Metaverses: Blockchain and legal Certainty

Almudena de la Mata Muñoz
CEO, Blockchain Intelligence
President of Blockchain Intelligence Law Institute
Diario La Ley, Nº 60, Cyberlaw Section, 8 April 2022, Wolters Kluwer

We are witnessing the development of a new digital economy. Metaverses involve the creation of new markets where contracts and contract perfection are digitally produced on the basis of Blockchain technology. The human and the technological are intertwined to create a new reality that presents legal and social challenges but has to be addressed creatively and fearlessly.

1. Metaverses as new relationship environments

The metaverses are virtual worlds that offer a new environment to interact, hire, buy and ultimately act with full legal and patrimonial effects. Their operation is possible thanks to the combination of a number of technologies already used and known to all. Thus, the metaverses use the Internet to connect and interact (communication layer). The blockchain technology allows to contract and perfect agreements with full legal effects (contracting and payment layer). IOT introduces the possibility of linking the virtual world with physical reality. Finally, virtual reality allows us to create the visual and sensory environment where we feel comfortable and want to stay and consume, giving rise to new markets.