A Survey of Blockchain and Intelligent Networking for the Metaverse

The virtual world created by the development of the Internet, computers, artificial intelligence (AI), and hardware technologies have brought various degrees of digital transformation to people’s lives. With multiple demands for virtual reality increasing, the metaverse, a new type of social ecology that can connect the physical and virtual worlds, is booming. However, with the rapid growth of data volume and value, the continuous evolution of the metaverse faces the demands and challenges of privacy, security, high synchronization, and low latency. Fortunately, the ever-evolving blockchain and intelligent networking technologies can be used to satisfy the trusted construction, continuous data interaction, and computing demands of the metaverse. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct an in-depth review of the role and gains of blockchain, intelligent networking, and the combination of both in providing the immersive experiences of the metaverse. In this survey, we first discuss the development trend, characteristics, and architecture of the metaverse. Then, the existing work on blockchain, networking, and the combination of the two technologies are reviewed, including overviews, applications, and challenges. Next, applications of the metaverse are summarized, emphasizing the importance of the metaverse and the fields of development. Finally, we discuss some open issues, challenges, and future research directions.

I. Introduction

In recent years, due to the rapid development of communication networks, artificial intelligence (AI), computing technology, blockchain, and other technologies, humanity enters an extraordinary era of technological explosion. The way we interact with the physical world around us is rapidly changing, which gives rise to the reemergence of the concept of the metaverse. The term “metaverse” consists of the prefix “meta” and the root “verse” (derived from the universe), which first appeared in a science fiction novel called “Snow Crash” written by Neal Stephenson in 1992 [1]. Presently, the metaverse can be regarded as is a hypothesized iteration of the Internet, which combines physical and digital virtual environments through extended reality (XR) to realize perception and sharing [2]. Therefore, the metaverse provides an infinite virtual digital world, which breaks the dimensional wall of the physical world. In the digital world of any field, we have an avatar that can directly and deeply participate in the interaction.