Why Interoperability is Essential For a Successful Metaverse
Interoperability may be the key factor to a successful metaverse. What are the challenges in its way? What progress has been made in 2023?
Photo Credit: Verdict
In 2022, the metaverse fell short of expectations due to factors such as glitches, emotional disconnect and, most notably, a lack of incentive. The metaverse is in need of a stand-out factor that will make users want to join and give the virtual world a purpose. We think we’ve found this factor, or at least an essential factor for the metaverse to survive, and that is interoperability.
What is interoperability?
Interoperability is the seamless continuity or unity of metaverse realities. For example, if the metaverse is interoperable, users can transfer their avatars, money, NFTs, wearables and more across different metaverse realities, such as both Decentraland and Sandbox. This means users won’t have to sign out, register and start their metaverse journey from scratch on different platforms to experience another reality or interact with their friends.
People in the real world value their time building their lifestyle and prefer to maintain their possessions, so why would it be different in the virtual world?
Why isn’t the metaverse interoperable yet?
While it is possible to have separate realities on separate platforms and still be interoperable, it is not the most realistic option. The challenge to creating an interoperable metaverse is that it would be most successful as one virtual world rather than multiple. This is where the challenge arises, as each virtual world is developed by a different company.
Think about the virtual reality and augmented reality race among Google, Apple and Microsoft. These companies are competitors, all striving for the best and most profitable product to sell users. If each company made a metaverse world, do you think any of them would give theirs up for another to thrive? Probably not. Would they work together to make an interoperable experience for users? That’s what we’re hoping for, but it will be more difficult to create.
What is the current state of metaverse interoperability?
Slowly but surely, the metaverse has started to implement forms of interoperability. This is not yet on a daily or regular basis, but effort has been made in terms of events.
Metaverse Fashion Week 2023 was the first major multi-platform metaverse event, taking place across three interconnected realities: Decentraland, Spatial and Over. According to Decrypt, this supported brands in creating digital wearables that users could wear in different worlds, which they navigated through the use of portals.
What is expected for the future of metaverse interoperability?
There is one more challenge besides competition among companies that is keeping the metaverse from interoperability, and that is simply technical complications. According to Fast Company, file formats, such as HTML and SSL, in different worlds will eventually be translated and converted in real time. When this happens, users will have a more seamless experience of moving between worlds, similar to how we move from website to website now.
The metaverse has already begun progressing in interoperability in 2023, and we expect it to develop quickly over the next year.
Best,
Ariana for the Don’t Count Us Out Yet Team