Former Meta employees and key players behind the firm’s defunc stablecoin project Diem have raised $200 million to expand a new project dubbed “Aptos.” Aptos was cofounded by former Novi — Meta’s crypto unit — strategic partnerships lead Mo Shaikh and tech lead Avery Ching. The duo arenow serving as the CEO and CTO for the new firm. Both left the company in December, prior to Diem being sold to Silvergate Capital in February this year. The team is building a decentralized Layer 1 blockchain that is partly based on Move, the coding language initially developed for Diem. The company …

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has revealed that its video and photo sharing app, Instagram, is preparing to add non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to the platform. “We’re working on bringing NFTs to Instagram in the near term,” Zuckerberg reportedly stated in an appearance at the South by Southwest conference in Austin, Texas. The Facebook founder did not provide specifics on when the implementation would happen. Casey Newton, writer for the Platformer newsletter, tweeted from the conference that Zuckerberg also said that he hopes in the coming months, Instagram users would be able to mint their own NFTs on the platform. At #SXSW, …

The rise of the Metaverse has resulted in an entirely new digital economy, one defined by virtual experiences and interactions. In turn, metaverse ecosystems consisting of avatars are also emerging, allowing individuals to express themselves through digital customizable 3D characters. This idea was recently broadcasted to the mainstream when Facebook’s parent company, Meta, introduced a series of inclusive avatars. While the Metaverse may sound futuristic, recent findings from technology research and consulting company Gartner predict that 25% of people will have spent at least one hour per day in the Metaverse by 2026. Gartner vice president Marty Resnick has also …

ourtesy of Kat Taylor Cattytay, digital fashion appeared in 2017. However, we began to talk loudly about it only in 2020. It all began five years ago when Kat first made an Instagram post with the caption “Virtual Clothing!!!” Then, there was a collaboration with Adidas, Off-White, Vetements and Balenciaga. These brands were interested in introducing fashion digitalization even before it blew up in the mass media discourse. Note that the COVID-19 pandemic had yet to happen and people were not stuck at home. Thus, there was no need for digital clothing at all. Nevertheless, it happened and fashion digitalization …

Neal Stevenson’s Snow Crash, a techno-dystopian science-fiction novel that has become a legend among Silicon Valley tech bros, predicted the rise of a future Metaverse all the way back in 1992. Despite Stephenson saying that he was “just making sh*t up”, the eerily accurate predictions and worldbuilding of Snow Crash have been long-revered by tech entrepreneurs and futurists including Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg. Now, Stephenson’s striking fictional depictions of a Metaverse oversaturated with the neon glow of commercial advertising rings truer than ever as Web3 designers and marketers gear up to begin advertising in the Metaverse(s) of today. On …

Unlike some of my peers in the technology space, I don’t see the Metaverse as a virtual world in which we work, socialize and shop. Rather, I see it as a point in time, reached in 2020 and into this year because of the global pandemic, when the digital world became as important as the physical world. It’s a shift away from the idea that physical reality is superior and preferred over digital reality. Work for many has turned into a series of Zoom meetings, people are buying virtual real estate, and children are spending time with their friends in …

If you’re not keen on joining Mark Zuckerberg in the Metaverse, I have bad news for you: You’re already there. You don’t need a virtual reality headset to enter a virtual world. Humans have been representing reality since our distant ancestors first painted on cave walls. If TV, radio, books or newspapers have ever given you access to events that you did not physically attend, you have experienced a kind of metaverse already. Sport and games are another reality that we often partake in virtually — in the stands or behind a screen — when not on the field. So, …

Mark Zuckerberg might claim the Metaverse is the future — but in the eyes of others, the future has already begun. Science fiction author Neal Stephenson coined the term “Metaverse” back in his 1994 novel, Snow Crash. Within the pages, the main character, Hiro Protagonist, navigates through the virtual world. Since 2003, millions have also worked, played and socialized in the Metaverse within the online Second Life world. While the game, with a heyday in the first decade of the 2000s and featuring some blocky graphics is a far cry from the modern Metaverse vision laid out by companies like …

One of the hallmarks of the crypto industry since its inception has been its commitment to open source development as well as its transparency-centric ethos. This is best made evident by the fact that many prominent projects operating within the digital asset sector and decentralized finance (DeFi) arena today have essentially been derived from other prominent projects such as Bitcoin Cash, SushiSwap and many others. In this regard, the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA), a group that promotes the advancement of cryptocurrency-enabled technologies by removing patents as a barrier to growth and innovation, recently welcomed social media giant Meta as …

The Metaverse is quickly becoming one of the biggest trends of 2022. Recent data found that the metaverse sector currently has a market capitalization of over $26 billion. While impressive, new capabilities are also being added to virtual worlds to create more immersive experiences. For example, metaverse communities that cater to creatives are starting to unfold, allowing users to customize their own interactive experiences. Although this is still an emerging concept, the incorporation of music appears to be one of the defining characteristics of social metaverse environments. Music as NFTs For instance, music in the form of nonfungible tokens (NFTs) …

Many religious denominations now offer interactive digital locations to supplement traditional services, but unique to COVID-19 is the opportunity to experience spirituality in an immersive 3D environment through virtual reality (VR) technology. As per a report by NZ Herald, Garret Bernal and his family were reportedly absent from a recent Sunday service during their quarantine for COVID-19 exposure. So he donned a VR headset and tried praying in the metaverse. He was instantly transported to a three-dimensional virtual realm of pastures, cliffs and rivers as the representative of a pastor guided him and others through computer-generated images of Biblical passages …

A survey of 1,000 United States consumers around growing interest in the metaverse has revealed some interesting results. In a survey commissioned by nonfungible token and metaverse infrastructure provider Advokate Group, 87% of respondents preferred a decentralized metaverse on a blockchain over some of the mega projects planned by tech giants. This became more evident when 77% of the respondents shared concerns over Facebook’s entry into the metaverse, especially since it owns users' metaverse data. Facebook’s tainted past with mismanagement of private user data has already dismantled its early plans of launching a stablecoin called Diem. The stablecoin project faced …