April, 23rd, 2022
ltprod

THE COMING OF WEB 3.0 – OVERVIEW & BACKGROUND

In 2015 and prior Augmented Reality allowed developers to create digital experiences using physical objects such as a business card that could play a video when you pointed the camera at a QR code or when you placed your mobile device next to a beacon. Of course, you would need an app on your device that talked to the beacon or QR code. The video could be displayed in 3D and visible in your physical environment. For instance, you could be in your living room and you would see the video playing through your phone and your living room in the background. Think of the movie Black Panther where the characters Shuri and T’challa used a wrist device to communicate and an augmented version of their likeness (video) would pop up so they could see each other as they communicated. Around the same time, Virtual Reality was introduced where a person could have a hologram of themselves displayed in a 3 D Life Sized video (Hologram Webinar example shown here). Holograms have also been unsuccessfully attempted in concerts.

A Small Business Guide To Search Engine Marketing

Read this book for free on Kindle Unlimited or buy it now.

The Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR) and Hologram technology have been around for over a decade, except only now has it begun to reach main stream. With this technology still in its infancy, the Metaverse and NFT’s began to surface in 2020 during the Covid lockdowns as an answer to our world being physically separated from each other.

The Metaverse is a virtual world that is being created. The world is accessed by a set of eyewear or a VR headset that allows you to see the internet in 3D, except it is the internet converted into a simulated world. In this world, people will have identities and they can BE whoever or whatever they want to be. The identities will be as real as our current government issued ID’s or drivers licenses. No one else can own it. Also part of this world are NFT’s or Non-fungible tokens that can be sold and traded.

An NFT is a digital asset or piece of art that represents real-world objects like art, music, and other items that people can purchase. People can own property such as a house furnished the way they like; and cars… all paid for by real money stored in a digital wallet using a unique digital identity. To buy digital assets or NFT’s people go the the website OpenSea.io which is also where people go to sell NFT’s they create. Right now anyone can buy, sell or create NFT’s. In fact, people are making as much as $4000 per piece of digital art on the OpenSea Market Place.  What makes an NFT valuable? This is yet to be determined. Just as supply and demand drives the physical world economy, it will most likely be the same demand that drives NFT value.  It has been said that for NFT purchases, scarcity or exclusivity can drive the value as in the case of this Swiss Jeweler who created the world’s first Luxury NFT.  But one thing for sure, we can pretty much guess that Hollywood, Big Tech, and other big players will have influence the direction of this tech.

WHAT IS BEHIND NFT AND THE METAVERSE

Blockchain is the new technology that the Metaverse, WEB 3.0 will be built on. It is decentralized technology that gives control back to the user, kind of like Open Source code for developers. It keeps tech giants from taking over or owning all the tech and then charging everyone else whatever they want to charge. Blockchain is also the same technology that allows for creating the Bitcoin digital currency, which by the way, individuals who purchase the equipment to mine their own coins, can do so legally.

HOW TO GET STARTED

First, to get started on your NFT/Metaverse quest, you can begin by going to the Unstoppable Domains website and purchasing your NFT domain, that you own forever by the way. These domains can be used as your universal username across all apps and websites, as your website URL, payment address for wallets and other uses yet to be discovered. There are over 2 million domains registered and growing. This means that the chances for grabbing the name you want are great, but perhaps not for long.

A company called Wisekey, is now working to help the government “Build” this virtual world. Yet while we may see big tech involvement and hear about it extensively in the coming days, don’t let that intimidate you. We still do have control and a great part to play in new tech if we choose.
BUILD YOUR NFT COLLECTION
Second, if you are an artist, you will find it very easy to create NFT’s. Photoshop has some great tools for allowing variations and combinations of the same artwork. There will be people purchasing fashion gear or “skins” to be used in gaming. There will be people to purchase other objects such as vurniture, jewelry, shoes, etc. to make their characters “cooler.”  This really is the Avatar Generator on sterroids. So you’ll need to decide what type of NFT collection you’d like to create.You can literally use this 13 minute video and have an entire NFT collection built today from scratch. Go through the video tutorial and from there you have the skills you need to do additional NFT projects. Freepik.com is a great place to get images and objects that you can modify and play with to make your own unique artwork, etc. Once you have your NFT Collection complete, you can place them for sale on OpenSea.io. It is possible you can showcase them and sell them on your own NFT domain but you would need to build in payment on your site.
BUILD YOUR METAVERSE
Third, The fastest way to get into the metaverse technology is to start with a project. You don’t have to understand it, you just need to complete a project. Once you create a project, you have the skills you need, then you can go back to do additional research to build your metavers out properly with some thought behind it. For developers who are interested, you can watch Sonny’s 5 day Metaverse challenge. This section will be constantly updated as it is a work in progress since I am studying the technology myself. This information will remain posted on my website on the blog under the category “New Tech.”
MORE RESOURCES TO STUDY
Learn more about NFT’s, Gas, Web3 and more on the Unstoppable Domains Youtube Channel
Read and watch videos from Wisekey. They plan on helping governments get ready for the metaverse.