What will it take for the metaverse to be widely adopted?

It’s an understatement to say “there’s quite a lot of buzz around metaverse.” I believe there’s no stopping it. It will soon be part of our lives in some way, and we’re just scratching the surface on how it will integrate into our future daily routines. For this article, I will share the top 5 things I think will have to happen for the metaverse to truly be adopted. While much of what I mention is already available in some form, they have to further mature to be optimized for this digital ecosystem to meet expectations.

Keep note that ‘metaverse’ is currently the universal term, but these digital world providers may come up with their own name (like Nvidia’s Omniverse).

Let’s get started…

1. Optimized Infrastructure

Fiber Network & Edge Computing

Just like Netflix had to align its roadmap for faster internet speeds to wane off the DVD mail model and become the over-the-top giant we know today, the metaverse is aligning itself to the infrastructure roadmap to offer a high-fidelity experience for users. However, this is more complex than just faster speeds.

Starting off, it will be key to deliver the metaverse through a low latency network. You need a great fiber optic network that spans to all necessary regions, and you need an edge network to bring computing closer to the customer. If edge computing is a new term for you, think of it as the cloud but many more of them so they can be nearer the customer and where their digital interaction is taking place. Edge is helpful for four major reasons:

• Low latency — It can give single digit millisecond computing latency to these metaverse users.
• Reduce Bandwidth consumption — Edge computing helps with data bandwidth consumption because it reduces the long haul distance. Since there will be so much data being created, this is an understated benefit.
• Privacy & Security — This can help with typical cybersecurity in a sense, but it also allows providers to better manage policies and data that need to reside or be uniquely managed in a specific state or region.
• Autonomy — Because there’s a network of edge nodes out there, if failover is necessary, you will still receive a comparable low latency experience.

Private & Public 5G

Now that you have the low latency, low bandwidth network figured out, the wireless network is the next step. By bringing wireless capabilities to the edge network via 5G, this maintains extreme low latency while giving the mobility users will expect. And when you combine these technologies, this becomes a true workload for the metaverse. This is also a big win for manufacturers of HMDs (head mounted displays) because it will enable smaller form factor devices, since the compute is happening away from the HMD; I will dive deeper into those benefits a little later.

Today, 5G is a common term and often marketed as fully functioning, but it still has a lot of room to mature into what 5G really is expected to be. The expected roadmap for true 5G (both deployment and functionality) is more like 2025. To add, when enterprise companies begin using the metaverse for their operations, ‘Private 5G’ is another wireless workload that is maturing and growing in appeal due to greater control, security, and unique deployments. This is possible and easier to commercialize because there’s now more spectrum availability and more virtualized, software-defined components to be usable for private 5G needs.

Data Orchestration

The next step in infrastructure is being able to manage all this data. By orchestrating where the data should reside and leveraged will be huge. This involves distributed cloud (cloud, edge, on-premise) working seamlessly and managed from a single pane of glass. It also involves making the management of data smart. In the metaverse, unique user interactions and features will be geo-specific, so why require that data to go all the way to the major data centers? Instead, vital information based on needs will be properly mapped to stay where it is, eventually move away, or be dissected to work with correlated data from another area. The result is optimizing the low-latency interactions since the right data will stay close, plus reducing costs of both bandwidth and data storage.

Network Security & Cybersecurity

The last step I’ll cover in the optimized infrastructure pipeline (while there’s more) is Network Security and Cybersecurity. There are a plenty of efforts happening in this space because our identities will be further contextualized and digitized, and there will be more doorways for attacks to happen.

Here are two things that are emerging to combat attacks on networks and user devices.

• Zero Trust Security — This is an architecture methodology requiring end-to-end trust of no one and giving access only to essential features and data as the user needs them. This removal of trust will persist not just to user data and interactions, but also their devices. IoT hardware for the metaverse will be a true extension of their users, and ensuring attacks on these devices will require such harsh verifications. 80% of enterprises plan on implementing zero trust in 2022, and their spend will reflect that.
• Quantum Security — Quantum computing will one day become commonly used — for good but also for bad. If someone were to attack the metaverse using quantum mechanics, today’s asymmetric public key cryptography wouldn’t stand a chance. However, by taking quantum-based encryption to secure the metaverse through these next generation algorithms, it will help defend the network, user data, and devices against malicious attacks.

2. Affordable, Usable, and Scalable Hardware

Hardware for AR/VR has come a long way in the past decade. In 2012, Oculus launched their first kickstarter campaign for a fully assembled VR headset. It was leagues beyond what was previously available with its lower latency, greater resolution, and wider field of view. We all know the rest of the story; Facebook purchases Oculus for $2 billion. Mark Zuckerberg saw the Oculus Rift as the springboard to what now will be the metaverse, and plenty of work and capital has been thrown at the HMD to be an all-in-one untethered device with its own compute. However, for the metaverse to mature, the devices will need to be more affordable, usable, and scalable.

• Affordable — Since edge and 5G infrastructure mentioned earlier will enable remote computing and rendering, metaverse devices will soon be able to become more cost efficient. Just like in cloud gaming, entry-level hardware may almost be given away to allow users to buy into metaverse worlds, applications, and feature upgrades. Plus, as the metaverse experience becomes more GPU hungry, that load can be upgraded on the edge rather than upgrading the devices. It also helps maintain a comparable experience for all users with the suggested connection.
• Usable — Another benefit to remote rendering is the ability for smaller form factor devices. Smaller, lighter devices will allow users to use the metaverse devices for longer periods of time than current ones. It will be interesting to see how small and how light, but with news about an AR display contact lens, it seems it can feel like it’s just part of you. Sensor-rich bodysuits are already impressively slim, and they will only get better. Form factors will still have trade-offs against quality, but different use cases will ask for different levels of fidelity.
• Scalable — This third factor, scalability, can be considered standalone but it’s meant to also support the first two factors (affordable/usable). While certain metaverse rigs will be purpose-built, the hope would be for companies to develop hardware to connect into a greater fidelity experience without having to purchase unique rigs for different metaverse use cases. For example, a user’s HMD for daily aids should also be useable for training at work and even gaming. If additional sensory devices (audio or touch) is needed, it should be easily compatible into the HMD you were already using.

Photo by Shubham Dhage on Unsplash

3. Decentralized

Just like we expect our HBO Max and Hulu accounts to work across our different mobile and streaming devices, we’ll expect all our metaverse purchases, preferences, and relevant connections to persist across different digital worlds. There will need to be controls and permissions for what we bring from one world to another, and users should be the ones to control it. Users will one day have a metaverse world for work, one for socializing and gaming, and one for being with family. A marketplace purchase of a shirt, game, or song to play should be able to persist across any or all of the worlds you work and play. Blockchain and NFTs will help ensure your digital ownership, but digital world providers should allow control and use your items as you wish.

Being decentralized will also help foster community driven and entrepreneurial opportunities. As digital worlds are being built, users will support it by offering their work in different ways (i.e. NFT houses, art, clothing) and rewarded in cryptocurrency. As the metaverse matures, additional uses cases will arise for services to be offered and rewarded as well.

Photo by Stillness InMotion on Unsplash

4. Mapping the environment

By continuing on the community aspect of building these digital worlds, the physical world will need to be mapped to mesh into the metaverse. Part of this may feel similar to google street view, but it will quickly become more complex yet incredibly resourceful.

• Mapping spaces for social, entertainment, and marketing — Public and private spaces could be scanned in detail to allow metaverse users to feel as if they’re actually there. Whether you want to invite friends or colleagues to hang out or discuss projects at a famous bar, or a DJ sell tickets to show at the digitally rendered Red Rocks Amphitheatre, you can transport to those spaces and feel like you are there. This also offers, for good or bad, opportunities for those spaces to profit from digitally-inserted marketing or payment to join these exclusive spaces in the metaverse.
• Mapping spaces for optimizing work and collaboration — Mapping spaces will eventually go much further than entertainment purposes to benefit metaverse users. This is where I’m personally most excited, because it will drive how enterprises operate and engage with their customers in the future. Let’s take manufacturing plants for example; by mapping the entire plant’s environment from the space and tag every machine running, you now have a layout and representation of your operations for users to explore. To be able to engage with this space in new ways, IoT sensors will be attached to each and every relevant machine and conduit of the plant. By combining the data with this mapped space, enterprises could truly interact and collaborate on ways for plant optimization, failure preventions, and how to best pivot operations based on customer needs. This is called digital twinning, but the metaverse will turn this into a much more interactive and usable experience. You can take this metaverse ‘digital twinning’ concept to many other use cases and transform that industry. Commercial and residential construction, healthcare, agriculture, public transportation, and more.

5. Jobs

To make all these efforts possible, it will take a wide range of knowledge and passion around the metaverse to mature it. Job opportunities will grow quickly, and I will mention just a few that will be needed in the very near future. Those who jump into these areas early will grow experience for a long career, and they will help chart the future of the metaverse for all.

• Metaverse creators — Game designers and developers are already feeling the value of their current experience, because it’s not a far departure from their current work. App developers and engineers will be pulled into this space as they are tasked to turn current services into ones for the metaverse.
• UI/UX — These workers will need to identify and build structure and guidelines as to how the metaverse will feel not just as a standalone environment but also when you jump from a mobile application into the metaverse.
• Marketers — This job space will have a wide variety of opportunities and tasks. The metaverse will be considered another slice in the omni-channel pie, but it’s likely to disrupt the entire process as it matures. Marketers will need different strategies depending how they expect users to consume their product or service. This area will also be burdened with the task of education; both to customers and companies wanting to enter the metaverse.
• Law & Enforcement — With new ways to engage, comes new rules to follow. HR departments, Lawyers, accountants, governments, and security related functions will need to quickly define and enforce how the metaverse will function. Each abuse that is identified and a ruling is established, it will create new precedent for metaverse users to understand repercussions.
• Trainers — Educating metaverse users how to best interact with with these digital worlds may seem overkill for some use cases but it will be essential for others. YouTube will be a great guide for those wanting tips and tricks for use cases that cast a wide net, such as gaming and social experiences. The area where this will matter most is when organizations want to deploy metaverse experiences for their workforce to use and require their partners or business customers to do it as well. This doesn’t offset the importance of UI/UX leaders, but not every workforce member will be ready to simply run with it. Ensuring everyone is efficient with this new way to interact will enable the jump required for the metaverse to be enterprise-worthy.

Conclusion

As mentioned, the metaverse will be here and integrated into our lives before we know it. The basics I mentioned are key pillars for leaders in this space, and they are working to align so their digital worlds will function as they envision. Gaming and social use cases are only the tip of the iceberg, and I look forward to seeing the rest come into view.