The metaverse is currently in the early stages of its evolution, and there is no industry-uniform perceived definition, yet at the same time, master questions are emerging about what it is and what it might be.

The key here is that there is no single virtual world, but instead many virtual worlds in the making that enable people to deepen and expand social interactions digitally.

These virtual worlds are made possible by adding an immersive 3D picture to the web, which creates a more realistic and natural experience for the user - making the metaverse hopefully even comparable to the comfort of a real home, thus breaking down the boundaries between reality and the virtual and helping to make goods, services and experiences equally accessible to everyone.

So before delving deeper into the metaverse, it is important to sort out the characteristics of today's metaverse from those of Web 2.0 and the emerging Web 3.0, and while the table below highlights our assessment of the key metaverse characteristics between the two, as more and more traditional virtual worlds are adopting blockchain-based elements, the boundaries between them are