In 1992 when he published the novel snow shock, Neal Stephenson coined the term “metaverse”. In 2021, the author decided he had a choice: “Basically, either go off and become the hermit of the metaverse, or try to do something with it,” as he told ZDNET editor-in-chief Jason Hiner.

Too: Meet the companies that will shape the metaverse

Stephenson spoke with Hiner at CES in Las Vegas about his plans to influence the creation of the metaverse with the launch of the Lamina1 startup. The startup is building a Layer 1 blockchain to provide a platform on which others can build an open metaverse.

“The idea is basically that if we’re going to have a metaverse that millions of people use, there’s going to have to be experiences in there that people enjoy having,” Stephenson said.

Currently, the…