With virtual reality taking the world by storm, governments are faced with a new frontier of regulation. How will they navigate this uncharted territory and what impact will it have on society?

The Rise of the Metaverse: The Metaverse, a term coined by sci-fi author Neal Stephenson, refers to a shared virtual reality space where users can interact with each other and digital objects in real-time. With the advent of virtual reality technology and the growth of social media, the idea of a Metaverse has become a reality. As virtual worlds and online gaming become more sophisticated, the line between the digital and physical world is becoming increasingly blurred. Governments around the world are faced with a new frontier of regulation and are grappling with how to handle this new reality.

Governments Navigating a New Frontier: The rise of the Metaverse presents a new set of challenges for governments around the world. As virtual spaces become more sophisticated, the line between the digital and physical world becomes increasingly blurred. This has raised several questions about how to regulate these virtual spaces and what impact they will have on society. Governments are grappling with how to handle issues such as privacy, security, and intellectual property rights. In addition, there is the question of how to regulate the use of virtual currencies and how to enforce laws in virtual worlds.

South Korea was the first country to commit funds to a government Metaverse strategy & ecosystem. Their Ministry of ICT, Science, and Future Planning invested $186.7 million to stimulate a government-led metaverse ecosystem. Their over-riding strategy is to develop a platform where business can optimise their digital growth. They want to encourage a culture of convergence, which will encourage growth in its education and media industries.

China is hot on their heels; in Feb 2022 they announced their support of 17 Government backed companies to promote the development of sustainable activities within the Metaverse. 

For those governments and institutions governance and regulation within the Metaverse is an ongoing conversation. We are now seeing the UK Government’s start the discussion with the pioneers in this space.

Recently I was invited along with several of my peers to join the ongoing conversation here in the UK.

In recognition of the transformative nature of the Metaverse and Web 3 technology with its profound effect on our society and the future of our children, an All-Party Parliamentary Group on the Metaverse & Web 3.0 chaired by the honourable Baroness Uddin has been setup to consider influence of Web 3.0 and Metaverse on policy within parliament, industry, and society at large particularly regarding data protection, safeguarding system security as well as user safety.

On the 25th January 2023, 24 expert speakers pioneers & leaders, in the field of Web 3 and Metaverse where invited to speak. It was an honour to be one of the 24 speakers. 

🚀Yu Xiong, Associate Vice President, University of Surrey
🚀Kumardev Chatterjee, Co-founder of Saudi's multi-billions Metaverse, XVRS
🚀Nidaa Sabbagh, respected political analyst & journalist with 3 books published
🚀Dr. Ahmed Anany, former advisor to Egypt’s prime minister on digitalisation
🚀Abbas Kazmi, serial entrepreneur, investor, Forbes 30 Under 30
🚀Amanda Mckenna, founder of Elevate Higher Ltd
🚀Abhishek Rajpurohit (Digitalmicropreneur.eth), co founder at AcknoLedger
🚀Divya Prashanth, CEO of https://www.hqnfts.xyz, a no-code Web3 platform
🚀Syed Rahman, Investor, Consultant, Top 40 Asian Achievers in the UK.
🚀Sieng Van Tran, Founder, Temple of Art and Music
🚀Terence Eben, founder of Never Fade Factory, NFT.Soho, ARCANO Agro
🚀Anya Markitanova, Head of Marketing, London Business School PE& VC Club
🚀Taha C., Chairman, UK Asia Business Council
🚀Peter Meli,the Economic Attaché, The Malta High Commission in London
🚀Patricia Ullbrich, executive search M-Tec Executive Partnership, Web3
🚀Ashley Turing, founder of Livetree, blockchain industry since 2015
🚀Oliver Studd, CEO of Valhalla Network DAO, a web3 community bank
🚀Nell Lloyd-Malcolm, CEO of xydrobe, Hollywood standard digital web3 content
🚀Malcolm Oluwasanmi, co-founder of the Causevest Network, p2p blockchain
🚀Carl Dawkins, Head of Growth of Block Labs
🚀Gunjan Shukla, Founder, TechEnable, Blockchain/ Data Science/ SAP
🚀Maurice Andrew, Vice President Marketing, Metaverseweek
🚀Amy Williams, CEO Fem-Foundry, Top 21 most influential female

 ⭐ Balbir Judge, a Venture Capitalist, BD Director for Voice of Crypto.
⭐ Sherylanne McLeod, Founder, Into The Vortex corporate meditation
⭐ Zoe (Zee) West, Leading-edge Fintech at Picnic Bank, Valhalla Network

There was an explosion of ideas, thoughts, sharing of experiences, and valuable insights on various Web 3 topics by the experts. There was a general sense of openness, willingness to collaborate, learn and an opportunity to voice concerns that could impede the growth of this technology. Baroness Uddin and her team took note of all the thoughts and views aired by the experts with keen interest. 

I took the opportunity to talk about the need for no-code Web 3.0 platforms like https://www.hqnfts.xyz as they are essential for the creation of Digital Assets that are needed to secure, token gate, build and manage Metaverse and other Web 3 experiences . To commemorate the event Ori Bengal was commissioned to create a unique  artwork that embodied the duality of the world we live in for the Phygital Proof of attendance Protocol (POAP) NFTs “House of Lords”. The no-code platform https://www/hqnfts.xyz was used to create the Phygital POAPs. 

Conclusion: As virtual spaces become more advanced and sophisticated, it is important for governments to find a way to regulate this new reality. This will require a careful balance between protecting privacy, security, and intellectual property rights while also promoting innovation and the growth of this new frontier. It is up to governments and society as a whole to ensure that this change is for the better.