The Data Must Flow: Metaverse Edition

What role data and metadata will play for the metaverse to succeed? Ownership, usage, and adoption of the data & data policies will also be covered.

The beginning of the Metaverse is a very delicate time. Know then that it is the year 2031. The known Metaverse is dominated by the BigTech combine, our overseer. At this time the most precious substance in the Metaverse is our data. The data extends record profits. The data expands their AI’s consciousness. The data is vital to an ad-driven metaverse economy. BigTech’s ability to refine data has evolved over 40 years and they use our data to provide even deeper targeted ads that are to target any user in the known Metaverse and beyond.

Oh yes, I forgot to tell you, the data that BigTech uses is created in its entirety by us. A select few of us on the Metaverse have long held a prophecy that a better, more equitable version of the Metaverse would come built on open, interoperable protocols, that would lead us to create true impact and have control and sovereignty over our data.

If this opening sounds familiar, it’s my take on the original Dune’s opening, for, in the current mainstream Metaverse narrative, the data must truly flow. I’ve always been a science fiction and fantasy buff and Dune has been one of those classics for me. I’m no Paul Atreides though, just a humble data engineer who’s trying to build a better internet with aligned incentives and an information collateral-driven economy. I also happen to be a big XR fan and relative early adopter tinkering with a few projects on OpenXR with my VR headset. If what you’ve read so far is a little too much to digress, take a minute. From my unique lens, in the rest of the article, I will be covering what role data/metadata will play for the concept of Metaverse to succeed. I will also touch on what regulations we have today around the metaverse and our data in India and abroad and lastly, my take on an ideal Metaverse. So let's dig in.

Like Spice, data too must flow for the Metaverse to succeed. A quick primer on what I hold as the definition of the Metaverse: A more interactive version of the internet that leverages our five senses better. My definition is fairly vague and open-ended on purpose, as I feel typical definitions, you’ll come across restrict creativity and innovation on what can be possible. Today, almost every big tech company is in the middle of a serious CAPEX cycle for their Metaverse ambitions.

Apple’s Mixed Reality headset leaks peaked prior to their WWDC, Microsoft has been building on the Hololens with the latest iteration being the Microsoft Mesh SDK, and Facebook, now Meta, probably doubling down the hardest with their new wave of Oculus/Meta headsets. I would say Google was one of the earliest movers with their infamous Google Glass, and while it didn’t quite go as expected for them, it did lay the foundation for their upcoming AR headsets under Project Iris.

A series of smaller startups like Lynx, Varjo are also building, selling, and delivering on the hardware front, which is extremely difficult to pull off when you are resource constrained and don’t have billions to deploy. The hardware is just one part of the equation though, software is equally important. Companies like Ultraleap and Tobii are leading the charge to solve for our senses like seamless hand and eye tracking respectively. On the framework/OS side, you have options like SteamVR, OpenXR, and BigTechs bringing their own flavors soon enough as well. The point is that to orchestrate a Metaverse, there are a lot of moving parts that need to come together seamlessly even to build the current cutting-edge XR experiences we have today.

Data plays a pivotal role and is the fuel for the current experience. 4-6 cameras, a few microphones, and additional sensors are generating constant data streams which may be processed locally, or on the cloud, depending on the hardware and the software. Even if we remove XR as a medium and restrict our Metaverse to regular mobile devices, you know latency and performance are of utmost importance for a seamless end-user experience. As a result, to improve on all these aspects, significant data crunching happens both on devices and on the cloud. A quick glance through the Oculus Data Policy for Meta is telling. Everything from your physical features (height, hand size, dimensions) to the content you create on their platform to the interactions themselves is all collected. Information from third-party apps and services to better cross-reference your data is also something we as users are opting in for.

Critically, Oculus shares information with related companies, including other Meta Companies as well. Microsoft has a slightly more reasonable take wherein they’ve bucketed data into optional and required diagnostic data. While I understand why the data is required and how it can lead us to the version of Metaverse we’re looking for, users should at all times be aware and have an option to consciously opt-in/out without encountering any dark design patterns.

Data plays a key role in building a Metaverse with a persistent state and provides a robust economy. Interoperability, while easy to wish for, is ridiculously difficult to implement practically. Every stakeholder needs to align with the standards. There is precedence for this though like the TCP/IP stack, SMTP, FTP, and various other protocols that power the internet all evolved from the core need for accessibility and interoperability. I am personally rooting for OpenXR to lead the charge here, and yet again anonymised data and metrics will matter here.

Switching gears to a legal perspective, there are very few checks and balances in place today for the Metaverse. Trust, privacy, and security are somewhat of an afterthought for early adopters. Regulators, legislators, and end users are behind the curve as innovation remains significantly ahead, as is usually the case. It’s no excuse though to treat the Metaverse as a new gold rush opportunity though. I feel companies who try to take consumers along and keep user interests will carve out a niche and eventually force better behavior from the rest. Things like a dispute resolution mechanism and/or a legal framework for Metaverse issues are obviously non-existent today. As things stand, we’re indeed at a time where everything is up for grabs and will evolve on the legal front. I do not expect India to take a lead on the legislation front based on the pattern we’ve seen so far. Economies like Japan and South Korea in my opinion will lead the charge here.

Anyone who’s coming here expecting Ready Player One to be the ideal Metaverse should really read the book. An ideal Metaverse in my opinion will be one that is open and accessible to all, built on global open and accepted protocols and data standards to facilitate seamless information exchange and value creation. Even on the computer front, to see the version of Metaverse we’ve been fed, a 1000x computer leap is required. Moore’s Law will barely get us there from a hardware perspective, post which we will have to rely on the software to bridge the gap. Therefore, I believe this version of the Metaverse is probably a decade out, but there are encouraging signs on the software stack. Features like foveated rendering, upscaling like Nvidia’s DLSS, AMD’s FidelityFX and as of yesterday, Apple’s MetalFX is all collectively laying the blocks for that ideal Metaverse. Somebody needs to now step up and maybe go after the Modern Data Stack for the Metaverse. A Metaverse built on an open data stack with principles like Privacy by Design, and security baked into the transport, storage, and communication layer would be what I would love to see a decade out. Regardless of which Metaverse version we end up in though, the data will flow. 

By Nikhil Kurhe

CEO & Co-Founder Finarkein Analytics

pcquest@cybermedia.co.in