So let’s start! First, tell us a bit about yourself. For example, name, profession, and personal interests. First off, I’m Tarun RAMA, a Blockchain evangelist. I have been involved with the blockchain community since early 2019. My main passion is to help people understand the potential of this technology and how it can make an impact on their lives and businesses. In my spare time, I enjoy reading about crypto technology (of course), traveling around the world, playing FIFA, and spending time with family and friends. Please sum up what the metaverse is in 1 to two paragraphs. The Metaverse is a virtual world where you own your VR identity, not the platform. You can do anything you want in it: work, play games, buy things from vendors—it's like the Internet but as a shared world. It will be a place for decentralized work and commerce. You can travel to faraway places by just thinking about it. You can meet up with friends from all over the world and do whatever you please! Are you currently, directly or indirectly, working on building a metaverse? Global Agriculture Community on the metaverse. It is a community for people involved in agriculture, focusing on creating an open-source platform for knowledge exchange between growers and consumers, supply chain management, and market analysis. This is where I'm working now, building an educational platform for farmers to learn about new technologies and techniques that can help them grow better crops more efficiently. The vision is to create a whole ecosystem where farmers can access the best practices from other countries and also learn how to connect directly with consumers who want healthier produce grown locally in their community. We're building out this vision using blockchain technology so that we can record all transactions transparently without middlemen getting involved (thereby reducing costs). Everyone who participates benefits—the farmer gets paid more fairly; the consumer gets access to fresher food at competitive prices; even restaurants benefit because they know exactly what they're buying when they buy on our Metaverse! In your opinion, is the metaverse inevitable, or is it just another passing trending tech topic that'll lose hype? You're probably thinking: "I've been hearing about the Metaverse for years. I know that it's going to be some kind of virtual reality world, but what interests me the most?" Well, the Metaverse has plenty to offer if it's new experiences you're after. You can create worlds in which nothing is impossible, and no limits exist. You can create new social networks where people are free to explore their identities without any restrictions or judgment—and with whom they want to be friends! If you're interested in creating economies, then the Metaverse will give you all sorts of options when it comes time for your business plan presentation. Maybe your company wants its own currency; maybe you'd rather go big and build an entire economy based around gold coins or farm-fresh produce; either way, there are plenty of ways for creative minds like yours (and mine) to make money within this new world we've created together! Why is the metaverse such a revolutionary concept? The answer is simple: it combines the best of both worlds – traditional technologies and blockchain technology. The Metaverse is a decentralized platform based on blockchain technology, but at the same time, it is also a virtual world. It’s an entirely new ecosystem in which users can create their own digital identities and assets within this space. The metaverse is a virtual reality world that anyone can visit. It's a 3D, immersive environment where you can meet and interact with other people – including the avatars they create to represent themselves. The metaverse is also where we can create, build and share together. This means you can use your imagination to design new content and experiences for others to enjoy too! The metaverse is changing how we play games; it's transforming how we learn; it's improving how we work – but most importantly, it's allowing us all to do things together in an unprecedented way. What can people build in the metaverse we can't build on the Internet or in virtual reality today? What limitations of our current technology does the metaverse free us from? You can build anything you can imagine. You can create your own virtual world with your own rules and regulations. There’s no central authority or owner of this platform. Open-source: The Metaverse is an open-source project funded by a non-profit foundation, which means it doesn't have any central owners or authorities controlling it. Developed for the long term: The Metaverse isn't just something you'll use for a few months and then forget about; it will continue to evolve over time as more people build into it, helping to make online life better for everyone involved! How are the metaverse and blockchain related? Can we build a metaverse without blockchain technology? Blockchain technology is a subset of metaverse technology. The metaverse is a virtual world where you can create, share and use content and applications. The blockchain is a distributed ledger that contains information about all transactions that have ever occurred on the network. The metaverse is a virtual platform that allows users to create, experience, and monetize virtual content. Metaverse uses blockchain technology to record transactions. Blockchain is a decentralized ledger that stores data on a peer-to-peer network. The metaverse can be accessed using technologies like virtual reality headsets and augmented reality contact lenses or glasses. It is essentially a single, shared space where all participants are represented by virtual avatars (or bots) that can interact with each other and the world around them through voice commands or text chat. Blockchain tech isn't the only way we could build a metaverse; it just makes sense to do so because it's decentralized, meaning there's no central authority running all of its servers—instead, anyone can participate in maintaining the network (and earn rewards for doing so). 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? Building a metaverse isn't something that will happen overnight. It's not like building the internet or even the World Wide Web, both built from scratch. However, when it gets created, we expect it to grow much faster than previous technologies due to all the blockchain technology involved. Since blockchain technology is still relatively new, there are only so many places you can use now: online shopping websites and cryptocurrency exchanges (like Centralex). But in the future, these platforms could easily expand into other areas of our lives without any further changes made by their creators - because they already have everything they need! Blockchain technology has been around since 2008 but has only recently become popular thanks to cryptocurrency; anything built using blockchains will be able to take advantage of this newfound popularity by allowing more people access than ever before - both through traditional means like credit cards or banks transfers but also through newer methods like cryptocurrency wallets on mobile devices! The way we interact with each other within these virtual environments will likely change too: instead of sending someone an email message containing your thoughts on whatever subject matter interests them most at present (and hoping they haven't blocked them), we'll simply call up their avatar inside whichever world happens to offer us access today." What is your hope for the metaverse? Do you have any worries or does the concept pose any threats? While the concept of the metaverse is exciting, it also raises many questions. How will this new world change our lives? Will people use it for good or evil? How will we navigate these digital landscapes, and how will we communicate with each other? The answers to these questions are still unknown, but it’s easy to imagine that the creation of a new global space for collective imagination has the potential to do great things for humanity. The promise of an immersive digital experience may seem far off, but if you look around, you can see glimpses of what could be possible in your life today (like VR headsets). The next decade will likely be filled with exciting developments in how we connect with one another through technology—and as more people get online, there is plenty of room left for innovation! Thanks for your time! Any final words? I hope people will take away the idea that there are many ways to experience VR. We can have a wide range of interactive experiences, from passive and calming to fast-paced and exciting. I hope people can create these kinds of experiences in their own way, whether using my framework or adapting it to their needs. One thing I worry about as we move forward with virtual reality is how quickly content creators will be able to adapt to these new platforms—how quickly they can create compelling content that takes advantage of this new technology. I think it’s going to be critical for us as developers and creators not only because we want people to enjoy what they see but also because if we don't do this well enough, users may lose interest quickly when what they find isn't satisfying enough (a risk even if there were no threats from other companies). My hope is that everyone who reads this interview will remember one thing: the metaverse means something different to everyone! We all have our own ideas about what makes up this world around us; some are more optimistic than others, but regardless of where you fall on the spectrum, there's always room for improvement :) If you also want to publish your thoughts about the metaverse, answer the template here.
