Web3 and the metaverse took a seat at the World Economic Forum table in 2023 as the ecosystem continues to drive innovation across industries.
As Cointelegraph continues to explore, the presence of cryptocurrencies and the blockchain ecosystem was found mainly outside the walls of the WEF. Blockchain Hub Davos and GBBC’s Blockchain Central were two central events in the city that brought together the broader crypto community that has been somewhat left out of the WEF’s discourse on the sector.
The metaverse is a notable exception to this trend. Although some metaverse applications do not operate on decentralized blockchain systems, leading proponents of this space have participated in high-level workshops within the WEF seeking to understand and plan for the future integration of innovative technology.
The WEF agenda included two workshops directly addressing the metaverse as part of the “Define and Build the Metaverse” conference initiative in 2023.
The first workshop, “A New Reality: Building the Metaverse,” featured Chris Cox, Meta’s Product Manager, while the second, “Deployment in the Industrial Metaverse,” explored how industries can reap the benefits of the metaverse while avoiding its disruptive potential.
The World Economic Forum is also exploring metaversal experiences within the convention. The 2023 conference offered delegates the chance to experience the Forum in their own immersive 3D digital sessions, called the Global Collaboration Village.
A personalized digital avatar allowed WEF delegates to explore Davos in the metaverse and have bespoke experiences during the week of the conference. Decentralized or not, the organization is harnessing the power of Web3 to offer more to delegates through virtual experiences.
Blockchain-based metaverse platforms were also present at Davos, as the broader traditional finance industry, policy makers and delegates sought to further learn about the promise of metaverse ecosystems and their potential influence.
Playing in the sandbox
Cointelegraph spoke with The Sandbox co-founder Sebastien Borget at an exclusive networking event known as Swedish Lunch midweek. Every January, The Hotel Schatzalp hosts this meeting, in which many WEF delegates dine and meet on the snowy terrace of this picturesque place located on top of Davos.
The Sandbox has become a popular decentralized metaverse platform around the world. Its collaboration with major brands and companies is one of its main draws, which is partly why Borget participated in some high-level workshops on the metaverse within the 2023 World Economic Forum.
Borget held meetings with ministries and those responsible for digital transformation to open the dialogue around the empowerment and protection of digital property and digital economies. He said this was a pertinent point considering that half of the world’s population is now beyond Gen Z as digital natives:
“We still have to demystify a bit of what the metaverse is today and what it may be three, five, ten years from now.”
Lensing into metaverse-focused conversations within the World Economic Forum, Borget revealed that stakeholders were focusing on privacy and data security considerations:
“How can we make sure that the metaverse platform respects user privacy, that it will implement enough rules or controls to ensure that users can be safe and secure and their digital assets as well?”
Borget said he had the opportunity to speak with representatives of the European Parliament about its general data protection regulation, which came into effect in May 2018, as well as regulations on artificial intelligence, cryptocurrency and how non-fungible tokens (NFTs) should be be treated differently.
Borget believes that space regulation is inevitable, but hopes that these dialogues will ensure that the industry has room to innovate and experiment. This could prevent the metaverse from being crippled by restrictive measures for years to come:
“It’s an opportunity to make sure that those regulations aren’t too prescriptive so that entrepreneurs can really build something interesting here and develop and push their ideas forward. Therefore, we get involved as soon as possible in the dialogue instead of trying to solve the problem too late too.”
The Sandbox co-founder highlighted the “productive” nature of WEF’s metaverse workshops, describing the meetings as different from a typical conference with panels or talks.. Working groups extensively discussed key topics within the WEF, while Borget had ample opportunities to network and engage with the broader crypto community at various events in Davos throughout the week.
We need a bigger voice
The World Economic Forum and major institutions seem to be well aware of the promise of Web3 functionality and metaverse experiences. Dirk Lueth and Idan Zuckerman, co-founders of the metaverse platform Upland, shared these sentiments in a conversation with Cointelegraph on a snowy Thursday afternoon outside the Blockchain Hub headquarters on the waterfront.
The couple was in Davos, participating in conferences and networking with cryptocurrency and blockchain minds. Conversations around metaverse applications provided a learning opportunity, and Lueth highlighted the need for industry leaders to have a “bigger voice” among policy makers and industry leaders at conventions like the WEF.
“I think everyone has gotten used to the idea that the web will evolve into an immersive version. It will take time, but people are realizing it and taking the first steps to understand how they fit into the plan”Zuckerman explained.
According to Lueth, decentralization is another important principle driving digital ownership and economies. In his opinion, the open networks of the metaverse offer a number of business and media opportunities that closed systems cannot.
Zuckerman was more thoughtful, suggesting that the future of metaverses will be hybrid, with centralized and decentralized elements:
“I always look at decentralization, it’s not like a one or a zero, it’s a gradient. So there are some items that need and should and could be decentralized and those will be first.”
Cointelegraph saw examples of this firsthand at Davos. Moderating a panel on institutional adoption of the metaverse, two speakers represented leading metaverse solutions at the forefront of VR.
Accenture’s David Treat discussed its advanced augmented reality technologies, while Vince Cacace discussed Vertebrae’s augmented reality and 3D commerce platform. Both projects are powered by blockchain technology and serve mainstream commercial clients and institutions.
Interoperability could become an important part of the evolution of various platforms and applications in the metaverse, but Davos 2023 suggests that collaboration and innovation are already happening. The decentralized and the centralized are already interoperable, which allows us to glimpse the future of this space.
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