This week in the ➡️ #Metaverse - Issue #1

A weekly roundup of what's happening in the digital land(scape). Metaverse ethics, governance and interesting trends from crypto, gaming and regulation.

What's going on:

Check out the pitch deck slides used by Lighthouse Labs, a metaverse search engine, to raise $7 million within 5 months of launching.

The Wendyverse will feature a variety of unique locations, interactive games, and, of course, plenty of official branding.

6,500 locations worldwide and now one in Horizon Worlds

The WTF award of the week goes to...

Zaha Hadid Architects partner Patrik Schumacher says only architects, not video game designers, have the vision for metaverse projects.

NFTLand:

Victims of NFT thefts are now likely to have greater protection in the UK—though other jurisdictions are lagging behind

Bold move by German photographer’s descendant to put archive on the blockchain sparks copyright row

For Science!!!

I always joke (no joke!) that haptics breaktroughts will come from the hand of adult entretaiment industry.

So on it's path to fullfill the true purpose of VR,  researchers from Carnegie Mellon University’s Future Interfaces Group have modified a headset to recreate the sensation of touch in and around a user’s lips, teeth, and even their tongue while their mouth is open...and we all know how this gonna end ;)

Ending nugget:

"In a broader picture beyond tech, I see the metaverse as an evolved and perfected form of capitalism. One that doesn’t need a supply chain or phisically fabricate any goods. The costs of production are linked to development of assets and mantening the underlying infrastructure, but once the goods have been produced with a fairly cheap chain of distribution, as replication of digital assets has close to zero marginal costs. It is as transformational as digital distribution has been for gaming business models.

Also with the added upside of a tighter control of secondary markets provided by intellectual property tools, effectively locking up consumers in ecosystems, and disabling through licensing, the rights to resell that comes with tangible goods.

In an increasingly digital world, with a trend of “owning” more digital than physical goods, we should rethink how we legally relate to our digital assets, and question whether  a “digital exhaustion” rule must be implemented".

Mantegna, May 12th, 2022 - Preliminary notes for the "Digital Media & The Metaverse" Panel, Fenwick + University of California, Hastings College of Law.