Metaverse Terms and Conditions
Web3 has a problem: how does a return to a more democratized, decentralized, creator-centric internet originally envisioned for Web1 compete against the trillion-dollar momentum of the Web2 economy?
The original outlook of Web3 is that individual creators will regain some control based on the substantial value that they provide by way of content. The challenge with a Web3 open-to-all attitude is that it will be difficult for individuals and small players to gain traction or compete at a level that will bring the Web3 vision to fruition.
It remains to be seen whether the safeguards built into the technical underpinnings of a future decentralized metaverse will be enough to prevent a usurping of Web3’s progress again by dominant Web2 players or if the Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAO) will be influential enough to shift the paradigm.
It will be difficult. It’s rumored that at least one large bank has a hidden stake in a major layer-1 blockchain through back door channels. This type of ownership runs counter to Web3 sensibilities for some because the ownership of essential infrastructure means that there could be undue influence toward centralization rather than the preferred alternative. Proponents of decentralization are worried.
The good news for the Web3 community is that blockchain technology itself provides an audit trail history that can be traced and uncovered. This adds to a level of transparency that is integral to the ideals of Web3. The smart contract rules and DAO voting rights encoded into any given blockchain should also limit any one stakeholder from acting unilaterally without notice.
Market forces will likely continue to favor the major corporations. The truth is that it’s still too complex for the average consumer to participate in the metaverse without help. Some Web3 corporations are already starting to show their dominance by making it easy for folks to dip their toe into this space by providing a user-friendly onramp to virtual reality, cryptocurrency transactions, and non-fungible token creation and ownership.
The irony is that a majority of the data collected by these Web3 companies is stored in traditional data warehouses in the cloud. While the blockchain address might be used as a digital deed to record ownership, the remainder of the digital asset information is stored off-chain. The blockchain consensus mechanism is considered too slow for these high-frequency transactions and, in the case of Ethereum, gas fees too high to justify blockchain as the ultimate system of record for the entirety of the asset metadata.
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The promise of creators and everyday users retaining remuneration and privacy rights to metadata like personally identifiable information (PII), demographics, shopping trends, and digital creations becomes diluted as en masse adoption grows. The paradox of a popularized internet, whatever the iteration as it evolves from Web1 to Web2 and now from Web2 to Web3, means that it will likely be led by entities that work most efficiently in a market economy.
These companies have a right to follow business and IT infrastructure models that meet with their own priorities. It’s often the major players that provide the greatest efficiency to the market when pitted against blockchain purists, technologists, and individual content creators who don’t necessarily have the business resources to compete on this front.
For forensics professionals, regardless of how the ecosystem evolves, the metaverse will be a vibrant environment for us to navigate. It will be teeming with artifact information, and we should be preparing for a new era of disputes and investigations. While this newsletter has so far covered mostly philosophical topics about the metaverse, you can trust that future articles will focus heavily on the extraction and analysis of forensic artifacts that exist on endpoint computers, IOT devices, blockchain, distributed apps, and cloud systems as they materialize.
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Jerry Bui is Managing Director of Digital Forensics within FTI Consulting’s Technology segment focused on forensic technology and risk & compliance issues (all opinions his own). Jerry is a Certified Fraud Examiner and has over 20 years of experience in digital forensics, ediscovery, automated risk assessments, dashboard compliance monitoring, and investigative analytics. Jerry’s team provides evidence acquisition, expert witness, and strategic consulting services to law firms and corporations. Connect with Jerry on LinkedIn, Twitter and TikTok.
The Digital Forensics Future (DFF) podcast is also available on the platforms below.
