Either way, the metaverse is here to stay

As the metaverse continues to build on existing technologies, individuals and companies are discovering how it can be used and exploited.

The Internet as we know it today will be replaced in a few years’ time by a virtual world that closely matches its physical counterpart. That’s according to Patrick Rottiers and Thierry Mortier, Country Managing Partner and Global Digital & Innovation Lead for Energy at EY Belgium.

Some thirty years ago, a number of innovations emerged that still form the basis of how we surf today. We look at a screen on which we can scroll or swipe through texts, photos and videos in two dimensions. By clicking on links or typing a URL, you go to another site, which you interact with in the same way. That way of working is a tried and tested recipe and will be good for many years to come, although some people see a new form appearing: the metaverse.

3D glasses

An innovation Mark Zuckerberg valued so highly that he promptly changed the name of his company to Meta. ‘The metaverse continues to build on various technologies that have emerged in recent years. In addition to the Internet, I am thinking in particular of augmented reality (AR) or virtual reality (VR), distributed ledger technology (a network of systems that are connected to one another) and Web 3.0’, says Thierry Mortier. At EY, he is responsible globally for digitisation and innovation in the energy and resource sector. Thinking about the impact of the metaverse is therefore something of a daily event for Mortier.

Mortier: ‘Initially the Internet was one-way traffic, but this changed with the advent of Web 2.0 in the early 2000s. From then on, people could post updates themselves or discuss them with others. We do this on intermediary platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, which has advantages and disadvantages. In the future, more control and power will lie with the end users.’

The technology is one of the building blocks of the metaverse, a 3D world where people can walk around by putting on smart glasses, for example. ‘In that virtual world, you have an avatar and you can interact with each other. There is also a connection with the current world, because you can create digital copies of existing objects in the metaverse ’, says Patrick Rottiers, CEO of EY Belgium. ‘One of the big hurdles we still have to overcome is interoperability, as there will be several metaverses. There are already a number of platforms that you could consider a metaverse, but they are not yet interconnected. In the future, you will want to be able to take with you certain items that you have in one virtual world to another.’

Digital twin

The examples of what we can already regard as a metaverse are very diverse. There are regular concerts in Fortnite, millions of children hang out on Roblox every day and in Microsoft Flight Simulator you fly over a complete copy of the world. And then there's Horizon Worlds, the platform of Meta, which until recently was called Facebook.

‘When I first met someone in the metaverse, I was completely overwhelmed’, says Mortier. ‘In that virtual meeting room, you could easily simulate different scenarios in a large city. Think of floods or the growing number of electric vehicles. These kinds of environments can create a lot of value: when something breaks down, experts from all over the world can call in to find a solution together and see what the possible result could be.’

In addition to the interoperability between the different systems, there are other technological issues that need to be tackled. ‘For the time being, we are in the phase that is comparable to the arrival of the first browsers at the time of Netscape. There are already a number of relevant protocols, but the user-friendliness and look and feel need to be improved to make the metaverse more accessible. People have learned over the past two years how to interact with each other in software such as Microsoft Teams, and this goes a step further. You will be able to walk around as if you were there."

Virtual clothing

Some laws from the current Internet will also apply in the metaverse. Nevertheless, the innovation, together with the advent of Web 3.0, raises many issues. Who, for example, is responsible when something goes wrong in a decentralised system? Rottiers: ‘The end users are less dependent on intermediaries such as Facebook and can initiate certain things themselves. This can cause problems, because the regulation is lagging behind.’

The new Internet also brings innovative business models. Where large players now make money by selling data on users, the latter will share in the profits in the future. For example, players who earn items in games can sell them to someone else. When the evidence of that transaction is stored on the blockchain, this is referred to as an NFT, a non-fungible token.

‘These NFTs play an important role in the metaverse. For example, you can buy virtual land, and brands such as Gucci or Nike are already looking forward to the sale of virtual clothing’, says Rottiers. ‘A lot of this is about experimenting, because the question is what is hype, and what is not. But it's going to happen either way. More than 80 per cent of children under the age of 14 use a metaverse such as Minecraft, Fortnite or something similar at least once a week. This creates expectations when they get older,’ says Mortier.