How to prevent the metaverse from becoming a nightmare

Editor's note: As part of CoinDesk's Metaverse Week, we asked a number of engineers, executives and experts to weigh in on the key issues facing the crypto industry. This roundtable discussion will focus on how to prevent the Metaverse from becoming a nightmare, and will address topics such as Layer 1 privacy, decentralized data management, and the need for consumer choice.

Bitcoin's WorldTheWord

"Metaverse" was coined by Neal Stephenson in his science fiction classic Snow Crash, which describes a virtual world owned by corporations where end users are treated like citizens in a dystopian corporate dictatorship. The metaverse, while very promising, also has the potential to evolve into a dystopian nightmare where Big Tech has control over our data, experiences, and privacy - which they have violated time and time again.

The good news is that there is another model, one that builds on Bitcoin (the network) and uses Bitcoin (the native currency, BTC). By embedding the ethos of decentralized ledger technology - and the independence, privacy and freedom it fosters - the Metaverse should instead empower humanity. It shouldn't be hard to choose freedom (over your money, data, and value) over a closed system of centralized currencies controlled by Big Tech. However, the philosophical differences between these two competing ideologies will intensify as the projects develop.

-Will

Reeves, CEO and co-founder of FoldContent

,

speakingWhen

the

virtual land, avatars, wearables and other forms of digital collectibles in the metaverse are just references to a file stored on a proprietary server, we are just extending the flaws of Web 2 to Web 3. Worse, in terms of data extraction, these digital objects could actually provide corporations and the government with more information about us than the platforms of Web 2 ever did.

Our lives in the metaverse could provide new data points for our identity, economic behavior, value judgments, and other layers of social interaction. The valuable NFT (non-fungible token) artwork that might hang on the walls of a private room in the metaverse wouldn't look so good next to the same annoying ads that feed into our social media feeds.

Moving to peer-to-peer systems for decentralized storage and building the metaverse on top of that stack would ensure more privacy as well as true user ownership of the objects that produce that data. They would be wholly owned at all times by the users who upload them, and would be operated without disclosure to third parties.

The metaverse could also benefit from features such as content addressability and persistent storage that are included in the existing Web 3 storage infrastructure. All information representing beautiful digital landscapes, gorgeous 3D homes, and personalized avatars would be redundantly stored in nodes around the world and accessible at any time, regardless of location. This would also make Metaverse worlds resistant to censorship.

If we are to prevent the metaverse from facing the problems presented in "Snow Crash," our digital property and data must be distributed privately among our peers. They should not end up on servers owned by a real-life L. Bob Rife figure.

-HQ

Han, Ecosystem Growth Lead at Protocol Labs4ImperativeTheMetaverse

has the potential to be one of the most creative digital innovations in history. On the other hand, it could also evolve into surveillance capitalism of unimagined proportions. Will we prefer community-led, rich, authentic, and fragmented decentralized networks? Or will we opt for simpler, user-friendly, and tightly coordinated closed platforms?

From a philosophical standpoint, the right choice seems obvious. From a technical standpoint, things are more complicated. The evolution of the metaverse will depend on the choices we make as users and developers regarding data architecture. The stage is already being set for a more equitable metaverse, based on a few key assumptions:

• Decentralization: Credible neutrality and demonstrable persistence are prerequisites for making the metaverse a welcoming place.
• Standardization: In order for fragmented worlds and goods to develop their full value, the early establishment of standards is crucial.
• Access: ease of use and affordability are two elements that inhibit adoption of a Web 3-based metaverse. For decentralized ecosystems to thrive, many barriers to access must be removed.
• Agency: the metaverse must be built with user agency in mind. This is an issue that presents design, technical, and behavioral challenges.

Autonomous identity and protocols like IPFS are an indispensable part of the toolkit needed to build a welcoming metaverse.

-Justine

Massicotte, Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder of Lighthouse LabsSelf-ManagedDataSelf-ManagedIdentity

will play a critical role in the metaverse. When we are able to manage our own data and identity, we have more control over who has access to our information and what they are allowed to do with it. We believe that data sharing should be turned off by default in the Metaverse, so that users can only give consent for experiences that are of interest to them. The ability to approve instances of data sharing independently will give users more granular control over the information they share. The ideal Web 3 identity component will also be programmable, composable, and dynamic in that it can reveal only the data that is needed at any given time.

The emergence of the metaverse with decentralized, self-managed identity as the default will completely change the way we interact with digital platforms and how those platforms can interact with our data. We will have more control over how we are represented, who knows what about us, and we will have secure, effortless access to everything the Metaverse has to offer.

-Chris Hart, CEO of CivicZero-knowledgeTheMetaverse

has become a term associated with the future of the Internet, evoking the notion of an interconnected web of virtual worlds, each guided by its own aesthetics, capabilities, and rulebook. The "rulebook" component is important. None of us wants to participate in a digital universe where our data and identity can be exploited, and that is a very real fear given the history of data breaches, identity thefts, ransomware attacks, stolen funds, and surveillance. For this reason, private digital identity is key to the success and long-term viability of the metaverse.

The best way we have to make private digital identity a reality is to use zero-knowledge proofs to give users control over their digital identity. If we continue to leave this responsibility to the applications themselves, as we did in Web 2, our data will remain vulnerable to hacks, theft, and fraud. By giving users control of their data through zero-knowledge proof-based protocols and applications, we give them the tools they need to share only as much information as is necessary to access a good or service without leaving themselves vulnerable to data breaches.

-Kurt Hemecker, Chief Operating Officer, Mina FoundationNegativeTrendsThe more

data we have online, the more vulnerable we are to data hacks and phishing scams. COVID-19 has proven this by triggering a mass shift of data online as companies around the world have moved to telecommuting, leading to a huge increase in cyberattacks. Perhaps most alarming is how the healthcare industry has been affected. As more and more areas of our lives shift to the metaverse - including medicine and banking - we can expect these negative trends to repeat and intensify. Such vulnerability to data misuse will be a reality unless we implement solutions to protect sensitive user information. The only way to achieve this is to ensure decentralized data storage that eliminates the failure points associated with centralized cloud storage systems and gives users local control over their data.

-Anthem

Blanchard, CEO of HeraSoftPrivateLayer

1sAgain

,

given the

wealth of user data generated within Metaverse platforms, this online ecosystem has the potential to become the most valuable and diverse source of consumer data in the world. However, as more people spend more time in the Metaverse, their data is increasingly collected in the background or derived through their online activities, rather than manually entered into a website or other observable query.

Therefore, leaving the management of user data to a decentralized network of anonymous node operators is not enough. The most secure and effective approach is to integrate next-generation privacy tools, such as zero-knowledge proofs, into everyday interactions in the metaverse so that users can verify their identities and conduct transactions without revealing their personal information to anyone - not even the other parties with whom they interact.

Many crypto exploits occur at the interface between different blockchain networks or on Layer 1 networks that attempt to retroactively apply privacy protocols to their base architecture. As the metaverse grows and integrates across different projects, it becomes increasingly important to build on an L1 network that enhances privacy and has user protection embedded at its core.

-Antoni

Zolciak, co-founder of Aleph ZeroMorefrom

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