How to Prevent the Metaverse From Becoming a Nightmare

Editor's note: As portion of CoinDesk’s “Metaverse Week,” we asked a fig of engineers, executives and experts to measurement successful connected the important issues raised by the crypto industry. This roundtable covers however to forestall the metaverse from becoming a nightmare, and touches connected privacy-preserving furniture 1s, decentralized information absorption and the necessity for user choice.

The connection “metaverse” was coined by Neal Stephenson successful his sci-fi classical “Snow Crash,” which describes a virtual satellite owned by corporations, wherever extremity users are treated arsenic citizens successful a dystopian firm dictatorship. While the metaverse holds large promise, it intelligibly has the imaginable to go a dystopian nightmare wherever large tech has power implicit our data, experiences and privateness – which they person violated clip and clip again.

The bully quality is that determination is simply a antithetic model, 1 built connected Bitcoin (the network) and utilizing bitcoin (the autochthonal currency, BTC). By embedding the ethos of decentralized ledger exertion – and the independence, privateness and state it fosters – the metaverse should alternatively empower humanity. It shouldn’t beryllium hard to take state (over your money, your information and your value) and a closed strategy with centralized currencies controlled by large tech. However, the philosophical differences betwixt these 2 competing ideologies volition intensify arsenic projects develop.

– Will Reeves, CEO and co-founder of Fold

If each the virtual land, avatars, wearables and different forms of integer collectibles successful the metaverse are conscionable references to a record stored successful a proprietary server, we’re lone expanding the errors of Web 2 into Web 3. Even worse, successful presumption of information extraction, these integer objects could adjacent springiness corporations and the authorities much accusation astir america than Web 2 platforms ever did.

Our lives successful the metaverse could nutrient caller information points for our identity, economical behaviors, worth judgments and much layers of societal interaction. That invaluable NFT (non-fungible token) creation portion that could bent connected the walls of a backstage country successful the metaverse wouldn’t look arsenic bully adjacent to the aforesaid pesky ads that are fed into our societal media feeds.

Switching to peer-to-peer systems for decentralized retention and gathering the metaverse connected this stack would guarantee much privateness arsenic good arsenic existent idiosyncratic ownership of the objects that nutrient this data. They would beryllium afloat owned and operated astatine each times by the users who upload it, with nary disclosures to 3rd parties.

The metaverse could besides payment from capabilities specified arsenic content addressability and persistent retention that are autochthonal to the existing Web 3 retention infrastructure. All the accusation that renders beauteous integer landscapes, lavish 3D homes and personalized avatars would beryllium stored redundantly successful nodes crossed the satellite and retrievable astatine immoderate clip careless of location. This would marque metaverse worlds censorship-resistant arsenic well.

If we privation to forestall the metaverse from facing the problems imagined successful “Snow Crash,” our integer spot and information has to beryllium privately distributed among peers. It shouldn’t extremity up successful servers owned by a real-life L. Bob Rife figure.

– HQ Han, ecosystem maturation pb for Protocol Labs

The metaverse has the imaginable to go 1 of the astir creatively empowering integer innovations successful history. On the different hand, it could besides germinate into surveillance capitalism astatine an unprecedented scale. Will we favour community-led, rich, authentic and fragmented decentralized networks? Or autumn for simpler, user-friendly and tightly coordinated closed platforms?

From a philosophical constituent of view, the close prime seems obvious. From a method standpoint, things are much complicated. The trajectory of the metaverse volition beryllium connected the information architecture choices we marque arsenic users and builders. The way successful favour of a much equitable metaverse is being charted today, built upon a fewer cardinal imperatives:

Self-sovereign individuality and protocols similar IPFS correspond an unavoidable portion of the toolkit required to physique a welcoming metaverse.

– Justine Massicotte, main exertion serviceman and co-founder of Lighthouse Labs

Self-sovereign information management

Self-sovereign individuality volition play a important relation successful the metaverse. Being capable to negociate our ain information and individuality volition springiness america much power implicit who has entree to our accusation and what they are allowed to bash with it. We judge information sharing should beryllium disconnected by default successful the metaverse, with users opting successful lone to experiences of interest. Being capable to o.k. instances of information sharing independently volition supply users with much granular power implicit accusation they share. The perfect Web 3 individuality constituent volition besides beryllium programmable, composable and dynamic successful being capable to uncover lone information that is needed astatine immoderate fixed time.

The emergence of the metaverse with decentralized, self-sovereign individuality arsenic a modular volition alteration everything astir however we interact with integer platforms, and however those platforms are capable to interact with our data. We volition person much power implicit however we are represented, who knows what astir america arsenic good arsenic secure, effortless entree to everything the metaverse has to offer.

– Chris Hart, CEO of Civic

The metaverse has go a word associated with the aboriginal of the internet, evoking imagery of an interconnected web of virtual worlds, each guided by their ain aesthetic, capabilities and acceptable of rules. The "set of rules" constituent is important. None of america wants to enactment successful a integer beingness wherever our information and individuality are susceptible to exploitation, and this is simply a precise existent fearfulness fixed the past of information breaches, individuality thefts, ransomware attacks, stolen funds and surveillance. This is wherefore backstage integer individuality is truthful cardinal to the metaverse's occurrence and semipermanent viability.

The champion method we person for making backstage integer ID a world is by leveraging zero-knowledge proofs to springiness users power implicit their integer ID. If we proceed to springiness this work to the applications themselves, arsenic we person done successful Web 2, our information volition stay susceptible to hacks, thefts and fraud. By granting users power implicit their information via zero-knowledge proof-based protocols and applications, users are empowered with the tools they request to stock lone arsenic overmuch accusation arsenic is indispensable to entree a bully oregon work without rendering themselves susceptible to information exploitation.

– Kurt Hemecker, main operating serviceman of the Mina Foundation

The much information that is online, the much susceptible we are to information hacks and phishing scams. COVID-19 proved this by spurring a wide information migration to online arsenic companies astir the globe transitioned to distant work, which led to an tremendous uptick successful cyber attacks. Perhaps astir alarming is however the wellness attraction manufacture was impacted. As much of our lives modulation into the metaverse – including medicine and banking – expect these antagonistic trends to replicate and multiply. Such vulnerability to information exploitation volition beryllium the world unless we instrumentality solutions to support delicate idiosyncratic information. The lone mode to execute this is to guarantee information is stored successful a decentralized manner, eliminating azygous points of nonaccomplishment that are inherent to centralized unreality retention systems and giving users section power implicit their information.

– Anthem Blanchard, CEO of HeraSoft

Given the abundance of idiosyncratic information generated wrong metaverse platforms, this online ecosystem has the imaginable to go the astir valuable, divers root of user information successful the world. But arsenic much radical walk much clip successful the metaverse their information volition progressively beryllium gathered successful the inheritance oregon inferred done their online activity, alternatively than manually input into a website oregon different observable query.

That’s wherefore it isn’t capable for idiosyncratic information absorption to beryllium relegated to a decentralized web of anonymous node operators. The safest and astir effectual attack is to integrate next-generation privateness tools specified arsenic zero-knowledge proofs into mundane metaverse interactions truthful that users tin verify their identities and execute transactions without disclosing immoderate of their idiosyncratic accusation to anyone – not adjacent the different parties they’re interacting with.

Many crypto exploits hap astatine the intersection betwixt antithetic blockchain networks, oregon connected furniture 1 networks that effort to retroactively use privateness protocols atop their basal architecture. As the metaverse balloons successful size and integrates crossed antithetic projects, it volition beryllium progressively important to built atop a privacy-enhancing L1 web that person idiosyncratic protections embedded successful its core.

– Antoni Zolciak, co-founder of Aleph Zero

More from Metaverse Week:

Verifiable, immutable ownership of integer goods and currency volition beryllium an indispensable constituent of the metaverse.

Executives from Adidas, Budweiser, Clinique, NARS Cosmetics and different large user brands explicate wherefore the metaverse is “seismic” for their businesses.

The aboriginal possibilities of the metaverse are presumably limitless, but is determination thing you tin bash successful the metaverse close now?