The Metaverse: From Websites to 'Webspaces' With Charles Read

The metaverse is quite possibly the future of the internet. To help our readers learn more about it, we've started this metaverse interview series.

These are the questions we've compiled to ask experts in blockchain, DAOs, NFTs, and game development, within the HackerNoon community. The series is intended for tech professionals to contribute their insights about the current state and the future of the metaverse.

If you too would like to start contributing to Hacker Noon, you can do so here.

If you also want to publish your thoughts about the metaverse, answer the template here.

So let’s start! First, tell us a bit about yourself. For example, name, profession, and personal interests.

I’m Charles Read, the founding partner of Rarestone Capital. We’re a Venture Fund focused on investing in the most disruptive pillars of Web 3.0 - with decentralisation and distributed ledger technology at its core.

I’m also Hackernoon Noonie Award Winner for AR 2020 - I first talked about the Metaverse and how Fortnite and Animal Crossing were giving us a glimpse into the future back in 2020 - and then I explored how collectibles are going digital - from clothes (skins) to homes, which was the blueprint for the explosive growth of the metaverse genre in blockchain in the year that followed.

Recently I also talked about what the Metaverse means for Creative Business.

Please sum up what the metaverse is in 1 to two paragraphs.

I talk about the Metaverse initially as the internet evolving into shared “Web Spaces” instead of websites that we typically use now. These webspaces take many forms: in the 2000’s we had Habbo Hotel & Club Penguin, and now we have Fortnite Creative mode and Animal Crossing. These are shared web-based environments that sometimes mimic reality in ways, and people can express and explore and often build the world around them.

More than this though, I believe the metaverse is the convergence of a number of key technologies; game design and world creation tools, (like Unreal Engine), but also virtual and augmented reality, and in the future; when we reach a more “open metaverse” is when we incorporate distributed technology and implement truly player/user-owned assets.

Imagine you could move your skins from one game to another, completely owned by you, the user, and your digital identity that moves between these webspaces?

Or what about the shoes you bought in real life were now wearable in all your favourite webspaces?

That’s the future we’re helping to build.

Are you currently, directly or indirectly, working on building a metaverse?

I’ve been exploring sandbox-based metaverses for years. I own digital real estate, in both Decentraland and Cryptovoxels. I own NFTs that represent areas of billboards in those games too. Rarestone has also invested in a number of metaverse projects, including most recently Digination who aims to build a new sandbox metaverse where all assets are player-owned. The CryptoPunk I own becomes a playable character in that world.

I’d add though that all internet participants are part of building a new cultural standard for self-expression and identity on the internet which will be done in these webspaces.

In your opinion, is the metaverse inevitable, or is it just another passing trending tech topic that'll lose hype?

It’s already here, it’s just hiding in plain-sight. Children of today spend their free time building webspaces all the time. In fact, most of them are digital currency natives and exceptionally creative on the internet. As blockchain based sandbox games continue to scale, and the tools around them become more user friendly, these children will move to blockchain based games. Especially those that adopt play to earn or reward based participation models. I think this is the most catalytic opportunity that the internet has ever seen.

Why is the metaverse such a revolutionary concept?

To be frank, it isn’t, it’s a natural evolution of the internet as technology advances and humans dive deeper into the screen. What is revolutionary is that it can potentially form the basis for a new internet. If we reach interoperability between hundreds of different webspaces, people will seemingly live in one big open metaverse whenever they are online. The technologies that are converging to build these webspaces are what is revolutionary; play to earn mechanics, paid participation, and player/user owned identity and assets are highly interesting to me as an investor, but also as someone who considers myself a citizen of the internet.

What can people build in the metaverse that we can't build on the Internet, or in virtual reality today? What limitations of our current technology does the metaverse free us from?

Webspaces are often highly customisable and they come with toolsets that make them sandboxes for creators and world builders. I think as we move to open-webspaces that utilise distributed ledgers like Ethereum or Solana, the most important change is that we control our data in these environments. Current metaverses are still centralised and operate on existing models of Web 2.0.

Once we start to incorporate things like portable digital identity, and govern these environments & webspaces with DAOs, we’ve just kicked the existing internets ass.

How are the metaverse and blockchain related? Can we build a metaverse without blockchain technology?

I like to think that we currently have many webspaces that make up the metaverse, with my earlier examples being sandbox games like Fortnite Creative and Animal Crossing, but the current metaverse is still built on Web 2.0 - using existing infrastructure. We absolutely can and will see non-decentralised metaverses form as corporations team up to build.

What’s important is that we do build sustainable models for blockchain based webspaces that give all control and creativity to the users. I don’t imagine Facebook will do that; as we all know Facebook is free because we are the product.

I’m working to make sure we incorporate these new technologies to build “The Open Metaverse” which ultimately is at that convergence of all of those emerging technologies.

How quickly do you think the metaverse will be developed? How much can we expect metaverse tech to grow in the next 5 to 10 years?

I think some kind of Oasis, Ready Player One style Open Metaverse is only a decade or two away from reality. Which might sound crazy, but as hyper-realistic asset engines like Unreal Engine become totally open sourced, and children sit building webspaces all day already - how far away can we really be?

At my talk I recently said that innovation starts in the mind. It takes a while for technology to catch up, and it is, at a rapid pace.

What I’d encourage the reader to do right now though is to think about the concept of a webspace, and it’ll help you understand the potential for whats to come.

What is your hope for the metaverse? Do you have any worries or does the concept pose any threats?

I think the Ready Player One style metaverse is absolutely likely if we don’t build on Web 3.0 - which gives power and control back to the users/players. If we continue to be the product as we are now, I’m quite fearful of what that looks like, and many others share the same concern. Tim Sweeney of Epic is one of them, and I hope he’s interested in talking to me at some point so I can help guide him and his team in the right direction.

Right now I’m focusing on building those fundamentals in so that future world builders have the tools to build webspaces that are truly breathtaking places to be.

Thanks for your time! Any final words?

I have spent many hours thinking and talking about these concepts, but the one that makes sense to me is the idea of a “shared webspace” and how we move toward that world with every day that passes. Virtual and Augmented reality are going to become core pillars of the future open metaverse, but what matters more right now is building the base layer - self sovereign identity, user owned assets (NFTs) and sustainable governance models (DAOs) for the webspaces we are building.

This article is part of The Gaming Metaverse Writing Contest hosted by HackerNoon in partnership with The Sandbox.

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