"The successor to mobile internet" - that's how Mark Zukerberg defined the metaverse in his Facebook connect keynote address. Not a new concept by any means, metaverse started making headlines as Meta (Previously Facebook) announced that the main focus of the company is going to focus on unlocking the potential of the metaverse and revolutionize how users perceived the internet. Facebook wants the new metaverse to take users on an exciting journey that will alter the way they interact, work, shop, and connect with the world around them instead of being restricted to just passive consumption and reaction.
First coined in the 1992 novel Snow Crash by Neil Stephenson, metaverse was a virtual world used by the residents of a 21st century dystopian future Earth. It was depicted as a planet-encircling market where users could roam around as avatars of their liking and participate in a virtual real estate market. Having been used in multiple contexts over the years, it can be defined rather ambiguously as the combination of augmented and virtual reality worlds that can be accessed through either a browser or a headset which allows people to have real time interactions and experiences even across large distances. Since the exact definition of the metaverse is still developing, many of the modern conceptions revolving around the multiverse require it to have 3 elements - a VR interface, digital ownership and avatars.
Currently, the metaverse we refer to is actually a series of individual metaverses set up by different companies and governments. We are yet to find the relevant technologies and processing power to club all these disconnected metaverses to one single unified network. Even so, the metaverse is sure to revolutionize how people experience the digital landscape in the upcoming future.
Even with all its pomp and flair the metaverse is not without its share of trouble. With any new technology comes an assortment of threats associated with it. Being relatively new, most companies are not aware of these risks or the precautions they will have to take before hopping in the race to jump on the metaverse bandwagon. These are some of the risks that experts think will affect the metaverse the most:
Since it is a relatively new platform, we cannot comprehend the new forms of attacks and threats the metaverse will be subject to. With new regulations and measures that are being introduced by companies, hackers are constantly trying to find new ways to take advantage of the purely digital world that a metaverse is. Companies with a metaverse presence have to always be aware of newer threats and constantly upgrade their security to provide users with a secure and positive experience.