Could you profit from the parallel world on the web?

The metaverse will enable people to adopt a digital identity via an 'avatar' to play games, see friends, meet new people, attend virtual work meetings, watch events such as concerts and sports matches, and to buy a host of items. — 123rf.com

Thirty years ago, Neal Stephenson's novel Snow Crash introduced the idea of humans escaping from a dystopian nightmare by immersing themselves in a virtual reality world called the 'metaverse'.

At the time it felt like a vision of the world that belonged in science fiction, along with The Matrix, the cult movie which touched on a similar theme seven years later.