Ever since the Internet became part of our lives –and almost from the beginning of its social implantation– the concept of the “virtual world” has circulated in the minds of theoreticians, technology developers and users. It is true that a large part of our lives has long been on the Internet and that we spend many hours surfing the web. But the concept of the metaverse, i.e. a simulation or extension of the real world in a purely digital context, which would open up the “third dimension” of the Internet, is relatively new.

Although there have been, and still are, several private initiatives that seek the implementation of a metaverse, especially in the field of entertainment, perhaps the one that has had more impact and relevance has been Second Life, by Linden Lab, which appeared at the beginning of 2003.

The technological development of recent years, however, as well as the possibilities and improvements in the quality of the network thanks to fiber optics and some business moves of giants such as Facebook –now Meta– make it necessary to analyze this concept closely, to assess the role of the players in the technology market, fiber operators, Internet users and financial sectors that could be influenced by the existence of one or more metaverses in the near future.

A horizon with more than one metaverse. What is the role of fiber optics?

The theoretical definition of a metaverse is still complex as it is a set of ideas and concepts still under development, waiting to be experienced through devices and platforms, possibly linked to the real world.

A fairly accurate approach, however, has recently been taken by venture capitalist Matthew Ball in his essay The Metaverse: What it is, Where to Find it, Who Will Build It and Fornite. For Ball, any metaverse must have a number of characteristics, among which are:

• Expanding the physical and virtual worlds
• Deploying a complete economy
• Being interoperable, i.e., users can move in their entirety –their avatars or virtual personalities, their possessions and their digital assets– between one metaverse and another.

Perhaps the closest manifestation of a metaverse that we can find today are video games, which not only meet many of the characteristics outlined by Ball, but also have other defining features such as:

• Interactivity: users can communicate with each other.
• Corporeality: or the representation of the user through a character or avatar, which has certain “physical” limitations and is subject to certain “rules” within the digital environment: height, weight, movements, behavior, etc.
• Persistence: or the ability of the metaverse to continue to function regardless of whether one or all of its users are online or offline.

A horizon with more than one metaverse. What is the role of fiber optics?

Although major tech behemoths like Facebook/Meta are betting heavily on the metaverse, the possibility of more than one type of these virtual universes –games and digital realities, mirror worlds and augmented realities– makes it possible for several metaverses to exist, with more than one corporation behind them.

Ball himself, in his essay Framework to the Metaverse stated that “Based on precedent, we can safely assume that the metaverse will revolutionize every industry and function. From healthcare to payments, consumer products, entertainment and hourly work.”

Whether Ball’s prediction is correct or not, what is certain is that the volume of data and the speed of data transfer that the operation and existence of metaverses will call for will require a technology that is up to the task. And that the current fiber optics, with its transfer rate and latency, as well as future developments such as fiber optics and the quantum Internet, will be the ones that will have to take center stage.