A Role And Place For Lawyers In A Metaverse Explained

You’ve just landed on the moon. Your movements are fluid and weightless. The Earth seems like it’s right there, an arm’s reach away, and yet it isn’t. You look around to see a prosperous city in front of you. Waiting, open to exploration.

One wave of a hand and you are in your car, driving towards a new beginning. You swipe left, and your new home is ready. Another swipe, and it has a Picasso in it, decorating the fireplace. 

Then you take off your headset to take a sip of coffee and dive back in. 

You were in a Metaverse – a logical continuation of existing technologies. You just experienced Web 3.0.

Science fiction, you say? 

Not according to tech giants like Apple, Google and Microsoft who are not looking to miss out on a slice of the $1 Trillion pie. Heck, even today, real estate investors are paying millions for land that doesn’t physically exist.

All of the data indicates that Metaverses are here to stay. And with a plethora of new universes on our hands, one can only imagine how busy a good lawyer will be in the near future.

First thing’s first – what on Earth is a Metaverse? 

A Metaverse, AKA Web 3.0 is, in its core, a series of virtual 3D environments where people log into using their digital avatars. In simpler words, it’s a video game you play in a VR headset. 

In and of itself, this is a pretty simple straightforward concept to follow, right? 

Well, not exactly. The recent developments in the Blockchain industry as well as tokenization of digital assets have brought a series of feasible implications. 

For starters, people in these games will have “real” money. Furthermore, they will be able to use said new money (cryptocurrencies) to acquire assets. These assets can be either physical or, more importantly in our case, digital. What makes these kinds of deals more real is the fact that ownership of a 100% virtual good can be proven and has authority via code on an immutable ledger. 

In simpler words, a person is able to purchase land, a house, a car, or any other assets using an NFT (Non-Fungible Token) on a virtual platform and prove them to be their own. 

Legal challenges

Obviously, new corporate-owned universes – though only digital in nature – open a series of new and serious challenges for the legal industry. For starters, we are yet to have any serious precedents of digital identity theft (I mean theft of a digital avatar that owns monetary assets). What about personal or even sexual harassment, internet trolling, etc. of a person’s virtual avatar? How can lawyers handle these in an entirely new environment? 

These and other questions are merely the tip of an iceberg. 

That’s why I’ve decided to break down some of the most prominent areas that require serious legal involvement ASAP and focus on them separately. 

• Security: There’s real money involved in Web 3.0 assets. And I’m not talking about ownership of a dress or a pair of sunglasses. Investors are exploring opportunities of land purchases in digital worlds – a place where a security breach can lead to immense financial losses. How will the owners of the Metaverse respond to these challenges? How well are the buyers protected in the eye of the law? 
• Privacy: Most countries in the EU are benefiting from relatively effective, though rather restricting data privacy laws and regulations. The US still lags behind, but they are getting there. That said, a digital environment has no national or geographic boundaries. Users from certain countries may not be as protected. How will the companies communicate these differences? How will they use our personal information and to which degree? How will they deal with international law and regulations? Once again, this is where the legal professionals step in. 
• Consent: Right now most internet users are free to choose whether they prefer targeted advertising or not. Additionally, they may opt out from marketing messages whatsoever. SPAM is resolved quite quickly and effectively right now. Imagine the situation in a virtual city that’s filled with virtual billboards. And each of them interacts with users directly, asking for their consent. Perhaps there are alternative ways of handling advertising in a Metaverse? 
• Cyberbullying: Given digital avatars are much more close and personal to their users due to the fact that people personally interact with the environment, cyberbullying will cause much more issues. Probably more than most of us could ever imagine. 

DAOs

DAOs or Decentralized Autonomous Organizations is an organization that is represented by the rules encoded as a transparent computer program. These rules are controlled by the members of the organization and they can not be influenced by a centralized government entity. Moreover, the rules are embedded into the computer code. They function as written and do not require involvement, help, assistance, enforcement, or management from a person. 

In simpler words, DAOs are organizations that equalize the digital playing fields by setting certain rules in stone. These rules are upkept by code and code alone. Bitcoin is the first and probably the most famous example of a fully functioning DAO. 

In my opinion, this approach is the only viable option to regulate a Metaverse, hence I suggest law firms to look deeply into them while there’s still time. What are your opinions on the matter?