What The Zuck – A Web3 Metaverse Roadmap

I was fascinated with the concept of the Metaverse when I first read Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash in the 90’s. At the time, I was the CEO of The Imagination Network, the top online social games company, with a remarkable team that, inspired by the book, built one of the first 3D virtual worlds—a Metaverse called CyberPark.

CyberPark had most of the components that are emerging in the market now—fun filled environments with avatars, currency, and merchandise. In my latest Web3/Meta keynote, I have a slide comparing what we built—decades ago—and what companies, like Facebook, Roblox and many others, are prototyping now. Whether at a public conference or a large internal corporate event, the audience looks at the then and now slide and says: “ I can’t see much of a difference…visually.” Even the industry leaders who can tell the difference will admit that the march to building mass-market 3D virtual Worlds has been long and slow, and still consists of lucrative niche markets.

That is all about to change, as we experience a perfect storm of enabling technologies and platforms adopted and powered-by by the next-generation of people and Web3 organizations. It will take longer than most forecast, not look like the promo-reels, and go through multiple phases of development over the next 10 years. As organizations, big and small, begin to place their bets, knowing when to invest is as important as where. What I’m asked most often is: what should my company do now. Let’s call it the NOWverse to do list.

What the Zuck is the Metaverse

People get excited about new technologies that are often over-hyped in advance, but not ready for mass-market consumption. Meta + Verse (from Universe) = Metaverse, is just the next one.

If you Google it, hundreds of definitions pop up, that most find confusing or dictate an unachievable perfect-world. There are lots of misconceptions about what you need to experience it properly, like VR/AR headsets, or massive screens, etc. You don’t—it should be device agnostic.

As an insider, I like Matthew Ball’s definition, because he digs into the critical components required for Web3 + Metaverse: “A massively scaled and interoperable network of real-time rendered 3D virtual worlds that can be experienced synchronously and persistently by an effectively unlimited number of users with an individual sense of presence, and with continuity of data, such as identity, history, entitlements, objects, communications, and payments.”

Too long? Try this: It is the Internet’s next evolution towards immersiveness.

Who is Web3?

You are. To understand the Metaverse’s enabling fundamentals, lets look at how the Internet may evolve.

Web 1.0, the first iteration of the internet that continues to be the foundation of what we use today. It was mostly read-only static content and with old media business models. At launch, it was coined as The Information Super Highway. What I said back then about the first iteration of the Internet can also be used to describe Web3 – Metaverse:

‘The future vision of what technology could feasibly provide, which will continue to change in size, scope and promise, as more viable capabilities emerge that are grounded in human demand and desire.’

Web 2.0 consolidated power with centralized landlords and business models that are monetizing the masses with more social sharing, creation, and enablement platforms.

Web 3.0 promises to take us to a democratized, creator/owner phase of the internet, where the power shifts from the big tech oligopolies to individuals. Rather than using platforms in exchange for data, users should have full power, governance, and control over assets, where they can be participants, owners, and shareholders—with peer-to-peer transactions.

The capabilities and timing of a Web3 world are as…