Bally Singh, CMO, Everdome, tells Anita Joseph, Editor, Security Advisor Middle East, all about the new technological breakthrough-the Metaverse.
Tell us all about Everdome’s hyper-realistic Metaverse 3.0 experience.
As the metaverse disrupts the existing technological landscape, how secure would you say is the whole experience?
The metaverse is a new territory – a new technological frontier. As with any other frontier, it requires us to develop new tools and practices to tackle previously unheard of challenges. We need to consider and develop a range of new safety and security measures that cover a variety of aspects across the metaverse ecosystem – such as solutions to protect assets, devices, intellectual property, users’ identity and personal details. There’s even a need to address emotional, cultural and community safety and security, as all users have the right to enjoy a metaverse that makes them feel secure.
And yet despite the need and expectation for high levels of security, as users we don’t want those measures to be constantly in our face. They need to feel ambient and seamlessly integrated into either the background or common processes. We want convenient security that is reliable, all-encompassing, and requires as little effort as possible with the reassurance that every aspect of metaverse safety has been taken into consideration.
One of the greatest advantages we have is that we’re able to build these features in from the ground up, rather than having to retrofit them. This gives us the opportunity to adopt a highly conscious design and compliance process, which is the best possible approach we can implement in Everdome at this stage. Naturally though security is an ever-evolving issue. We will continue to use cutting edge technology based on the latest frameworks and best practices to provide an environment that is as seamlessly secure as possible.
Our DevOps team constantly updates all necessary components based on daily updates, and our end users will receive updates on a weekly basis. In addition to this, our Compliance team is focused on constantly improving content and experience quality. This helps us to ensure that emotional and cultural safety is a priority, by ensuring that people cannot promote, show or share content that goes against our general rules.
Is there a public reluctance to completely embrace all of the Metaverse excitement, owing to security concerns?
No, I don’t believe so. As humans we are naturally cautious of anything new, and that includes innovations in technology and software offerings. You only need to look back into relatively recent history when the internet had its beginnings to see how rapidly we change our minds and embrace new technology – at first, the internet was widely criticised and came under considerable doubt, but now it’s an integral part of our lives.
Building a wider understanding of exactly what the metaverse is and what it can offer is going to drive acceptance, at least in its most basic form. There is the possibility for it to be quite a steep learning curve, because the metaverse brings together numerous new technologies – such as blockchain and cryptocurrency, for example. With that said though, these two technologies in particular are increasingly adopted and accepted in the world around us, which will contribute to people having a better understanding of at least two aspects of the metaverse.
The marketing and hype around the metaverse has definitely outpaced the adoption of the technology, but that tends to be the case when it comes to new tech. Any research you find online right now about the metaverse is anecdotal, based on individuals’ visions for the future.
Beyond creating more understanding, there is also the need to consider that users need to see and embrace both meaning and purpose in the metaverse. For some metaverses, the purpose will be purely another form of entertainment. Others will be all about community, interaction, communication or trading. A successful metaverse will be able to deliver on its promise for meaning and purpose, with the ability to address the needs of its audience, provide technological stability and security. This will help to iron out any remaining barriers for adoption.
How does Everdome, in particular, address this issue and ensure the security of the metaverse experience?
To elaborate on what I’ve mentioned already, we have a DevOps team that constantly seeks new ways in which to enhance security and safety throughout our metaverse ecosystem, from a technology and software perspective in particular. Additionally, we have a dedicated Compliance team that will work to ensure a safer community experience, so that any content that may go against our rules is handled swiftly and seamlessly. We will regularly monitor the Everdome environment both manually and automatically via algorithms. There will also be a public reporting tool, which will allow all users to flag content they feel is inappropriate – and it will also show them things that are blocked, along with reasons for blocking. Beyond this, we will offer community consultations to ensure that the people-centric element of our metaverse runs as smoothly as possible for all users.
What are some of the challenges, particularly with regard to security frameworks and technology scaling, that Everdome & the metaverse experience faces in its journey of growth and evolution?
As the metaverse is still a new concept, there are a number of challenges that we need to overcome – which may sound slightly ominous but the reality is that every new technology will go through the same processes. Everdome has a strong, talented team that makes challenges easier to overcome; we’re very confident in the team’s ability and drive to deliver excellence. In fact, talent can be a challenge in itself. We’ve hired some brilliant people to build secure and scalable solutions. Based on previous experiences, we knew it was crucial to have the right people in the right positions with the right technology, from the very beginning.
In terms of actual challenges, interoperability of design and security frameworks throughout the metaverse ecosystem is one example of an issue that needs to be addressed and overcome.
On the non-tech side of things, brand reputation and user trust must be built. We’re considering both of these aspects in the very heart of Everdome’s design and governance processes. After all, at the end of the day Everdome is an environment for people to enjoy, so it makes sense to consider our users’ needs and wants every step of the way. This also means being rock solid in our intentions, value system and design decisions, backing them up with actual product experiences.
There are also matters such as cost optimisation. Everdome has already garnered a lot of international attention in the lead-up to its launch later this year, so we need to be prepared to handle huge traffic… which can be costly. To be as cost-effective as possible we use Amazon Web Services. This allows us to simply up- or downscale our servers as needed, allowing us to be agile in handling traffic while saving money.
We also have the matter of smart contracts. These are based in blockchain, and are therefore relatively new. They have to be well written and well audited, because once you deploy a smart contract there’s no way back. We’ve invested in hiring top developers and leading agencies to audit the code, ensuring things in that department run as smoothly as possible.
So yes, there are challenges – quite a few of them – but nothing that can’t be overcome. We’ve built a solid team of experts to take care of every aspect of Everdome, from back-end code and tech to graphics, marketing and more, so that our users can enjoy the best possible experience within our metaverse.
