The Metaverse by Matthew Ball - Loving this great book. The #1 and #2 issues for the Metaverse are ownership and identity. Ball gets right to this concept of ownership early in the book (see below) If you cannot do what you want with something you own, do you really own it? In that case maybe you have copied or stolen it! Do we still need the idea of "loaning" something in the Metaverse?
Ball raises the issue of bringing a digital "item" from one area to another in the m'verse. So will all areas of the m'verse understand all digital items? Only if the information about the item is published and accessible, and understandable between areas. Ownership of information is something we don't fully have a handle on now.
Ball hints below that your stuff will be described and detailed by the manufacturer or creator. Will the creator have to keep a record that you own something and serve as a "forever" source of. truth about that transaction? When you buy the item, how much control over the item's information (such as creator, price, place of purchase etc) do you control? Today, if you sport a Rolex, you don't have to let anyone know if it's real, where you got it or how much you paid, unless you feel like it. Will the m'verse enable us to go around you to find out you got it at a pawn shop and it is real?
Won't we need for info about anything you own to come through you somehow? Will you have to create "policies" to provide people access to information in your life? Will you have an "ownership API" where your stuff is catalogued and information is provided? How will you prove that you own the item?
There are so many things in today's networking model that ignore the concept of ownership. I'll deal with those when we get to Ball's networking section.
(As an aside, Not sure I understand/agree with the idea that we don't need to control copies of images and music files as mentioned below.) #metaverse #metahuman #identity #ownership
