Ontology is going to be an important part of the evolving fictional concept of “Metaverse.” Metaverse means beyond the universe.

Thus Metaverse refers to a collective, virtual space, which consists of the totality of virtual worlds which includes augmented realities, and also the internet. This concept originates in Snow Crash, which is a science-fiction novel by Neil Stephenson which depicts a futuristic world where people operate virtual avatars in an online world known as the Metaverse.

Augmented reality is an interactive experience of a real-world environment where the objects which reside in the real world get enhanced by computer-generated perceptual information.  The perceptual information can pass through multiple sensory modalities, including visual, auditory, haptic, somatosensory and olfactory.

Augmented reality is an experience where the designers improve the perception of the users’ physical world using computer-generated input. Thus, designers create inputs, which ranging from sound to video, graphics to GPS overlays and lot more.  Thus, the digital content responds in real time to changes in the user’s environment, typically with movement.

The kind of metaverse proposed and imagined by Stephenson is not yet realized completely in the real time world. However, the building blocks of a potential future with Metaverse are already starting to happen.

Metaverse in simple terms is designed as the next generation internet based on XR, which will include VR, AR, and MR, computer technology, internet communication technology, and social networks.

Thus, the Metaverse is a virtual reality world which represents ‘real’ world experiences, like working, studying, and investing virtually and users will thus be able to transition freely between the offline and online realm.

The 8 characteristics unique to Metaverse consists of identity, friends, immersion, low latency, diversity, anytime and anywhere, economy and civilization. Ontology is set to make contributions to Metaverse of the future.

Big Data has made it possible for us to share unprecedented amounts of information in the online space. This has led to the coming of online multimedia encyclopedias like video, streaming services and social networks. These technologies make it possible to access information globally. However, the probabilities for hackers interfering to exploit private data is high considering the context of scalability of these services.

Ontology’s “ONT ID”, a decentralized identity (DID) framework, and “OScore”, a self-management scoring system, aim to make it possible for users to migrate between parts of Metaverse with consistent identity at the same time ensuring that data privacy is respected.

ONT ID being a decentralized identity framework based on the W3C decentralized identifier specification, blockchain and cryptography will be able to identify and connect people, assets, objects, and events, without compromising on the aspects of decentralization, self-management, privacy protection, security, and usability.

ONT ID permits users to securely manage their identities and data independently in a decentralized manner.