Vitalik Buterin says Facebook's metaverse will 'misfire'

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin doesn't believe any of the current attempts by companies to create a Metaverse will "go anywhere," citing Meta as an attempt he believes will "misfire."

Responding to a tweet from Dialectic co-founder Dean Eigenmann, who believes venture capitalists may be mistaken about what an ideal metaverse is, Buterin said he believes "the Metaverse will happen" but doesn't think any of the current attempts by companies like Mark Zuckerberg's Meta will "go anywhere." https://twitter.com/VitalikButerin/status/1553526863783657472 The metaverse is broadly defined as a highly interactive 3D online world focused on social connectivity and aims to be powered by augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR). Buterin's comments come despite a number of successful metaverse projects recently launched on blockchain technology, such as Decentraland (MANA) and The Sandbox (SAND). However, Buterin added that he doesn't think Meta's attempt to create a metaverse will be successful in its current form, noting that the use cases are still unclear. Meta has developed a number of AR and VR applications, such as the Meta Horizons Workroom, a VR room for colleagues to connect and collaborate on ideas. Meta has also produced the first generation of smart glasses that allow users to connect to the metaverse by recording audio and video and being surrounded by virtual worlds. Other critics argue that centralized metaverses, such as those proposed by Meta and Microsoft, could affect the decentralization of ownership of goods and services in these metaverses. On the other hand, metaverse developers such as Decentraland and Sandbox have joined with various Web3 projects to launch the Open Metaverse Alliance (OMA3), which focuses on building more transparent, inclusive, decentralized and democratized metaverses. The Metaverse Standards Forum (MSF) also seeks to build on these values and create standards for a more open and interoperable metaverse. Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, Alibaba, Unity and Sony are among the 35 technology companies that are members of the MSF. This echoes well Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg's letter to stakeholders in October last year, in which he said that the Metaverse is the next chapter for the internet: "We are seen as a social media company, but in our DNA we are a company that builds technology to connect people, and the metaverse is the next frontier."