Forbes India – Metaverse, Cryptocurrency, Virtual Reality: Metaverse Developers Will Need to Build Trust First to Unleash Its Potential

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More than two decades ago, the idea of ​​a simulated world became mainstream with the sci-fi movie The matrix. A decade later, in 2009, Avatar again forced us to imagine where virtual reality can take us. While we thoroughly enjoyed these films, we may not have taken the underlying concepts seriously. Today, with the emergence of the metaverse, these fantasies may converge with reality sooner than expected. The Metaverse is perhaps the next stage of technological evolution that combines the power of digital and human intellect to build an animated virtual 3D ecosystem, a replica of our real world.

Much of the appeal of the metaverse lies in the concept of an “embodied Internet” – instead of just viewing static Internet pages as we currently do, we will be able to exist within them. This opens the doors to a world of opportunities. Executives of manufacturing companies could inspect the operations of their factories on the other side of the world by simply putting on a VR headset and entering a digital twin of the factory. Employees could interact with customers and colleagues in a virtual representation of their office or any other location, where an avatar or digital version of each person is present – a use case that may revolutionize coworking and remote collaboration. Online shoppers could virtually experience products before buying them, redefining window shopping. Fashion and apparel brands could do soft product launches in the Metaverse by first releasing new outfits for Metaverse avatars before releasing them on store shelves.

An entirely new media opportunity would emerge for marketing and advertising products and services. Training in fields such as medicine and surgery could be taken to a whole new level. One could connect an exercise bike or stationary treadmill to a VR headset and set off on an Amazon exploration trail. Along with this boom, there is also a huge opportunity for software, hardware, and consulting companies to help organizations access the metaverse.

Realizing the potential of the metaverse, many organizations are investing billions of dollars to develop their metaverse capabilities. Although these early adopters strongly believe in this new frontier, not all stakeholders share the same vision. Some think the concept is trendy and others say it’s ahead of its time. Even the big tech companies don’t seem to be on the same page. Some are massively investing billions in the metaverse, some are looking aside, and some are investing in augmented reality (AR) instead of virtual reality.

This preference for AR stems from the fact that it “helps” or “augments” the view of the real world and is therefore more likely to be accepted by consumers than a fully virtual world. For example, the car’s heads-up display or glasses that tell you the time, directions and notifications from your phone on the side. This caution extends to investors and shareholders, many of whom still disagree with the pro-metaverse posture of their beneficiary companies. A case in point is when the stock price of a leading tech company, which plans to invest heavily in the metaverse, took a nose dive after its quarterly earnings call earlier this year.

This begs the question: Are we ready for the idea of ​​the metaverse? In today’s world, where trust and transparency are imperative, organizations must first build trust among their stakeholders by addressing some key issues.

The metaverse must emerge as a shared platform so its latent potential can be unleashed. It should have cross-platform interoperability and therefore ideally should be jointly developed. Yet today, companies and developers work in silos, in intense competition.

Data protection is another important concern: protect users’ privacy, put in place appropriate mechanisms to obtain their consent to data collection, be transparent about how their data is monetized. The threat of cybercrime is also likely to increase in the metaverse, be it theft, impersonation, cyberbullying, or cyberstalking.

The virtual nature of the metaverse can enhance user anonymity, which can be misused. We are also seeing an increase in health issues related to digital fatigue, with most of us already spending much of our day glued to our screens and devices. Are we really prepared for a multiplication of our immersion in the digital world? All of these issues could be compounded in the Metaverse, given its immersive nature.

We also need to weigh our bold metaverse ambitions against our green aspirations. The metaverse will force us to significantly expand our network of data centers and cloud infrastructure, leading to an exponential increase in the demand for electricity. As decentralized proof of work technologies such as blockchain, the basis of cryptocurrencies and NFTs, become popular, we will need more and more computing power to record, verify and store every transaction.

Researchers at the University of Massachusetts estimate that training a large AI model (many of which would be needed to create and maintain the metaverse user experience) can emit as much CO2 as five cars in their lifetime! As we tackle an urgent climate change crisis, we must ask ourselves how we can sustainably accommodate a metaverse boom.

When I think about the hype or reality debate around the metaverse, it reminds me of the mid-90s, when the internet elicited very similar reactions – pockets of enthusiasm and skepticism. Yet, as we’ve seen time and time again, sometimes technological innovation changes the world for the better. The Metaverse could also be such an example and possibly transform the dynamics of human interaction and commerce.

However, much remains to be done today to truly exploit its potential. You could say that what we’ve seen so far is just the trailer and the movie hasn’t hit theaters yet. All things considered, this might be a movie business owners should consider watching once for them, no matter what the critics say.

The author is chairman of PwC India.

The thoughts and opinions shared here are those of the author.