Singapore's Minister for Culture, Community and Youth and Second Minister for Law, Edwin Tong, is open to the possibility of legal proceedings within the Metaverse.
In his keynote address at TechLaw Fest 2022, Minister Edwin Tong spoke about the possibilities offered by the Metaverse, citing the legal field as an example.
According to Tong, the country could use this exciting technology to provide legal services to its citizensThese services would include advice on resolving legal conflicts, celebrating civil marriages and much more.
Although Tong says that no one has a clear idea of the full potential that the Metaverse can offer, he certainly believes that it will serve to satisfy the legal needs of its citizens, while allowing for a more direct and closer relationship between the state and society.
In February this year, the Tamil Nadu couple starred in the first documented story of a legal marriage taking place in the virtual world – an act that exemplifies the potential Tong speaks of.
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During his speech, Tong recalled the novel Snow crash, written by Neal Stephenson in 1992, as the first to develop the concept of the metaverse.
In this regard, he indicated that “What might seem impossible today, could be possible or a reality tomorrow with the advancement of technology”. This refers to the fact that the world imagined by Stephenson in his novel, 30 years ago, is today a more than tangible reality.
En Snow crashStephenson talks about a virtual world where people used digital avatars of themselves to explore the online world.
The “immense” possibilities of the Metaverse
The Metaverse is a virtual environment that humans can access to interact with others. It is a technology that, although not new, is changing the world as we know it.
As Tong pointed out, the integration of new technological innovations is reinforcing the concept of the Metaverse and elevating its potential towards new, yet unexplored frontiers. Today, in addition to participating in games and social environments, the Metaverse also allows us to work, exercise, play sports, or access educational systems and health services, among other things.
The immense possibilities offered by the virtual world are motivating the world's largest companies to invest in this technology and industry. Even Governments are beginning to explore the potential of the Metaverse to offer services to their citizens.
In November last year, the embassy of Barbados said it would build virtual headquarters in metaverses like Decentraland to offer services to citizens within what he called “new nations.”
On the other hand, the governments of South Korea and China are also exploring the provision of digital services within the virtual world. In the case of South Korea, the government allocated more than $100 million to fund projects that help expand the potential of the Metaverse and allow for the exploration of new use cases. China, on the other hand, has been studying the possibility of creating its own virtual world, called the “Yan Universe.”
According to Bloomberg analysts, the Metaverse could become an $800.000 billion opportunity in the coming years.
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