Crazy Metaverse｜How should the "Metaverse" on the capital windfall land?
On November 19, 18:00-19:00, "Crazy Metaverse" will start The third column, with the theme of "How does the Metaverse come to fruition?", invited Shen Haoran, the founder of Hashiqi Technology, and Sun Yulin, a senior researcher at the Okey Cloud Chain Research Institute, as guests, and was hosted by Zhang Shuhao, executive editor-in-chief of Rhythm BlockBeats.
The following is the text version of this issue:
Recently, the popularity of the Metaverse continues. Recently, Luo Yonghao forwarded the definition of the Metaverse, and revealed that the next entrepreneurial project is Regarding the metaverse; Tencent Ma Huateng also said that the company already has a lot of technical capabilities to explore the metaverse; Netease CEO also expressed his views on the metaverse. So how far is the Metaverse landing? What are the current bottlenecks and obstacles to the development of the Metaverse? In the conversation with Shen Haoran, founder of Hashiqi Technology, a developer of AR and VR content and solutions, and Sun Yulin, a senior researcher at Okey Cloud Chain Research Institute, we may get some answers.
Guest Introduction
Shen Haoran: Founder of Hashiqi Technology Company
R&D of AR and VR content and solutions Shangha Shiqi Technology has launched the world-renowned explosive game "Fancy Skiing (Fancy Skiing)", and has been paying attention to the development of related fields. The founder of the company, Shen Haoran, is also the president of the Metaverse AR and VR Association.
Sun Yulin: Senior Researcher of Okey Cloud Chain Research Institute
Okey Cloud Chain focuses on data security on the chain, and has helped many policemen across the country to recover a large number of assets involved in the case. It has tens of millions of users worldwide and has offices in more than 180 countries around the world. . The guest of this issue, Sun Yulin, a senior researcher at the Okey Cloud Chain Research Institute, has been doing research on the application of new digital technologies since 2018. His main direction is blockchain, and he has also continued to pay attention to fields such as big data and artificial intelligence.
When will the metaverse really come?
Hashiqi Technology Shen Haoran said that in the era of mobile Internet, for most people, especially For young people, the proportion of digital life is basically greater than real life. Everyone will conduct online office work, online courses, online entertainment, shopping, and socializing, and everyone will stay longer in the virtual space. But this is not only the final form of everyone's life in the future, because the final form of life will not always be limited to the screen of the mobile phone, technology will continue to improve, and the Internet will continue to move forward. The virtual digital world is actually the metaverse, so I feel that this node or the so-called starting point of the metaverse still has some time to go. In the near future, people’s digital life will be completely virtualized and will be carried out in a virtual digital world parallel to the real world. All kinds of production and living activities, this time only shows that the Metaverse has really arrived.
Sun Yulin, a senior researcher at the Okey Cloud Chain Research Institute, said that many people talk about the big bang about the starting point From the beginning, hundreds of millions of galaxies, stars, and planets were born. Discuss the node problem, hoping to find a certain fixed pattern and law of the operation of the universe or the operation of the economy and society. In turn, this law helps the public to have a relatively certain prediction of the future, and everyone hopes to minimize this uncertainty. Sun Yulin agrees with Shaan Puri's judgment about the Metaverse.
Sun Yulin summed up Shaan Puri's point of view that the attention paid to digital life should be higher than real life just reached the starting point. The landmark event at this starting point should be the advent of the iPhone in 2007, which brought the advent of the mobile Internet era. The mobile Internet experience is not immersive and intuitive enough, and people rely heavily on screens. Many people have proposed the concept of the next generation of mobile Internet, which is an upgrade of experience, and this is a relatively clear concept called "Metaverse" today. It is a bit similar to the concept of "full truth Internet" proposed by Tencent Ma Huateng at the end of last year.
In a nutshell, the starting point of the metaverse needs to be found. When the sense of immersion is strong enough, it may It will be the birth of some equipment or the occurrence of a landmark event.
How do VR companies understand the Metaverse, and how is the Metaverse defined?
Shen Haoran pointed out that the word "Metaverse" first appeared in the science fiction writer Stephenson in In the novel "Avalanche" released in 1992, the metaverse is described in the novel as: put on headphones and sunglasses, find a terminal, and then connect to another three-dimensional world simulated by a computer. Everyone can live in this virtual space parallel to the real world. has its own avatar.
Metaverse literally means to build in the real world through some technical means A virtual world that mirrors the real world while remaining persistent. Throughout human history, people's lives and the way he obtains information have been changing, for example, from ancient times to knotting ropes, and later invented paper, and then from newspapers, radio and television to the Internet, and mobile Internet.
So in the era of mobile Internet, people will definitely ask such questions: What will people's lives be like? Shen Haoran believes that the answer is basically the Metaverse. In the end, Shen Haoran defined the metaverse as: a new generation of digital world based on the real world and completely virtual Internet of Things in the future, which depicts the future life.
Sun Yulin gave a simpler summary: Metaverse is the next generation of mobile Internet, which puts more emphasis on immersive and interactive experiences. The next generation of mobile Internet requires a relatively complete economic system, and such an economic system needs to be supported by blockchain.
The Development of VR Equipment and the Metaverse
Shen Haoran, founder of Hashiqi Technology, a developer of AR and VR content and solutions, affirmed the current well-known VR equipment Oculus Quest2 products, He agrees that Oculus Quest2 is a very powerful VR device, which can be said to be the best electronic product device in the past ten years.
Shen Haoran introduced that early VR-level products were expensive and wearable. Subsequently, various VR hardware manufacturers at home and abroad gradually launched their own VR all-in-one machines. In 2019, Oculus launched the Quest1 generation, which became an epoch-making milestone product. Quest 1 is the first real 6DOF VR all-in-one machine in the world. It can recognize the range of space like a PC VR device. Players can move freely in the designated area and wave the handle freely. It is very light and has enough experience good.
Oculus will launch the Quest2 generation in 2020, the performance will be further improved, and the price will drop from $399 to $299. The Quest content store has a large number of games with good quality. You will see a well-known game "Rhythm of Light" in the VR experience store in the mall, which is also a killer app in the VR game industry. The game is interesting, the hardware is basically mature, and the entire VR game content ecology has also been initially established.
If you are interested in buying VR equipment, I highly recommend Quset2 generation, the president of Qualcomm revealed , Quset2 shipments will reach 10 million units this year. Domestic users can also consider domestic VR equipment, and Huawei VR glasses are also worth buying.
In terms of equipment experience, Shen Haoran concluded that the vertigo problem of VR equipment was normal in the past. From a practitioner's point of view, there is no need to worry too much about this issue. Due to the continuous iterative upgrade of the hardware, the dizziness problem has basically been solved now. At present, some people feel more or less dizzy when playing VR, which is caused by physiology. The so-called motion sickness also varies from person to person. Many people get dizzy when playing 3D games on the computer. For example, our older people also feel uncomfortable when looking at the computer screen. After getting used to it, the situation will actually improve a lot. As the hardware continues to iteratively upgrade, its experience will get better and better, so this problem will actually be resolved at a certain time in the future.
Facebook (now renamed Meta) Project Metaverse
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Sun Yulin, a senior researcher at Okey Cloud Chain Research Institute, said that after Facebook changed its name, its original Facebook became a product under Meta. Zuckerberg revealed that his lab has produced some relatively concrete results, such as a series of Oculus Quest devices and gloves with spatial interaction functions being tested.
Metaverse is the next generation of mobile Internet, so mobile features must be Taking it seriously, Sun Yulin believes that the biggest limitation affecting the realization of this feature may not be the hardware device in question, but the battery energy and the battery life of the device. In addition to the visible and tangible idea of the metaverse promoted by Meta, the economic system in the metaverse is equally important.
Shen Haoran speculated through Zuckerberg’s $2 billion acquisition of Oculus in 2014 that He is already laying out the future and building the future Metaverse. In addition to researching and manufacturing VR underlying technologies and hardware, Meta has also been pioneering and innovating in content ecology. In addition to its own content platform, Meta has released virtual social and virtual office applications, and has also recreated various scenes in VR. There is an all-encompassing metaverse, where users can work, entertain, and make friends. This kind of application describes people's future life.
Shen Haoran is very optimistic about Meta as the Metaverse, to be precise, this is the true meaning of the current technology giants Above: Willing to invest for a long time and have made achievements. In the future, Meta will still play a very important role in the ecology of the Metaverse.
Metaverse concept game
Sun Yulin, a senior researcher at the Okey Cloud Chain Research Institute, expressed his views on this topic. He pointed out that the concept of a virtual world is mentioned in NFT, and there are two signs Prominent projects: Decentraland and CryptoVoxels. On the NFT trading platform Opensea, Decentraland now surpasses CryptoVoxels in terms of interaction volume and NFT alone.
Starting from his own experience, Sun Yulin said that the viewing of these two games is similar to "Minecraft" and Tencent's Roblox. However, there is still a big gap between it and the immersive experience of some 3A masterpieces abroad. However, blockchain games have high hardware requirements, and there will be obvious lag when using home-use computer games. He said that at this stage, he experiences the strongest sense of loneliness in these two blockchain games, and the interaction with players is not too much. At most, he will do tasks with NPCs and take a look at the content built by everyone in the game. However, it is worth mentioning that the game Decentraland supports VR devices.
Is blockchain technology being hyped with the help of metaverse?
Shen Haoran believes that the essence should be seen through the phenomenon. Metaverse is originally a brand-new ecological world that human beings will enter in the future. VR, AR technology and blockchain technology have emerged as new technologies in recent years. At the same time, they are also the infrastructure and underlying conditions for future technological development and social progress. These two types of technologies in the Metaverse are also used as a means of realization, and the Metaverse happens to be the best application scenario for these two types of technologies. One provides the hardware foundation, and the other provides the basis for economic operation. Therefore, VR, AR technology, and blockchain technology are originally coordinated and interdependent. For ordinary users, everyone accepts the concept of the metaverse and sees the news more or less, which is a good thing. Everyone can imagine future life and future technology. No matter what the other concept of the metaverse is, it can be popularized and developed. Come on, probably not a bad thing.
Sun Yulin analyzed from the perspective of ecological composition, the industry of the Metaverse can be understood as a "2+ 1" ecological structure, this "2" represents the entrance layer of the scene, and the underlying supporting technology layer, "1" is the economic system that guarantees the stable growth of the metaverse ecology, with this 2+1 structure, it can support many previous In particular, if there is an economic system that can guarantee stable growth, it can push the previous technology to continue to develop. In the mobile Internet era, the work being done and planned to be done can actually continue to find its place in the Metaverse.
Metaverse Development Status, Difficulties and Obstacles
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"VR is a natural entrance into the metaverse" Shen Haoran mentioned that this entrance is a real mature metaverse, and the time is not too late Far. Now VR glasses, represented by Quest2, have provided a relatively good virtual reality experience. The metaverse ecology built on the basis of VR technology is now being gradually established, and already has a prototype. Shen Haoran believes that the penetration rate of VR hardware may be an obstacle to the development of the Metaverse. The current user experience is not perfect. In the near future or even in the next three to five years, as an ordinary user, for the majority of ordinary users, if they want to enter the Metaverse through VR, this day will come soon.
AR glasses are now mainly oriented to the ToB stage, and the two lines of VR glasses ToB and ToC are parallel. Quest2 sold 10 million units this year, which is a very important node for both consumer electronics and VR glasses. With tens of millions of users, it has begun to enter a relatively large market. In the next few years, VR devices will not only be owned by Oculus, but other VR devices will reach tens of millions or even hundreds of millions in the market. By then, the market will be large enough and the ecology will basically be established.
Is the blockchain a necessary infrastructure for the Metaverse?
Sun Yulin once again emphasized the need for an economic system in the Metaverse world. Assuming that there is no transaction or economic system in the digital world, if this world only serves entertainment and socializing in it, it will be difficult to trigger the development of more new functions in the long run. People are profit-seeking, and only if you bring him some benefits, you may join a system to improve him, develop him, and push forward.
The problem lies in how such an economic system should be established, mainly depends on this economic system Can he support himself and let him have unlimited possibilities for future development. Sun Yulin believes that if the metaverse economic system is to be established, it must rely on blockchain technology. He used the birth of the Internet as an example. Before the birth of the Internet, the circulation efficiency of various production factors was relatively low. The flow of production factors is more convenient. Therefore, the economy in the Internet age is an economy with unprecedented rapid development.
With the development of Internet technology, there are more and more data on the Internet, and data has gradually become an important factor of production and means of production. The Internet is just a kind of Internet that we can understand as a kind of information Internet or data Internet. For example, a piece of land or even a chair can be transferred in it. Such economic behavior requires information or data to be confirmed in order to be able to carry out value-reliable transfers. At present, whether it is the Internet or the metaverse, such economic behavior is subject to many restrictions. With blockchain technology, the establishment of the metaverse economic system should be relatively smooth.
Blockchain itself will have some characteristics, such as encryption algorithm, encryption algorithm through some The form of private key signature can guarantee the uniqueness of assets or data, and a distributed consensus mechanism can ensure that data is not tampered with and stored permanently. The chain structure of the blockchain uses time stamps to determine the order of data storage, and cooperates with the consensus mechanism. Data and assets exist for a long time, so that data confirmation can be resolved, and smart contracts can also be referenced in the circulation. In the form of smart contracts, a value or digital assets can be carried out openly and fairly to assist in a circulation.
The physical world is transferred to the digital world, in the virtual space, if you want to create a virtual space We may need to use means to achieve our purpose, and the technical means is the blockchain. There are also distributed autonomous organizations on the blockchain, which can solve the problems of centralized organizations that are too large and have too much control. Distributed organizations can also play a more important business model in the metaverse economy.
What factors are required for the inflection point of metaverse popularity?
Shen Haoran believes that if smartphones are used as a reference, the current VR glasses and AR glasses are still There are many flaws and shortcomings, and the experience has not yet reached a satisfactory level. Not up to the standards of a mass-market consumer electronics product. In the future, a type of device will replace the smartphone as the new personal center, and this device must be smart glasses. Smart glasses include AR, VR, and MR functions, and this device is also the entrance to the Metaverse.
To really reach the inflection point of metaverse popularity, from the perspective of hardware as infrastructure, smart hardware must be portable and easy to use, with strong computing power and economical , can be worn for a long time, cheap and so on. Because it is consumer-grade electronics, it should be of high quality and low price. Just like a smartphone, its entire software application ecology must be very complete, capable of providing various functions that users need. There are also some factors. The economic system must be based on the blockchain. This inflection point still has to wait, but Shen Haoran believes that the inflection point does not need to wait for a long time, because sometimes technological development is really amazing.
Sun Yulin agreed with Shen Haoran's point of view, and added that in addition to the tens of millions of consumer-grade products, DAU is also an important indicator. From the perspective of blockchain, Sun Yulin believes that there are some obstacles to the development of blockchain technology, the most important point is that the transaction or data processing efficiency on the blockchain is relatively low, which is why Ethereum is committed to Developers of solutions such as Layer 2 are developing towards solving efficiency.
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