What is the metaverse?

Good question. “Metaverse” is currently a major buzzword in the world of technology, business, and finance, and like all buzzwords, its definition is confused, contested, and shaped by the ambitions of the people who use it.

Here’s one thing we can say for sure: the term was coined by Neal Stephenson in his 1992 novel snow crash to describe a widely used virtual world in his imagined future, a 21st-century dystopia. In snow crashthe metaverse is a virtual reality world represented as a marketplace encircling the planet where virtual real estate can be bought and sold, and where users wearing virtual reality goggles inhabit 3D avatars whose shape they are free to choose.

Bruce Jensen/Bantam…