Chris TrottierThis is the year that the Fediverse overtakes the Metaverse.
That's right.
According to GlobalData, 2023 is going to be a "Metaverse winter" and a "Fediverse spring".
It's stunning how VCs and Big Social simply didn't see the Fediverse coming.
They put so much money into VR and crypto -- all pumping this tech up as the "next big thing".
Little did they know that web standards, open protocols, and decentralization would make a breakthrough -- yet again.
Many people are saying, "Nobody could have predicted the growth of the Fediverse."
Actually, many people predicted the growth of the Fediverse -- including me.
It's just that the people who predicted growth weren't VCs and Press.
Another reason for the "Metaverse winter" and "Fediverse spring":
Cost.
Starting up a Fediverse service is vastly less expensive than starting up a Metaverse service.
Remember, when the Metaverse gained popularity, companies were flush with cash amidst ongoing lockdowns.
But conditions change.
Now companies are preparing for an oncoming recession. And fewer people are staying home.
Let's also consider the physical realities of Metaverse vs. Fediverse.
Metaverse requires hardware that does not yet have mass adoption. You need a VR headset or AR glasses -- something most people don't readily have available.
Those who do have that hardware are constrained by limitations such as battery power.
In contrast, the Fediverse works on desktops, laptops, smartphones -- even a Raspberry Pi.
Hardware is no bottleneck for the Fediverse.
Gen X-Wing@atomicpoet The Metaverse, no matter how much they wish it was the one from Snow Crash, isn’t a -verse.
It’s a one company product, where that company is in charge of *everything*. It’s Facebook vs The Web.
And who knows, activity pub might get a sibling in the future, of a VR variety.
@breadbin It might possibly be this one. https://web.immers.space/
@atomicpoet Took a look at it, and pondered for a bit. I don’t think this solves any of the issues I see. It feels like a Web Standard Steam client for apps.
What I am hoping for is a fediverse identity (that works with any app), and a VR fediverse protocol that lets me traverse the Metaverse and interact with both other identities and apps.
Think Snow Crash Metaverse on Fediverse with 2023 VR tech. It’s still the coolest fictional version of the internet.
@breadbin I agree that the notion of federated identity needs a lot of work.
Stephen Castro-Starkey@atomicpoet @breadbin Yes it does. Do you know of folks working on it worth looking into?
@atomicpoet @breadbin @blaine @youid @kidehen Thanks! I think there is a bit to do to separate out the “I am this person” from “This content was published by this persona” — balancing privacy with trustworthiness, for example. And I’m sure there’s much more to tease out, too!
Kingsley Uyi Idehen@atomicpoet @Stephen @breadbin @blaine @youid Yes, an identifier is used to denote an entity associated with a particular persona -- as expressed explicitly or discerned inferentially from associated profile data (expressed as an entity relationship graph).
@youid simply allows you to create a variety of #X509 certs that can be associated with different personae expressed in their respective profile documents via subject denotation using http:, acct:, or mailto: scheme URI.
Sorta.
The difference here is that signing-parties are now an act of #hyperlink lookup (or de-reference) that resolves to a profile document comprising a machine-computable entity relationship graph.
This is about bringing the magic of the #Web to the notion of a "Web of Trust" (#WoT) via an #TLS handshake tweak.