Some elements of the metaverse exist today, but we’re a ways off from seeing its full potential — or even knowing precisely what it is. How will the metaverse evolve in the next few years?

While the metaverse promises to be unlike any technology we’ve seen before and will change the way we work and play, it will both borrow from lessons learned by innovations and paradigm shifts that have gone before it as well as bring us to uncharted tech territories.

In this special report, we look at what we know about the metaverse and the companies driving it, its security risks, what the gaming industry is showing us, how the metaverse could impact the environment, how to ensure it’s open and interoperable. Read More

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are so new, weird, and fast that they give even techies future shock. “The street finds its own uses for things,” as William Gibson once wrote. In this case, the blockchain — artists are adopting NFTs today faster than the infrastructure can be built. This delightful inversion of the normal product/market fit challenge puts them in an “uncanny valley.” NFTs are a new form of digital object, and we have yet to see what they are capable of.

Famed multimedia artist Brian Eno asks a great question about NFTs in an interview with Evgeny Morozov in the Crypto Syllabus:

“I want to know what is changing, what is being made different, what is helping, what is moving?”

We need more people like Eno in the conversation. The teams building NFT technology are motivated by the public good and hungry for input from thoughtful critics. The current speculative environment sometimes feels like a distraction from the long-term potential of what we are building, but at the same time, this spike of awareness is a golden opportunity to invite new voices to help clarify the vision and purpose of what we are building.

Eno’s questions are a lens focused on the cultural value of NFTs. Let’s take them one at a time: Read More