While the metaverse is still being developed, numerous key figures have become leading voices in creating the successor to today’s mobile internet. Here are the most influential people who have helped us all have a better perspective of the metaverse and what it can become.

• Neal Stephenson

One of the world’s leading sci-fi writers, Neal Stephenson, is the first author who mentioned the term ‘metaverse’ in his novel “Snow Crash” in 1992. He worked at Blue Origin as an advisor and explored cryptography, currency, mathematics, philosophy, and science history.

• David Baszucki

David Baszucki founded Roblox in 2004 and has since been working on bringing the gaming industry into the metaverse. Roblox has also collaborated with well-known brands like Gucci to create immersive experiences with gaming.

• Jensen Huang

Jensen Huang is the founder and CEO of NVIDIA Corporation. He contacted Metaverse to create NVIDIA’s Omniverse, which is an open, cloud-native platform that makes it easy to accelerate workflows and collaborate in real-time.

• Matthew Ball

Along with Genvid Technologies CEO Jacob Navok and Roundhill Investments, Matthew Ball has launched The Roundhill Ball Metaverse ETF. The ETF allows people to invest in companies that are either making the metaverse happen now or are set to do so in the future.

• Philip Rosedale

In 2013, Philip Rosedale co-founded High Fidelity, Inc. with its Spatial Audio API that enables high-quality voice chat for any application in a personalized 3D audio stream. He aims for an open-ended, Internet-connected virtual world. 

• Cathay Hackl

Cathay Hackl has worked with companies like Magic Leap, Amazon Web Services, and HTC VIVE in metaverse-related fields. She founded the Futures Intelligence group where she advises Fortune 1000 and luxury fashion brands on NFTs, metaverse strategies, and how they can extend their brands into virtual worlds.

• Krista Kim

Krista Kim is a contemporary artist who founded Techism, a movement that reconciles technological innovations with the creation of art. She is also the ambassador of SuperWorld, an augmented reality virtual world allowing users and brands to create, discover, and monetize.

• Tim Sweeney

Tim Sweeney is the founder and CEO of Epic Games and the creator of the gaming platform Unreal Engine. He had received several awards for his work in the gaming industry. 

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• Beeple

Mike Winkelmann, also known as Beeple, sold his NFT named  “Everydays: the First 5000 Days” for $69,400,00 at Christie’s auction house in March 2021, thereby making history. Christie’s described him as “A visionary digital artist at the forefront of NFTs.”

• Akash Nigam

Akash Nigam is the founder of Genies, which is an avatar-building platform for people to speak their minds and find connections. Nigam entered the Metaverse world with a mindset of helping people dealing with their mental health to find a space where they can truly be themselves.