The Banking Executive Magazine - June 2022 Issue

The Metaverse tonomously within a series of trade secret algorithms in a cloud system architecture. Digital Twins: Several initiatives are now develop- ing digital twins of the physical world we live in and access this dig- ital world through the network. Retail Metaverse: The world has changed considerably after the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, shopping malls began fol- lowing social distancing practices. A few even temporarily shut down. Or- ganizations have adopted remote working models, and people isolated themselves from huge gatherings, meet-ups, and other events. With technological advancement, the Metaverse may get even more excit- ing and real, and users will soon touch and feel virtual objects through haptic gloves. HOW TO BUILD A METAVERSE Metaverse is complex, and the struc- tures we build into it must support in- teroperability and be persistent, as synchronous as possible to the real world. It must also be secured enough for transactions, thus creat- ing an economic base. The virtual world must be filled with content and experiences staying true to its meaning. Accubits blog by Rahul A R, suggests four steps to build a meta- verse: Step 1: Choose a metaverse platform Users can choose from the metaverse platforms already launched in the market, for example, Facebook Meta. Or, they can build their own metaverse platform from scratch. Step 2: Design the metaspace A metaspace can be an app, a virtual meeting room, a virtual conference hall, or even a virtual home theatre. Step 3: Build an interaction layer The interaction layer defines the user controls, access criteria, navigation controls, and communication proto- cols between the users. The interac- tion layer also defines the integrations with third-party tools and software needed to support the functioning of the metaspace. Step 4: Build an interoperability layer Interoperability standards enable the operational processes to support the exchange and sharing of information between different systems. The goal of interoperability is to access and use data and digital objects au- tonomously by both humans and machines. Metaverse supports pay- ment gateways that allow the transfer of virtual money/crypto. Choosing a blockchain to route the secure, trans- parent, and decentralized transac- tions is required to have a fully functioning virtual world. METAVERSE CRITISIM AND CONCERNS While the Metaverse is promising, it entails many risks and has several criticisms: Feasibility: Intel sees that truly persistent and im- mersive computing, at scale and ac- cessible by billions of humans in real time, will require a 1,000-times in- crease in computational efficiency from today’s state of the art. Privacy: Information privacy is an area of concern for the metaverse because related companies will likely collect users' personal information through interactions and biometric data from wearable virtual and augmented reality devices. Meta Platforms is planning on employing targeted ad- vertising within their metaverse, rais- ing further worries related to the spread of misinformation and loss of personal privacy. Liverpool Hope University sees that the amount of data collection in the metaverse would be greater than that on the in- ternet. User safety: User addiction and problematic so- cial media use is another concern. Internet addiction disorder, social media, and video game addiction can have mental and physical reper- cussions over a prolonged period of time, such as depression, anxiety, and various other harms related to having a sedentary lifestyle such as an increased risk for obesity and car- diovascular disease. Experts are also concerned that the metaverse could be used as an 'escape' from reality in a similar fashion to existing internet technologies. Virtual crime: Are significant challenges with cur- rent social virtual reality platforms, and may be similarly prevalent in a metaverse. Social issues: Metaverse development may mag- nify the social impacts of online echo chambers and digitally alienating spaces or abuse common social media engagement strategies to ma- nipulate users with biased content. METAVERSE GROWTH A report by Bloomberg Intelligence has pointed out the possibilities for the metaverse reaching almost $800 billion by 2025. Organizations like Microsoft and NVIDIA are already coming up with their own strategies to build around the Metaverse. The future will see a completely inte- grated virtual world. A recent report by JPMorgan esti- mates the market and business op- portunities for companies in the metaverse at over $1 trillion in yearly revenues. JPMorgan is the first bank to arrive in the metaverse, opening a lounge in Decentraland, the virtual world based on blockchain technol- ogy. in Onyx Lounge, the bank’s lounge in Decentraland, clients can buy virtual plots of land with non- fungible tokens (NFTs) or use cryp- tocurrency. In the few months since the an- nouncement by Meta, the metaverse has witnessed its own accelerated maturation curve. Bloomberg Intelli- gence expects more organizations to jump on the bandwagon, pushing the BANKING EXECUTIVE 46 ISSUE 162 JUNE 2022