In 1995, Robert Metcalfe predicted that the internet was not sustainable and would die in 1996. Twenty-seven years later, the internet is not only still active; almost every Tom, Dick, and Harry -whether young or old - uses the internet.
Through the years, the internet has grown from being just a medium of communication through words to being a medium for sharing content and connecting with people via pictures and videos.
The internet is evolving into its best form yet, known as Web3.0. This stage features decentralization, community, and a much closer connection. A big part of Web3.0 coming into fruition is something unique called NFTs. Short for a non-fungible token, an NFT is a unit of digital data stored on the blockchain. NFTs are to digital assets what certificates of ownership are to physical assets.
NFTs have been growing for years, and in 2021, they took off, attracting more people into the space and making people, especially artists and collectors, a lot of money.
Although many people identify NFTs as photos of artworks and computer-generated jpegs of apes, cats, robots, and many more, NFTs have uses that transcend all these.
Another primary and fascinating reason NFTs are important and here to stay is that NFTs are being integrated with Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality.
This article will look at the nexus between NFTs, Virtual Reality (VR), and Augmented Reality (AR) and how NFT projects are using them to create genuinely stellar innovations.
Differences Between VR and AR
While VR is the complete immersion into a virtual or digital world that doesn't exist in the real world, AR adds a layer of virtual Reality to the real world.
VR is based on a virtually created world. Currently, people are usually able to access a virtual world using a VR headset. When people use the VR headset in a VR-enabled environment, they stop seeing the natural world and instead see themselves as participants in this new (virtual) world.
Notwithstanding whether they're watching a virtual movie or playing a virtual game, or any other virtual activity, the individuals become fully immersed in that world and think of the occurrences as happening to them in real-time.
On the other hand, AR is not a total immersion into the virtual world. Instead, it creates a connection between the real world and the virtual world by adding things from the virtual world as extensions in the real world. This way, users can see those items as part of the real world in an environment, body or phase.
An example of VR is a VR game that is a fully immersive experience, while an example of AR is the Snapchat AR filters that you can place on a person's picture.
VR and AR technologies have been in existence for years, and with the creation of Web3.0, the Metaverse, and particularly NFTs, they are even more helpful for technological advancement.