SOULBOUND
This year Vitalik Butarin, the co- founder of Ethereum, introduced the idea of soulbound tokens to protect people’s privacy and identity in digital space. Soulbound items are the most powerful items you can possess in World of Warcraft, a multiplayer game. As the name suggests, they remain with the soul or rather character because such items are too valuable to be transferred or sold.
They symbolize skill and knowledge and, eventually, uniqueness. They are part of a player’s digital identity. From a lawyer’s perspective, it feels odd to carry the concept of gaming into real life. On the other hand, it is a creative way of storytelling, expressing the necessity of protecting our most valuable assets. Our personal data.
IDENTITY GOING DIGITAL
In real life, the integrity of our identity is a fundamental human right. Expressed and protected through a plethora of national and international legal regulations. Identity itself is a multifaceted concept. Comprising all facts about a person, including the fact of being and feeling. Furthermore, the reputation and, not to forget, the personal branding of a person. Technology allows us to express the different shades of our personalities with photos, videos, music and, not least, the opportunities of our current participative social Web2. And now our digital life is going to become even more personal.
THE METAVERSE. REFRAMING REALITY
The metaverse is envisioned as an embodied internet with a deep feeling of presence. The next level of the web in which we all can trust and prosper. These are the hopes for the next (r)evolution of human communication and interaction. Avatars serve as an embodiment of our digital self-expression. As such, avatars are part of our digital identity. We choose how we want to be perceived. We determine what facets of our personality we want to disclose. We decide in which form this personality trait is manifested. Looking like our best selves as digital twins. Or, maybe we chose a more playful avatar and make a statement by slipping into the skin of a fantasy figure. The metaverse seems to be the perfect playground for self- expression and personal branding. Technology allows us to reframe our complex human nature at our will.
LAW AS A CONSENSUAL FRAME OF REALITY
However, each nation community agrees on a certain set of rules that enable the community to live peacefully with each other. Marketing, for example, can be limited by laws against unfair competition.
A lack of adequate relation to reality is usually not accepted by legal systems as they are perceived as deceitful.
An adequate relation to reality is also required when it comes to self- expression. Identity comprises all
information that describes who we are. This includes a connection to certain legal system, which serves as the foundation of our rights and obligations towards others. When we trust a person, we also trust in the community and the legal system behind the person. But in a highly international and technological space as the metaverse, things get fuzzy.
DISASSOCIATED HUMAN DATA
Fake accounts, identity theft, synthetic humans. How can we be sure that the avatar in front of us represents a genuine human? AI systems such as LaMDA are so well developed that they can even fool their own creators. Synthetic humans look like photorealistic human avatars as they are made of a pool of human data. However, these human data are disassociated from a living counterpart, and their communication skills are based on technology. Should such non-human avatars be obliged to disclose their true nature? Within the scope of the AI Act of the European Union, this will probably be the case in the future. Until then, should we trust no one?
THE DANGER FORMULA: B × C × D = AHH
Technology imposes another, probably even bigger, danger. Highly sensitive biometric data can be collected via the sensors in the hardware we are using. Eye movement in VR goggles, body language through controllers, our heart rate through smart watches and our voice through microphones. Electroencephalography (EEG) even allows the usage of the electrical activity of the brain to discover moods and replace controllers. This way, the metaverse might become the ultimate tool of persuasion. Yuval Harari famously summarized the dangers we are facing in the simple equation B x C x D = AHH. Meaning Biological knowledge multiplied by Computing power multiplied by Data equals the Ability to Hack Humans. How can we ban such a danger? Will data protection laws suffice to give us legal ownership over such highly sensitive data?
BLOCKCHAIN AS SAVIOR OF OUR SOULS?
In a technological world, regulation needs to go hand in hand with technological solutions. And Blockchain might hold an answer. Binding our private information to our soul with the help of Buterin’s soulbound tokens. As Proof-Of- Humanity. Or in the form of government-issued Electronic Identities (E-ID), which are in the pipeline in the EU and countries such as Switzerland. Often based on the principles of Self-Sovereign Identity. Flanders is spearheading the digital transformation of data privacy and E- ID in collaboration with the inventor of the world wide web, Tim Berners- Lee. Empowering their citizens by giving them agency over their own data through SOLID pods.
BE RARE AND EPIC
And this is the key feature of all technological solutions. Empowerment through agency over our data. Ultimately agency over our identity. The legal ownership and its enforcement must be enshrined in the law. The practical power of disposition needs to be anchored into the system itself by technology. Because the most «rare and epic» features should be bound to our souls. Untouchable through law and code. Enabling us to «be who we want to be in Real Life and express it creatively in the metaverse.»
ABOUT DR. ANITA LAMPRECHT
Metaverse & FutureLaw Speaker, Weblaw Academy Lecturer, International Lawyer Anita Lamprecht, Dr. iur., is an Austrian expat lawyer with international life and work experience. Anita is currently based in Geneva, Switzerland. As a professional in Law she talks about the #metaverse, #web3, #digitaltransformation through the lens of the law.
Anita is a lecturer at the Weblaw Metaverse Lessons. She is also among the Metaverse pioneers of the innovative think tank Liquid Legal Institutes e.V. and the international Web3 leadership program Mission Impact.
With special thanks to Adello Magazine: www.adello.com/adello-magazine-2022/