Sponsor Insight

The Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust (SnT) and Legal Hackers Luxembourg are hosting a panel discussion at Infrachain Summit at 4:30 pm that will go into the practicalities of launching activities in the metaverse. SnT’s research experts on blockchain and entrepreneurship Prof. Gilbert Fridgen and Prof. Christian Fisch provide some first insights into this topic.

What is the metaverse?

Prof. Fridgen: The metaverse is a combination of several state-of-the-art technologies. These include technologies related to virtual reality and 3D worlds, combined with videoconferencing, and with technologies related to digital assets and digital ownership.

What does decentralisation mean in the metaverse?

Prof. Fridgen: Some actors want to create a rather centralised version of the metaverse, like Meta, formerly known as Facebook. Others want to create a more decentralised metaverse as a successor to the decentralised internet. A key topic here is digital ownership. Some companies already sell digital goods, for example virtual sneakers. Your avatar (virtual character) in the metaverse can then wear these sneakers. Blockchain technology allows us to implement this digital ownership in a decentralised way – through ownership certificates called “non-fungible tokens” (NFTs). Each NFT is unique, so you cannot just exchange it against another NFT. The idea of this decentralised ownership approach is that everyone has control over their own property by means of NFTs.

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What effect could Decentralised Autonomous Organisations (DAOs) have in the metaverse?

Prof. Fisch: DAOs may be an important player in the metaverse. This could be the way metaverse business is organised. The most common use-case of DAOs is investment funds – members can vote on the DAO’s investments. In principle, however, different kinds of organisations can be set up by smart contracts. For example, members of a DAO could also vote on a product launch or the internationalization strategy of a company. The metaverse “Decentraland” is, for instance, governed by the corresponding “Decentraland DAO”, where governance decisions are made in a democratic manner.

Read the full article here.