Why self-sovereign identity is vital to a safe and user-friendly metaverse
Article taken fromEdge
A decentralized identity platform should be an integral part of the design of the metaverse to address cybersecurity and cybercrime issues.
Gartner predicts that by 2026, 25% of people will spend at least an hour a day in the metaverse for work, shopping, education and entertainment. The global metaverse market is expected to reach a value of USD 678.000 billion in the next seven years and grow at a CAGR of 39,8% during 2022-2030. The recent PwC report “A Middle East Perspective on the metaverse” highlights the significant potential of the metaverse to energize and transform key sectors in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. According to PwC, the potential contribution of the metaverse to GCC economies is expected to reach $15.000 billion over the next seven years. By 2030, the expected metaverse economic contribution to GCC countries for travel and tourism is around 3.200 billion, followed by gaming with 2.400 billion and retail and e-commerce with 2.200 billion.
The metaverse not only creates the potential for new opportunities, but also paves the way for cybersecurity risks that can result in huge legal and financial losses for companies, businesses and brands. We must be aware of the risks and work to proactively mitigate them. Cybersecurity and privacy are the main concerns regarding the widespread adoption of the metaverse.
Identity theft and misrepresentation in the metaverse
There is considerable potential for misrepresentation through avatars, leading to a trust deficit between entities and individuals in virtual worlds and real-world environments. A decentralized identity platform should be an integral part of the metaverse design to address cybersecurity and cybercrime issues, including virtual identity theft, deep counterfeiting, and data breaches/attacks in the metaverse world.
The metaverse is an online virtual world; designing it with act-sovereignty principles and a consent-based architecture will solve the trust deficit problem. In a decentralized, identity-based metaverse, your online persona will always be associated with your real identity and cannot be stolen or used without your permission. This system would also allow better control of our personal data. The user could choose who has access to their information and revoke access at any time, keeping the data safe from hackers and malicious actors.
The metaverse offers users a unique opportunity to mask their online identity through avatars. Although this allows users to protect their identity from overexposure and misuse, it is still necessary to authenticate users, so that there is no misrepresentation or total lack of authorization. This is where digital identities come into play, playing a critical role in authenticating users whenever required by service providers, third parties and even regulators, while maintaining anonymity in general interactions.
Identity and ownership in the metaverse
Let's see how the metaverse is structured. The technical components of the metaverse can be grouped into three broad categories: interface, identity and property, and infrastructure. User-generated content (UGC) is an integral part of the concept and design of the metaverse. To enable full ownership of UGCs, a self-sufficient native identity construct is needed to ensure that users can control their identity and data across multiple metaverses.
- Interface: It represents the creative devices and tools that allow the creation of applications and content to interact with the metaverse environment.
Identity and ownership
- Digital identity – platforms that enable reusable and secure identities, including persistent avatars, leveraging act-sovereign digital identity;
- Digital assets – Web3 wallets for secure ownership of assets, tokens, digital currencies and digital assets.
- Payments: tools for the fluid exchange of value in the immersive world.
Infrastructure: The infrastructure level includes solutions relating to connectivity, security, storage and computing.
Self-sufficient identity (SSI) is necessary to enable secure and frictionless access to users in Web 3.0 and metaverse ecosystems.
SSI not only allows users of a metaverse game environment to make their identities interoperable across virtual worlds, but also contributes to monetization and the seamless exchange of assets and game tokens with participants in the game in a way that preserves privacy and complies with the rules.
Cybersecurity in the metaverse
In a digital world, your identity is everything. It allows you to access your online accounts, make purchases and interact with others online. So it's no surprise that keeping control of your identity is a priority for many people.
But as the Internet has evolved, so has the way we manage our identities. It takes more than just a username and password to access our accounts. We now need more sophisticated authentication methods, such as passwordless authentication and biometric or two-factor verification.
And as we move into the digital age, it becomes increasingly difficult to maintain control of our identities. Every day we create new accounts on different websites and services, and it's getting harder and harder to keep track of them all. In addition, with the rise of social networks and other online platforms, our personal data is more exposed than ever.
Today's IAM (Identity and Access Management) and user onboarding systems, built on centralized architectures, are vulnerable to Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, password breaches and phishing attacks. A blockchain-based decentralized identity management platform has no single point of failure and cannot be compromised by DDos attacks and credential theft. New emerging threat vectors in the metaverse need a blockchain-native and zero-trust approach to enable a secure and user-centric environment.
Decentralized identity refers to an identification system that does not rely on a central authority to manage user identities. Instead, it uses a distributed network of computers to authenticate users and verify their identities, making it much more difficult for hackers or malicious actors to access user data or impersonate them online.
The metaverse presents a market opportunity of $250.000 billion to $400.000 billion over the next two years. Dubai's metaverse strategy, with a vision to make it a leading metaverse economy, will add $4.000 billion to the economy. The $500.000 billion Saudi city of NEOM has a significant metaverse component. The UAE Metaverse Incubator is expected to spawn innovative early-stage metaverse and web applications. These initiatives are likely to significantly accelerate the growth of the metaverse in the region.
Business leaders and technologists must recognize that in order to realize the full economic potential, it is necessary to create secure and easy-to-use digital environments that allow users to participate, interact and transact securely.
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