EU stays on top of Web3 with metaverse, AI and crypto strategies
The European Union has been vocal about its place in the rapidly expanding ecosystem of emerging technologies.
It has been a leader in establishing clear crypto regulations with its long-awaited Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework signed into law in late May. The EU has also been pushing forward on creating regulations for the development and deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) systems.
Most recently, on July 11, the European Commission released its latest plan to take the lead in metaverse development and prevent Big Tech from becoming too dominant in an economically viable sector.
A European vision of the metaverse
The latest EU proposal estimated that the global market size for metaverse developments will exceed 800 billion euro by 2030, compared with its end-of-year value of 27 billion in 2022. McKinsey’s latest report on the state of the metaverse even has an estimated value of $5 trillion in the same timeframe.
According to the commission’s initiative, it wants to get ahead on metaverse development to reflect EU values and fundamental rights, along with a push for openness and interoperability.
Margrethe Vestager, the vice president of the European Commission, said the EU needs to have “people at the center” in order to shape it according to its principles.
“We want to make sure Web 4.0 becomes an open, secure, trustworthy, fair and inclusive digital environment for all.”
The commission held European Citizens’ Panels in February and April of 2023, which focused on the metaverse. It aimed to formulate suggestions for a “vision, principles, and actions” that ensure EU-based virtual worlds are fair.
According to the commission, 140 EU citizens were randomly selected for participation, which resulted in 23 recommendations that guided the strategy.
Integrating digital and real worlds is no longer science fiction.
Early this year, 140 European citizens put forward 23 recommendations to guide the development of human-centric, secure and trusted virtual worlds.
See how they helped shape our new strategy on virtual worlds ↓
— European Commission (@EU_Commission) July 11, 2023
The current pillars that the EU has decided on for its metaverse strategy include empowerment and reinforcing skills to create a pool of specialists in the field of virtual worlds, supporting an EU Web4 on a business level, supporting societal progress and virtual public services, and shaping standards for open and interoperable virtual worlds.
But wait, what is Web4?
The European Commission’s tweet about its pillars for virtual worlds and Web4 strategy garnered a mixed response from users, with many asking what Web4 means, and other’s joking about developing Web5 and Web6 already.
According to the strategy, Web4 is distinguished from Web3 by integration with the real world. The commission’s statement recognizes that Web3 is still “currently developing,” with its main features being openness, decentralization and user empowerment.
“The next generation, Web 4.0, will allow an integration between digital and real objects and environments, and enhanced interactions between humans and machines.”
For the EU, Web4 could look like the introduction of smart cities with the right underlying infrastructure in place.
It is already investing in initiatives such as Destination Earth (DestinE) and Local Digital Twins for smart communities, as well as the European Digital Twin of the Ocean, which is said to allow researchers to advance science for the development of precision applications and help public authorities to make informed public-policy decisions on related issues.
Related: Animoca still bullish on blockchain games, awaits license for metaverse fund
The commission also included “advanced artificial and ambient intelligence, the internet of things, trusted blockchain transactions, virtual worlds and XR capabilities, digital and real objects and environments” as full integrations in Web4 that will set it apart from Web3.
It claims this will enable a “truly intuitive, immersive experience, seamlessly blending the physical and digital worlds.”
On July 5, the European Blockchain Sandbox, which is part of its smart cities initiative, unveiled its first 20 use cases.
EU regulations in place
At the moment, Vestager said there are no current metaverse regulations drafted. However, she expects various other rules already in place to affect it, such as privacy, market power and forthcoming AI regulations.
As previously mentioned, the EU has recently signed its groundbreaking MiCA regulations into law, which became one of the world’s first comprehensive sets of rules to regulate the crypto industry.
On July 12, the European Securities and Markets Authority announced that it plans to release three consultative papers on its MiCA standards for crypto asset service providers while it fulfills its mandate under MiCA regulations.
There are already questions regarding the regulations’ policies on stablecoins and the exclusion of decentralized finance in the published regulations.
In addition to its recently published crypto legislation, the EU has been working on regulations that will affect the AI industry. On June 14, the European Parliament passed the EU AI Act, which would force tools like ChatGPT to disclose all AI-generated content and other measures against illegal content.
The race against big tech
All of these initiatives with virtual worlds and regulations for emerging technologies come as Big Tech companies like Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Apple and Google work on their own versions of the metaverse and AI tools.
The EU clearly stated in its metaverse strategy that virtual worlds will not be “dominated by a few big players” and should be “driven by open technologies.”
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, was openly committed to developing its own metaverse world accessible through its virtual reality headsets. However, by the end of 2022, the company lost billions due to its metaverse division.
In 2022, Microsoft announced a $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, one of the gaming industry’s key players.
Most recently, Apple dropped its latest version of its virtual reality goggles, the Vision Pro. However, instead of positioning them for use in the metaverse, it chose to use the wording “spatial computing.”
Magazine: Experts want to give AI human ‘souls’ so they don’t kill us all
Politics
No 10 backs Chancellor Rachel Reeves and says she ‘is going nowhere’ after tearful appearance in Commons
Rachel Reeves has not offered her resignation and is “going nowhere”, Downing Street has said, following her tearful appearance in the House of Commons.
A Number 10 spokesperson said the chancellor had the “full backing” of Sir Keir Starmer, despite Ms Reeves looking visibly upset during Prime Minister’s Questions.
Politics latest: ‘A moment of intense peril’ for PM
A spokesperson for the chancellor later clarified that Ms Reeves had been affected by a “personal matter” and would be working out of Downing Street this afternoon.
Politics latest: Reeves looks visibly upset in Commons
UK government bond prices fell by the most since October 2022, and the pound tumbled after Ms Reeves’s Commons appearance, while the yield on the 10-year government bond, or gilt, rose as much as 22 basis points at one point to around 4.68%.
Downing Street’s insistence came despite Sir Keir refusing to guarantee that Ms Reeves would stay as chancellor until the next election following the fallout from the government’s recent welfare U-turn.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch branded the chancellor the “human shield” for the prime minister’s “incompetence” just hours after he was forced to perform a humiliating U-turn over his controversial welfare bill.
Speaking at Prime Minister’s Questions, Ms Badenoch said: “This man has forgotten that his welfare bill was there to plug a black hole created by the chancellor. Instead they’re creating new ones.”
Turning to the chancellor, the Tory leader added: “[She] is pointing at me – she looks absolutely miserable.
“Labour MPs are going on the record saying that the chancellor is toast, and the reality is that she is a human shield for his incompetence. In January, he said that she would be in post until the next election. Will she really?”
Not fully answering the question, the prime minister replied: “[Ms Badenoch] certainly won’t.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Welfare vote ‘a blow to the prime minister’
“I have to say, I’m always cheered up when she asks me questions or responds to a statement because she always makes a complete mess of it and shows just how unserious and irrelevant they are.”
Mrs Badenoch interjected: “How awful for the chancellor that he couldn’t confirm that she would stay in place.”
The prime minister’s watered-down Universal Credit and Personal Independent Payment Bill, aimed at saving £5bn, was backed by a majority of 75 in a tense vote on Tuesday evening.
A total of 49 Labour MPs voted against the bill – the largest rebellion in a prime minister’s first year in office since 47 MPs voted against Tony Blair’s Lone Parent benefit in 1997, according to Professor Phil Cowley from Queen Mary University.
After multiple concessions made due to threats of a Labour rebellion, many MPs questioned what they were voting for as the bill had been severely stripped down.
They ended up voting for only one part of the plan: a cut to Universal Credit (UC) sickness benefits for new claimants from £97 a week to £50 from 2026/7.
Ms Badenoch said the climbdown was proof that Sir Keir was “too weak to get anything done”.
Read more:
The PM faced down his party on welfare and lost
Labour welfare cuts ‘Dickensian’, says rebel MP
Ms Reeves has also borne a lot of the criticism over the handling of the vote, with some MPs believing that her strict approach to fiscal rules has meant she has approached the ballooning welfare bill from the standpoint of trying to make savings, rather than getting people into work.
Experts have now warned that the welfare U-turn, on top of reversing the cut to winter fuel, means that tax rises in the autumn are more likely – with Ms Reeves now needing to find £5bn to make up for the policy U-turns.
Asked by Ms Badenoch whether he could rule out further tax rises – something Labour promised it would not do on working people in its manifesto – Sir Keir said: “She knows that no prime minister or chancellor ever stands at the despatch box and writes budgets in the future.
“But she talks about growth, for 14 years we had stagnation, and that is what caused the problem.”
Brazil’s new 17.5% flat crypto tax replaces previous exemptions and now applies to all digital asset gains.
Bybit and OKX have both launched MiCA-compliant crypto exchanges in the EU, marking a significant push into Europe’s newly unified regulatory landscape.
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Sports2 years agoButton battles heat exhaustion in NASCAR debut
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike