Last week, Access Partnership kicked off its third session of the Metaverse Dialogue Webinar Series – Digital Identities in the Metaverse – as part of our Metaverse Policy Lab. We were joined by 116 participants and an expert panel comprising Kerry Frank, Head of Digital Identity at Snickerdoodle Labs, Tom Ffiske, Editor at the Immersive Wire, Thommy Eriksson, VR Researcher from the University of Gothenburg, and David Cash, Managing Director and Founder of Cash Labs.
Moderated by Anja Jeanette Haga Engen, Policy Analyst at Access Partnership, the webinar addressed digital identity from a social perspective through the lens of avatars and their digital assets. Given the lack of an official definition of digital identity, the session attempted to define key concepts such as what we mean by identity in the first place and established the significant difference between the metaverse and Web3.
From here, the conversation touched upon several challenges related to digital identity in the metaverse, including (i) the appearance of avatars from both a photo-realistic and fictional perspective, (ii) the interoperability of digital identity, (iii) the extent of decentralization of Web3 and how this impacts digital identity, and (iv) the challenge of bots (a concept linked to social media platforms) from a metaverse perspective.
The dialogue generated broad engagement from the audience with participants and thought leaders taking centre stage to ask questions for the panel to generate further discussion.
As the event illustrated, key concerns regarding whether the metaverse exists, how it will develop, and how digital identity will influence these new immersive virtual places going forward, are still being explored by industry and thought leaders.
Watch Metaverse Dialogue: Digital Identities in the Metaverse
Stay tuned, the Metaverse Dialogue continues this week with our fourth session – Interoperability and the Future of the Metaverse – taking place this Thursday 22 September at 17:00 – 18:30 BST. All stakeholders are invited to join the dialogue.
