being merely used to describe things that “feel” meta.

As reported by U.Today, plenty of major companies – from Walmart to Chevron – have hopped on the metaverse train with their recent patent filings.

The trend was kickstarted by social media giant Facebook changing its name to Meta in late October. Such an audacious bet on virtual reality prompted plenty of other companies to explore the metaverse.

The confusing term was initially coined by writer Neal Stephenson in his groundbreaking novel “Snow Crash,” which was published way back in 1992.

However, the term itself doesn’t actually refer to any specific technology or experience. Instead, is a catch-all term for an amalgamation of technologies such as virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and big data.        

Moreover, a fully functioning metaverse, which can be accessed by any virtual user, doesn’t exist just yet. Making immersive metaverse experiences possible would require innovative types of display technology that might not be possible for now. Moreover, developers would have to integrate spatial audio and high-quality holograms. 

Buterin notes that the metaverse attempts to replicate “some aspects of realness” in the virtual world even though these aspects are “polar opposite.”

Despite mounting skepticism and the market crash, Meta is not abandoning its metaverse plans. The company recently announced that it would launch a full-fledged metaverse academy in France.