# Introduction

When describing Web3 or Web 3.0, it is generally described as an idea for a new iteration of the World Wide Web which incorporates concepts such as decentralization, blockchain technologies, digital identity, and token-based economics. Many emerging games, apps, digital identity platforms, and Metaverses are being built incorporating Web3 protocols. Alongside the surge in Web3 and blockchain-based virtual environments, the term Metaverse has arisen and is a term that was first introduced about 30 years ago in Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash.

The Metaverse generally refers to an open world and future based virtual realitybased successor to the internet, where players use digital avatars to explore an expansive online world. Over the years, the term has evolved, and several iterations of Metaverse-esq environments have arisen: Second Life, World of Warcraft, Fantasy Star Online, Fortnite, Roblox, Decentraland, Sandbox, TCG World Metaverse and Ready Player One’s Oasis to name a few.

Keys to creating high levels of global engagement with the Metaverse will include the ability to make utility based digital assets available through interoperable commercial layers, allowing multi-chain applications to allow XRP, EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) blockchains and other non-EVM chains tokens and / or NFT to be used in a virtual environment; and new and innovative solutions that support greater degrees of utility and engagement for users who hold digital assets.
