Roles of Blockchain & AI in the Metaverse(s)

What is metaverse? It is a term that is used to describe virtual spaces where people can interact with each other. For these spaces to exist, digital resources are using technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), extended reality (XR), and blockchain.

The more these technologies expand and enter our lives, the more queries come up about what could be the benefits or challenges of the Metaverse?
Can AI and blockchain enhance the user experience? What about security in the Metaverse? In this article, some of the queries will be addressed and we will present the roles of blockchains & AI in the context of metaverse(s)

The Metaverse is a virtual environment that can be viewed as “self self-consistent economic system, a complete chain of the production and consumption of digital items”.

The economic system in the metaverse is one of the most challenging sectors to be considered, and very difficult to be understood by traditional economists because the use and transactions that take place digitally show significant differences compared to the traditional economic system.

Blockchains and Artificial Intelligence play very important roles in both enabling and enhancing the Metaverse. Below we will examine their role in this new and exciting digital world.

How do blockchain & AI technologies fuse with the metaverse?

BLOCKCHAIN in the Metaverse

Blockchain is the foundation of Metaverse, because it provides the stability in its economic system, thus offering transparency, security, ownership and interoperability.

The verification mechanism is achieved through the blockchain. The distributed ledger is making sure that the users’ identity as well as their virtual assets are safe, and owned by the users.

Smart Contracts are deployed to set the rules and their technology provides the trustworthy environment for all components to function.

One of the most important applications that is vital for the Metaverse functionality is cryptocurrency.

What are the rules that are being applied in Metaverse?

In reality, the cryptocurrencies can be compared to the fiat currency's role in our society. Just as our economy and development is being built upon the fiat currencies, so is Metaverse economy being built on the evergrowing virtual currency. Despite the price volatility of the crypto in general, we have seen a stable growth and it is evident that crypto currency is not something that will stop existing any time soon.

However we should consider that it is a great challenge for businesses to be able to transfer their operation in the Metaverse. There are many procedures and operations that need to take place, and this can only be possible via smart contracts.

Decentralized Finance (DeFi) & NFTs are also components that can empower the Metaverse business market.

At the moment, the economic activities taking place in Metaverse are transactions in regards to virtual assets such as land, real estate etc. There are rewards for leasing, or playing games or from investing in crpyto. There is a whole new world that functions in parallel with the real world.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE in the Metaverse

The development of artificial Intelligence is focused on machine learning, deep learning and emerging fields are decision making, natural language processing etc. These techniques can be implemented to Metaverse so that the human level of learning can be reached (or even exceeded). AI can be used in many different sections of Metaverse, in users’ Avatars, in support mechanisms and others.

Realistic and immersive simulations can be provided, as well as the ultimate personalization in regards to the users’ preferences and needs.

How about integrating Blockchain with Artificial Intelligence? In the words of Yng:
“The integration of AI and blockchain, namely blockchain intelligence and intelligent blockchain, shall be explored due to their close interactions”

Artificial Intelligence and decentralization can be used to perform data analysis or even decision making on trusted data. But how will these be used? What uses will there be? There have been proposals (i.e. Mamoshina et al) that would offer users the possibility to upload and access their data in healthcare systems so that they can be processed via AI-moderated healthcare data exchange. There can be many risks involved and the growth of traffic as well as transactions will bring many changes in the future.

Blockchain and AI constitute fundamental technologies for Metaverse. Even though there is potential for a reliable and safe metaverse, we should acknowledge that Metaverse is still at its very early stages and with the vast development of all technologies, we cannot foresee the challenges that come with evolution.

There are many questions that can be set and not answered just yet, such as:

• Will there need to be governance & safety mechanisms in Metaverse?

• Will there be a need to be one universal digital currency?

• Will the continuous growing transaction be supported from the network?

• How can the security and privacy of users be guaranteed?

Can a decentralized Metaverse become a reality? Or will it continue being divided in smaller and centralized Metaverses (i.e. Roblox, Meta etc)?

To predict the future, is not a possibility. But to be able to recognize the potential and to be prepared for it, is what science offers us. And we need to make good use of it.

This essay is part of one of my assignments

Source:
Yang, Qinglin, Yetong Zhao, Huawei Huang, Zehui Xiong, Jiawen Kang, and Zibin Zheng. "Fusing blockchain and AI with metaverse: A survey." IEEE Open Journal of the Computer Society 3 (2022): 122-136, Link: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/9815155

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