Regulation
Swiss Metaverse Association seeks to bring certainty to the metaverse through regulation: London Blockchain Conference 2024
At the London Blockchain Conference 2024, the Swiss Metaverse Association presented its Regulatory Position Paper, which aims to help politicians in Switzerland and around the world create “positive” regulation for the blockchain sector. metaverse space.
There were few more prescient topics to complete London Blockchain Conference 2024of three days of presentations on its “Spotlight stage” rather than a conference on the metaverse.
The speaker was Dr Daniel Diemersco-founder and board member of the Swiss Metaverse Association, an organization whose goal is to create a large metaverse ecosystem and advocate for favorable framework conditions in Switzerland.
He began by announcing to the enthusiastic delegates: “I’m from Zug, the famous crypto valley, and I’m talking about regulating the Metaverse. »
Afterwards, he paused, joking that he expected to hear boos from the crowd. There was none, but as he quickly pointed out, the lack of mockery was perhaps no surprise from an audience of blockchain and fintech enthusiasts, mostly in favor of the regulation and compliance.
Diemers then explained the motivation for the regulatory position paper.
“Metaverse narratives, like AI and blockchain, go through cycles… but you and I know they won’t go away,” he said. “We are trying to create a dialogue between academics, startups and of course industry regulators.”
The document itself, titled “Creating Certainty for the Metaverse,’ divides space into four “independent ecosystems” that come together to create the metaverse. Namely: NFT, blockchain and digital assets; gaming and electronic sports; brands, influencers and creators; and the cloud and big tech.
The Swiss Metaverse Association has also created working groups to cover various aspects of the space, including arts and culture, insurance and payments, technology and infrastructure, consumer and fashion, and regulation , taxation, law and politics.
Diemers’ presentation focused on the latter of these working groups. He explained his organization’s approach: “Let’s develop a position paper and send it to the world…and let’s send it to politicians, so they slowly get comfortable with the fact that regulation is coming.” »
According to him, this is a copy of the model used by blockchain advocates in Switzerland, including Diemers himself, to push progressive regulations on digital assets and blockchain through the Swiss Parliament.
The main areas of focus of the document, as highlighted by Diemers, were digital interaction, educational programs, data privacy, intellectual property, taxation, Numeric identitylegal entity and licensing regime, digital assets and employment law.
He also wanted to emphasize that it was essential for the Swiss Metaverse Association that the document be “simple, understandable and clear language”. A particularly relevant point for blockchain advocates and companies in the audience, who are struggling to get their messages across to lawmakers and potential investors – which was the theme of many discussions at the London Blockchain Conference 2024 on blockchain-related advertising and communications.
“So now we’re sending it to the politicians,” Diemers said, concluding his presentation on Metaverse’s regulatory position paper. “Hopefully in three or four years I can stand here and say we’ve solved some of these problems. »
He concluded by assuring the crowd that “digital assets will be an elementary part of the metaverse…we hope to see this development tie many things together, including AI and blockchain. There are so many things that can happen. Let them happen in a positive and regulated way.
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