“An early incarnation of the metaverse can already be seen in gaming, one of the most (if not the most) immersive digital industries in the world, so if you're into video games, the whole concept may not be entirely new to you. Fitness is another industry where both VR and AR have been used quite heavily in recent years, so it would not be surprising that the foundations of the metaverse could emerge from these industries. Moreover, applications of VR/AR have been massively democratized recently. But let's not kid ourselves: this journey will go on for decades. First of all, the metaverse needs some infrastructures that not only do not exist today, but the whole Internet landscape has not been originally created to support such a revolutionary platform. Moreover, we will need standards and protocols (possibly from day one) exactly as we have for the Internet today, and -because of the complexity of the metaverse- this could take years. Not to mention the privacy and regulation concerns that building the metaverse can trigger. At this stage, therefore, any prediction on how the metaverse will look won't be much more than pure speculation, and the risk that the "hype" turns into "a bubble" is quite tangible.”