On Oct 28, 2021, Facebook announced that it has changed its company name to Meta, indicating its focus will be the metaverse - what Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive, sees as the next digital frontier of technology.

Everybody is talking about the metaverse today, and many tech giants even regard it as the future and bet on it. But what is metaverse really about? And, why does it matters to each individual?

The term “metaverse” was first introduced in Neil Stevenson's novel, Snow Crash in 1982. It refers to a three-dimensional virtual space where people, as programmable avatars, can interact with each other and software agents. Defined by XR Today, it refers to "a simulated digital environment that uses augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and blockchain, along with concepts from social media, to create spaces for rich user interaction mimicking the real world". Here, metaverse doesn't refer to a specific type of technology; instead, it is a novel ideology that shifts the way people engage in the virtual world with help of technology.

Metaverse is alluring to us partly because it gives us a chance to fix some of the mistakes we make in our current use of the Internet. Although current social media platforms allow people to create and share content with each other, it is still a tool primarily used for publishing and consuming, which is the most fundamental form of interaction. In other words, the current network is like a walled garden with a squeeze-out business model where large companies in control often try their best to exploit individual users. Worse still, a highly centralized structure intensifies the conflicts between diverse groups instead of respecting and nurturing diversity which is what the Internet has been created for.

This situation is expected to change in the metaverse because a decentralized model will deprive those monopolists of the chances of exploitation. A metaverse platform will not only allow developers to create whatever they want without limitations but also give them full ownership of anything they create. Noticing this, P12 decides to empower MetaWorlds, and we'll start from the game industry. We are trying to provide a platform where play-to-invest gamers and developers can co-exist in harmony with traditional gamers with GameFi achievements, reviews, governance, and asset servicing.

P12 will empower our creators with our strong game editor which gives developers the ultimate freedom to create amazing games. At the same time, we promise security and equity for our gamers with a sustainable ecosystem. We'll also serve as a neutral infrastructure to reward well-behaved developers and punish bad ones while protecting the users.

Through our efforts, we hope to see both Web2 and Web3 users can have the ultimate gaming experience where players can interact with and do anything they can think of inside the game world. It will be a world that you imagine can truly exist in your hands.