Living out a fantasy in the metaverse is not cost free
The computing power required by the “metaverse”, purportedly the next stage of the internet where people can immerse themselves in digital alternative realities, will have a big impact on the climate. The computing capabilities required will be of incremental times more than the current system capabilities. As a rough comparison, Bitcoin mining consumes around 91 terawatt-hours of electricity annually. That is around 0.5% of global energy consumption worldwide and more than
seven times the electricity use of Google’s global operations.
Thinking that at least a dozen tech giants are now “ramping up” infrastructure for the metaverse (everything from computing to storage and networking will need major upgrades), consumption may be many times greater than for bitcoin mining, particularly since video streaming and gaming are predicted to make up 87% of consumer internet traffic this year. In the light of global warming and related inequalities, proper studies are vital. If an avatar were to consume as much electricity as a living person in a developing country, it would test the moral senses of every metaverse wanderer, especially those living in rich countries, regarding the true costs of virtual fantasy worlds.
Besides this, the metaverse might not be decentralized and we might need to endure the rules of our makers. Who knows what that will look like as we could pay to be in certain metaverses, we could be taxed or require virtual items to be able to live in these new fantasy realms. We already see virtual assets being sold for thousands or even millions to hold a piece of the metaverse, whether is land or something built. Things might be even more expensive than in real life.
I would love to say that we can forge our new destiny in these metaverses, but the reality is that rich people will be richer and common ones will struggle to keep their avatar alive. A greater vision would be for metaverses to be decentralized and for everyone to be able to start with the same tools and assets. And to grow from here, maybe also to buy from an open market the assets of those not willing to participate in the metaverse, but simply to pay a free participant to the "game" and not a centralized entity which is handling the ropes. Will that happen or are there such dreamlands? Don't know, but it would be cool if they were!
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Since the beginning of time there have been different wealth classes and it's never going to end. The trick is to find out how to climb the rungs.
I guess time will tell how this will play out in the metaverse, I am the "Real Poor" don't have high end computers and phones in the first place.
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Yeah, me too, but it would be cool if we would all have fair chances by entering the metaverse and not need to buy our place in one form or the other.
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I believe we will be in the middle of Metaverses where we are going to decide whether centralized new ecosystems should be embraced as our new homes or the metaverses that are created by decentralization-minded people that will be isolated from digital worlds that are under control of some minorities 💁🏼♂️
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Would be cool to have a decentralized metaverse, somehow like a blockchain or so.
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I think there will be both centralized and decentralized metaverses in the same way we right now have centralized and decentralized social media platforms l. This narrative of having a digital self in virtual worlds should also provide a boost in crypto valuations when the time comes, it already did in the past but much more adoption is still to come.
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Probably we'll get there, although I am not aware of yet decentralized metaverses.
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Metaverse is the best. Many countries want to have their own metaverse now.
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For sure China will as it wants to keep everything under control.
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That's their problem
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I wouldnt worry about anything you brought up here. A big key to the Metaverse will be edge computing. This is something we are nowhere near attaining.
You mention major server farms when the Metaverse is going to require the exact opposite: computation at the end device. To do this, we are going to have to "borrow" from those around us.
We have no way to implement a system like this now. It will be a couple decades before we see it.
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That's right and probably that will make for the metaverses to be rather slowly developed and adopted.
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Tech infrastructure will be the next great decentralisation debate.
Watch this space!
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For sure is a huge domain in which decentralized innovation is yet to find its path.
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Nothing will ever be cost-free. In a way, if things are free, you tend to be the product. I don't know if I can ever trust the current metaverse games because it doesn't really seem that sustainable. I guess that is in my head due to everything going on with Earth 2 and the videos going around about it. Of course, I didn't invest here but it seems quite bad.
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Yeah, still hard to envision the end game and if it will provide value or anything alike.
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This speculation may seem to hold through for the fact that most use case of the metaverse is for gaming and earning. A metaverse that conserves energy may well solve the clue.
For me, I do see hive as a metaverse in its own regard.