Over the past decade, virtual interactions have become an increasingly important part of consumer and business life. This trend has accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic, with consumers and businesses alike turning to video conferencing and other forms of virtual interactions. Recently, interest in virtual interactions has focused on the “metaverse,” with major companies, including Facebook, announcing metaverse initiatives. In fact, Facebook, predicting the metaverse as the next technological wave, has gone so far as to incorporate the term into its new name, Meta.

However, like any fundamental new technology, the metaverse remains confusing and unknown to many. So what exactly is the metaverse? Which metaverse use cases currently exist and which…