Does it surprise you that the concept of digital currency dates back to the early 1980s and the first digital currency emerged in 1995? I’ve always had a passing knowledge of emerging technologies, but I felt like cryptocurrency snuck up on me. DigiCash, founded in 1994, “set out to create a mechanism for consumers to make ‘micropayments’ for online transactions—such as purchases of individual articles or music singles. Unlike credit cards, which reveal a buyer's identity to vendors, DigiCash's encryption would have made its electronic money as anonymous as cash.” This information blew me away.

Like for many, Bitcoin seemed to come out of nowhere. For me, it was a confusing concept. The idea of a form of digital currency operating outside of a traditional banking system was a lot to wrap my head around. It was something I tried to look away from, but as Bitcoin began to make way for cryptocurrency millionaires, it became harder to ignore.

Every time I run my hand under a soap dispenser and nothing happens, I am reminded of how the Black experience gets left out of tech conversations, research, and development. My fear is that if we are not actively engaging with this emerging technology, we will fall too far behind to catch up. This is my rallying cry - the metaverse, cryptocurrency, virtual reality, and augmented reality are here already, have been here, and it’s only going to expand. 

As I sat with this more, it was becoming clear - even I was getting left behind. Being slower to adapt to the swiftly emerging technology was beginning to put me at a disadvantage long term. I began my journey to get a better handle on what was happening, and I am sharing what I have learned in an effort to spark some curiosity.

Here’s what I know so far.

Defining Three Key Terms In A Way You Can Understand

Web3

Before I define Web3, let’s quickly define Web1 and Web2: 

• Web1 is the version of the internet that I began using - primarily email and web browsing. We would use a web browser, most likely Netscape, to access a website that displayed information to us. It was normally comprised of static HTML pages with links and very little interaction. What interaction we did have was typically isolated to a “guest book.” 

• Web2 is the version of the internet that most are familiar with - highly social, user content driven, and dynamic. With Web2, our interactions typically involve some sort of reaction from the technology based on what action we’ve taken.

• Web3 is being touted as the future of our online experience. With Web3, cryptocurrency is prioritized, and an important component is also the theoretical decentralization of its ecosystem. The idea is to remove the centralization of how personal information is shared with large companies and instead use blockchains to facilitate transactions.

  In its most encompassing form, Web3 will take all of what we currently do, and layer into it the metaverse, cryptocurrency, blockchain, virtual reality, augmented reality and artificial intelligence among other technologies to create an increasingly more immersive experience.

Metaverse

No, Meta Platforms Inc. (formerly Facebook, Inc.) is not the metaverse. Meta is absolutely interested in establishing itself as a giant in the metaverse. 2003’s Second Life can be looked at as a proto-metaverse.

So what exactly is the metaverse? “Broadly speaking, the technologies that make up the metaverse can include virtual reality—characterized by persistent virtual worlds that continue to exist even when you're not playing—as well as augmented reality that combines aspects of the digital and physical worlds.”  

In other words, the metaverse is a virtual world unto itself that exists and changes without your interaction specifically, but with the interaction of others in your world. Goods can be bought and sold, property can be bought and managed, whole virtual cities can be erected that are independent of the physical world we currently live in, and also incorporate our physical reality at the same time.

There are many companies developing metaverses, including Meta, Epic Games, Apple, and Niantic, to name a few.

Land is currently being sold in the metaverse, and individuals and companies are currently having their virtual lands developed for use. Purchases in the metaverse are driven by cryptocurrency.

Cryptocurrency

For ease of understanding, Bitcoin is a form of cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrency is a form of digital currency that is encrypted, decentralized, and not controlled by the traditional banking system. A hallmark of cryptocurrency is that transactions are made “real” by them being written into a blockchain. There are many blockchains supporting many cryptocurrencies. Think of a blockchain as a sophisticated database that records transactions as a bank would. The “block” in blockchain refers to the block of data that includes a transaction. Records recorded in blockchains can not be tampered with. Errors can only be fixed with a correcting record.

See the example below:

• Mark spends $100 buying a form of cryptocurrency, let’s say, Bitcoin.

• That purchase is recorded in a blockchain as Mark owns this amount of Bitcoin.

• Mark then sees a product for sale, and Bitcoin is an acceptable form of payment.

• During the transaction, the company that Mark is buying from will process the payment with a system that checks that blockchain to see if Mark has enough Bitcoin to purchase the product.

• If Mark owns enough Bitcoin to purchase, the transaction will be approved.

• Mark’s purchase is written into a blockchain record.

Why Does It All Matter?

“Buying land in the metaverse is a little bit like buying land in New York 250 years ago,” Andrew Kiguel said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.

The metaverse is currently experiencing a land boom. Companies are spending millions on purchasing this virtual land. Samsung has already opened its 837 metaverse experience, and Snoop Dogg has already proclaimed that he wants, newly acquired, Death Row Records to be the first metaverse major record label.

With all the land currently being purchased, when the Black LGBTQ+ community makes its way into these various metaverse worlds, will our communities have representation there? We have already seen racism emerge in the NFT marketplace. One of the most well-known examples, “Floydies,” has been described as just the tip of the racism iceberg of what’s coming as these technologies begin to take hold in the coming years.

This is why all of this matters. We know that our community will begin making our way, in larger numbers, into these virtual worlds with our cryptocurrencies to spend, and an interest in experiencing a world unlike the one we live in. If we aren’t well versed in this now, when we get there, we may just discover the virtual world mirrors our current reality in more ways than one.

This is a world that we can build, and not one we should be leaving to others to shape for us. These virtual worlds are here to stay, and no matter how far we run from them, they will catch up to us.