The Metaverse Handbook

CHAPTER 8Challenges of the Metaverse

If Snow Crash introduced us to the Metaverse and Ready Player, One previewed the expansiveness of Metaverse economies, then Ralph Breaks the Internet showed us what an interoperable Metaverse looks like. The second movie in the Wreck-It Ralph series, Ralph Breaks the Internet beautifully visualizes many of the basic features of the Internet from how search engines work to how viruses spread. After Ralph unintentionally causes his best friend Venellope's game to break rendering her “jobless” and homeless, the pair venture into the Internet to buy the part off eBay needed to fix the arcade game. At this point, the movie shows us what it means to earn money on the Internet, from video game bounties to going viral and earning ad revenue.

However, what truly makes this movie special is the way they approach interoperability and the ability to easily meander between digital experiences. In our minds, this is what the Metaverse looks like—effortlessly porting between a video game into YouTube then into a search engine into a digital library. Furthermore, it gives a concrete vision for how our favorite Internet companies may be experienced as Metaverse environments in the future.

Achieving this seamless version of the Metaverse is easier said than done. Interoperability is the primary hurdle here. It's the basis for most of the challenges preventing the Metaverse vision we've described throughout this book from coming true. An open Metaverse is ...