Metaverse isn't new, it's 20 years old.

Second Life is a virtual world that was launched to the public in 2002. It is a world where users can pretty much do anything they want, from earning money to building a virtual home to creating art.

Second Life's world covers an area the size of Los Angeles and has been built entirely by its users. It is a successful deployment of a sandbox world where users can build almost anything they can imagine. Second Life has around 1 million active users who can do all of this without leaving their homes.

Second Life founder Philip Rosendale has several lessons for metaverse developers. Most crucially, users must be able to connect with each other. The technology, both the hardware and the software, has to be good enough to make users feel like they're really there with someone else and like they really understand them.

Second Life's internal economy also has lessons for the metaverse. Creativity and economic activity and allowing people to buy and sell goods and services from each other do seem like a very potential big driver for the metaverse. Second Life's internal economy has a unit of currency called the Linden Dollar, and it provides a full-time income for many thousands of people who live there.

Experts say 15% of the digital economy has already shifted to the metaverse. It has 400 million monthly active users today. That's predicted to rise to 700 million users by 2030. The World Economic Forum is committed to ensuring the metaverse remains a safe and inclusive space. Together with partners, it's working towards setting new security standards for metaverse technologies.