IN DEPTH

KEY TAKEAWAYS

1. Samrah provided an insightful breakdown of the metaverse, from its desktop-driven origin to today, where it predominately exists as a mobile-driven e-commerce platform. In the near future, Samrah explained, the metaverse will be decentralized, AI-driven, and will allow for the easy flow of data and funds to connect people, places and experiences in real time. The presence of cryptocurrency and digital payment systems in the metaverse will lead to further opportunities as well as corresponding complexities – such systems must learn to co-exist with fiat, tokens and central bank digital currency, and the metaverse must be able to seamlessly accommodate these different payment forms.
2. Regardless, the metaverse will have an enormous transformational impact across industries, from the factory floor to the boardroom, leaving no industry untouched and redefining the way in which we spend and earn money. As a matter of fact, it is estimated that the metaverse will have 5 billion total users by 2030. However, and as the saying goes, with great power comes great responsibility.
3. Perhaps the greatest challenge facing the metaverse today is the task of creating a socially responsible ecosystem that evolves in tandem with the changing world. To that end, it is important that the metaverse has open standards and is inclusive, experiential and accessible to all. Legal and regulatory regimes must be taken into consideration, including the issues that will arise in respect of privacy, intellectual property and taxation, as well as applicable global regimes and jurisdictional issues that will come into play depending on where transactions occur in the metaverse. To accomplish this, it will take the collective efforts of all metaverse participants, and not just a single company, to demand standards that best serve the public.