The ethical metaverse: quality, tokens, and social responsibility in blockchain environments

The term metaverse refers to a shared and persistent virtual environment within which users can explore, create and interact in real time with other people and digital content through personalised avatars. The metaverse promises to radically transform the way we work, socialise, learn and do business, posing new technological, economic and social challenges and opportunities. The paper analyses, starting from the first coining of the term, the state of the art related to the technologies and possible approaches of the metaverse, with particular focus on the potentialities expressed by blockchain-based metaverses and their criticalities. The paper then discusses in detail the concept of tokens, in order to explain the dynamics of regulation of ownership and transactions within the metaverse, up to the exposition of the revolutionary concept of ethical metaverse, which has been patented as an industrial invention, based on the concepts of quality and social responsibility in a Benefit Impact (BIMPACT) Assessment perspective.