Johannesburg, 04 Mar 2022
The metaverse, while conceptual at this point, is set to become a reality at some point in the not too distant future.
It is made up of the opportunities when combining the advances in, and affordability of, extended reality, such as AR and VR, and virtual (gaming worlds), with the decentralised nature and composability of Web3, crypto-assets, decentralised finance (DeFi), and the underlying blockchain technology.
The new hot spot
Cyber criminals have definitely identified this market as a hot area, because it results in quick profits for them.
So says Anna Collard, SVP of content strategy & evangelist at KnowBe4 Africa, adding that there is a lot of criticism about the sustainability impact of blockchain technology as well as the “wild west-like” insecurity of the overall ecosystem. For example, blockchain analysis firm Elliptic has reported that DeFi platforms have lost $12 billion to date.
But is it an opportunity or a challenge? According to Collard, security practitioners are sceptics by nature and not very supportive of the metaverse or crypto-world in general.
“Whether it's hype or not, too many people are involved and too much investment in technology innovation is happening in this field for security professionals to ignore it as a fad. We need to work with the business leaders to ensure that the admittedly at this point still massive vulnerabilities and weaknesses are being addressed.”
Mainstream uptake
Speaking of how the metaverse differs from the “verse” we live in now, Collard says VR technology has been around for years, but the mainstream uptake of this technology is fairly new. With the price of VR headsets such as Oculus becoming more affordable, it is now within the reach of the average family.
“In fact, in 2021 Oculus sold more headsets than Microsoft did X-boxes,” she adds. “One of the main differences of Web 3.0 is the ownership of assets belonging to the content creators rather than the platforms.”
In theory, Collard says this decentralised nature allows musicians, artists, content creators to sell their digital goods without the middlemen and owners of these assets, again only in theory, to take these across multiple worlds.
“Composability is one of the main design principles of the blockchain ecosystems, and should allow anyone in the network to take existing programs and adapt or build on top of them, a bit like an open-source project of software Lego blocks,” Collard explains.
A game changer?
When asked how the Metaverse might change the way we do business, and live, Collard says although some gamers are already heavily immersed, personally she just can't see the majority of people wanting to be immersed in it all the time, or being comfortable wearing a headset for hours on end.
“However, as VR wearables become better and smaller I could imagine that we will have a future world where AR is built into our sunglasses, where we virtually meet with people to go for walks in beautiful worlds, listen to concerts, follow a yoga class and do other things in it.”
Collard says she can also understand the appeal of wanting to invest in the "individuality" of our avatars. “We will always remain humans after all and belonging is one of our main motivations. That may explain why some people drop so much money on brand names for their avatar outfits or NFTs in order to belong to some social club. People in the real world do the same when they pay for designer hand bags or shoes.”
Collard will be presenting a keynote address on “The metaverse, NFTs and blockchain – data and security challenges”, at the ITWeb Business Intelligence Summit 2022, to be held from 8 to 10 March, at the Maslow Hotel in Sandton, and online.
During her presentation, she will look at some of the opportunities as well as the security aspects surrounding the metaverse.
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