Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, spoke about the Metaverse, emphasizing that it still needs a definition and that, rather than a product, it is instead conceived as a brand. 

Vitalik Buterin: “the Metaverse is poorly defined and is seen as a brand”

During the BUIDL Asia conference in Seoul, Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, expressed his views on the metaverse, criticizing its current situation.

Basically, Buterin argues that the metaverse still needs a definition, and is often conceived more as a brand rather than a product. Here are his words:

“The Metaverse is poorly defined and often seen more as a brand than as a product. It is conceived as a virtual universe that everyone can participate in and that is not owned by anyone. It is often associated with virtual reality, where the needs are simpler, as if one wanted a laptop without the laptop.”

Not only that, according to Buterin, people often associate the metaverse with virtual reality (VR), while in reality there is much more. 

Actually, the concept of metaverse refers to a decentralized virtual world, with immersive social environments and experiences that use avatars, virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technologies. Even blockchain technology plays an important role, like the bond that unites everything. 

Vitalik Buterin and his suggestions on the Metaverse at the BUIDL Asia conference

Continuing his speech at BUIDL Asia, Buterin then suggested a way that could make the metaverse work correctly. Here are his words:

“For the metaverse to work properly, we need something that combines ‘all the different elements of the virtual world that we already have, including encryption, virtual reality, and some parts of artificial intelligence, in the right way’.”

The co-founder of Ethereum then also included something related to the crypto and blockchain world in his speech.

Basically, Buterin argues that if the abstraction of accounts becomes mainstream, it will have to balance security and convenience, something that Ethereum has not yet done.

X’s abandonment to use Farcaster

Just today, Buterin was also mentioned in the context of social networks. In fact, the “father of Ethereum” seems to have left X, former Twitter, to use Farcaster.

To lift everything up, it would be Elon Musk, owner of X, who questioned the reason for Buterin’s exit from the social platform.

By analyzing Buterin’s behavior, it seems that he has actively participated in Farcaster, an alternative to Twitter focused on the crypto world. 

Not only that, already last February, Buterin had also expressed his appreciation for the crypto-social emphasizing the advantages of the channels compared to Twitter. 

Farcaster is currently riding the wave of success, especially after the launch of Frames, which makes posts on the social crypto interactive, leading to an increase in daily active users and revenue. Not only that, support for Solana addresses has also contributed to the platform’s growth. 

Although the Metaverse is still often discussed as a future, or futuristic, innovation, in reality, Metaverse has been around for some time and is enjoying some success. 

Cases of Metaverse that are already a reality

For now, these are niche initiatives not known to the general public, but they are already existing and working. 

The best-known cases are probably those of Decentraland and The Sandbox, where, for example, land purchases in the virtual real estate market are already an established reality. But they are already moving to the next step, which is the superimposition of augmented reality (AR) on the surface of the Earth. 

In fact, it is already possible on some metaverses to buy the ability to create AR effects placed in certain physical locations, thanks to special Apps that show these effects to those who go to those places. 

While metaverses are already a reality, their current state is still decidedly pioneering, with many innovations and evolutions that could come in the future. One of these could be the development of a proper regulatory framework that governs the virtual rights of their frequenters.

Groping on Meta

A curious case that emerged in this sense these days is that of a “groping” that occurred on the testing platform of Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook. 

In fact, according to an internal report, last November 26th, one of the platform’s first users was the victim of an episode of sexual harassment while she was testing the first version of the new Metaverse, called Horizon Worlds. 

The user would have been approached by another avatar who would have started to “touch” her virtually, incited by other users. Episodes like this already indicate the need to normalize or regulate behaviors within the Metaverse. 

Meta’s troubles

Meta itself has recently been crowned as the worst company of 2021. 

According to a survey by Yahoo Finance, it would have been the worst company of the year, mainly because of the scandal raised by the statements of former employee Frances Haugen about the alleged lack of ethics in handling fake news and the effects on children of Facebook and Instagram.

The Quirinale as metaverse

On the other hand, however, even physical places of great importance, such as the Quirinale in Italy, are becoming virtual. 

What was for centuries the official residence of the Popes, and then became the official residence of the Kings of Italy and the Presidents of the Italian Republic, can now be visited virtually thanks to a project by Google Arts&Culture. 100km of routes and 1,000 photos to enjoy the splendor of one of the most beautiful ancient buildings in the world. 

Everything suggests that it is now only a matter of time before the Metaverse becomes part of everyone’s lives, or almost. 

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