Use NFTs to track users in the metaverse

For all the hype surrounding the metaverse, it’s easy to forget that it’s still in its infancy. Although the term has only recently entered the broad public consciousness, it is already expected to have a major impact on how we interact with technology. McKinsey & Company estimates that annual global spending within the metaverse could reach $5 trillion by 2030 across domains as broad as gaming, social, fitness, commerce and distance learning.

The question of how to define and build technology with such broad possibilities is changing. While a number of games – such as Roblox, Fortnite and Minecraft – have been hailed as early examples of successful metaverse platforms, a more holistic approach would allow for unlimited player interaction across these games. Interoperability between metaverse platforms is a key component that should be considered.

A new way to socialize

While only recently entering the public lexicon, the metaverse is not a new concept. The term was originally used to describe a fictional break from reality in Neil Stevenson’s Snow crash. The popularity of digital entertainment increased enormously during the pandemic. From games like Among Us to services like Netflix Party and Zoom, the ability to socialize virtually was very appealing to many in a time of deep isolation.

Related: AI will help realize the true vision the metaverse hopes to achieve

These changes have fundamentally reshaped our ideas about how we socialize and work together, with lasting habits formed by connecting and collaborating virtually – a major factor accelerating engagement with the metaverse. Virtual experiences like Travis Scott’s Fortnite concert have taken positive steps forward in developing socially immersive in-game experiences. However, a multi-platform hypersocial virtual experience has yet to reach the market.

Moderation versus censorship

Freedom, community and cooperation are all defining characteristics of the metaverse. Achieving this requires infrastructure that can support the transfer of sensitive metadata across various blockchain protocols, metaverse platforms and gaming ecosystems in a mix of social media, crypto wallets and decentralized applications. So before an interoperable metaverse introduces new business models and cross-platform features, the issue of multi-chain identity and moderation must be addressed.

Decentralization brings with it the opportunity to experiment with community-led tactics, incentivize certain behaviors, and let the collective dictate its own preferences. PubDAO, a publishing collective launched in conjunction with Decrypt, provides a good example of how these structures can work. There is a clear distinction between moderation and censorship. Pubbers are like-minded individuals, writers in this case, who are shown, onboarded and integrated into the culture of the community.

Scaling this model up to billions of people creates problems, as individual screening is impossible. Legacy social media are plagued with this problem, deploying shadow bans and other censorship tools to deal with the problem. A common solution proposed by Web3 advocates involves algorithmic detection and incentivized moderation to discourage abuse, and yet this fails to take into account the nature of a multi-chain metaverse.

Even when done transparently and fairly, far too many abuses would slip through the net. Using the same manipulations of the infamous Tornado Cash mixer, the laundering tool of choice for 52% of nonfungible token (NFT) fraud proceeds before they were sanctioned, one would be able to hide the origin of abusive messages in the name of free speech. Even if the perpetrator was doxed on one link, they could jump to the next. This is not the kind of metaverse anyone wants to inhabit.

NFTs make users traceable across chains

The potential solution lies in moving moderation tools upstream. Twitter has tried such a process with success. By providing warnings before publishing tweets, 9% of users were encouraged to cancel their posts. Overall, the study concluded that there was a 6% reduction in offensive tweets as a result of this mechanism.

Implementing a metadata standard and infusing decentralized identifiers (DIDs) could provide an avenue for ethical moderation, one that does not impose privacy but ensures accountability. Such a multi-chain technical standard would ensure that tokens minted on any chain can be traced back to their origins in the metaverse. NFTs can be infused with verifiable credentials, enabling platforms to provide their users with privacy and define the terms of those rights.

Related: Get ready for the feds to start prosecuting NFT traders

More importantly, in an era where cybersecurity is an ever-growing concern, a metadata standard will provide individual users with more protection. Data breaches in games are notoriously common, with more than half of frequent gamers targeted by hacks, according to a 2020 report from Akamai. The wealth of victims and the prevalence of in-game microtransactions make it a lucrative target for cybercriminals. On top of that, users tend to use the same password across accounts, making credential stuffing a serious problem with the potential to spread across industries.

While certainly not a panacea, an interoperable standard will go a long way toward consolidating individual security needs. Web3 is set up to accommodate an identity system that removes the need for sensitive data to be stored on centralized servers, making it harder for hackers to gain access. In the event that personal assets are compromised, a metadata standard with DIDs will enable traceability across the multi-chain metaverse.

Data standards will dictate the evolution of the web, so it’s important that we get them right. Interoperability is easier to set up from the beginning than to retrofit it. By learning the lessons that the evolution of the Internet provides, together we can build a revolutionary metadata standard that promotes a positive, shared techno-social experience on the Web3.

This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts and opinions expressed herein are those of the author alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.