Written by Tse Liang (Edited by Jenna Fung)
On 10th February 2022, a session on Digital Economy & Emerging Technologies was held online. The session first began with a presentation on the topic delivered by Group 5. The group briefly explained the Digital Economy & Emerging Technologies in this world and why it is important. They then explain two cases to study.
In this training session, the presentation was delivered by Muhammad Hanis Qayyum, Sourojit Dutta, and Dao Nguyen Tien. The first part of the presentation was delivered by Hanis. He gave a brief definition of the digital economy and emerging technologies and introduced what blockchain is. After that, Dao Nguyen Tien explained the case study: Non-Fungible Token (NFT). It includes explaining what NFTs are and their implementation in the fashion industry, as luxury brands like Gucci are making their products become more digital to fit in the metaverse and the ongoing trends in the world. He then talked about the pros and cons of NFTs. The pros of NFTs are that the Blockchain Technology behind NFTs is very safe, which is a system of recording information that is impossible to hack, alter or delete.
The presenters also illustrated how NFTs enable artists to connect directly with their audiences, eliminating the need for costly agents and cumbersome transactions. They can also be used to fractionalize ownership of physical assets; the market for certain assets can hence be greatly expanded, leading to greater liquidity, greater diversification, and more precise position sizing. The cons of NFTs however, are that NFTs do not offer income potential. The returns associated with NFT investments are based entirely on price appreciation, for companies integrating NFT sales, it is crucial to convince this older market that NFTs are worth investing in, in order to gain sales from these consumers. NFTs are a major source of carbon emissions with a significant amount of computing energy to create blockchain records. In the end, he ended the first case study stating that NFTs are the future, not only in the fashion industry but also in many different fields. But can we find a more sustainable way of producing and maintaining them?
The second part of the presentation was delivered by Sourojit. In this part, he gave an overview of the Metaverse and its implementations in the real world. He explained how the Metaverse could be used for gaming and socializing. Gaming doesn’t cover everything needed in a virtual world that can cover all aspects of life. Crypto can offer the other key parts required, such as digital proof of ownership, transfer of value, governance, and accessibility.
He also talked about the pros and cons of the Metaverse, including creating jobs. While many people already work at home, in the Metaverse, we will be able to enter a 3D office and interact with our colleagues’ avatars. With the Metaverse, we will considerably eliminate the need for human travel, resulting in less traffic, fewer accidents, less pollution, and consequently less global warming. For example, military training activities, such as pilots flying warplanes in the virtual world, might be conducted in the Metaverse, hence lowering emissions. The cons of the Metaverse include requiring advanced digital technologies such as VR headsets, haptics, blockchain, and other technologies while requiring fast internet which may not be accessible to all.
In the end, he talks about reducing the difference between the real and virtual worlds. For the metaverse blurs the gap between real and virtual worlds, the addiction to virtual worlds can lead people to withdraw from real-world experiences, which brings in the possibilities of the metaverse influencing the ways in which people perceive real relationships and interactions. As for privacy and security implications, the Metaverse might also bring issues pertaining to privacy and security risks. As an online-enabled space, the Metaverse can lead to new issues in security and privacy for individuals as well as institutions.
After the group presentation session Svaradiva A. Devi talked about NFT Taxation in Indonesia for it has not been regulated in Indonesian law and that the Indonesian tax law has broadened the interpretation. Cryptocurrencies are the second most currency funded in Asia, the lack of internet is linked with access to the Metaverse, and since technology is always ahead of laws and regulations, it is necessary to innovate in making laws. The Metaverse has created a new world on the internet, as a super-platform that is multi-institutional, it is important that law and supervision can catch up to speed. She also states that cryptocurrency, NFTs, and the Metaverse usually doesn’t last long, as referred to hype businesses, while these are most known, there are still a lot of emerging technologies.
The next speaker is Kenny Huang addressing more on the impact on the public (Internet Governance). He introduced the modern era of free trade(the 44s-70s) which led to peace and economic independence. In the 70s-80s, free trade led to global efficiency and non-tariff barriers, compared to now, which specifies global efficiency as sovereignty. He states that digital trades a balance between data controls and free flow of data with the open internet and privacy and security. Another part is cyber jurisdiction, which is resulted from cybercrime, including cross-border internet and national laws and jurisdiction. The current solutions to this are MLAT, Budapest Convention, and the Legal Cooperation. As an example of cybercrime in Taiwan, the percentage for each website is respectively, .com 62.1%,.org 7.6%,.net 6.7%, .TW 4.1%.Kenny also pointed out that cybercriminals access technology 21st-century technology at a very low cost, while law enforcement is saddled with 19th-century law with 20th-century tech. As a result, outdated laws can’t keep up with modern technology and both technological and legal tools must be updated. The last speaker is Tom Barrett, taking on the topic of NFT overview.
He quotes that ‘‘all consumer products that cannot be eaten will have digital twins in 10 years’’ and ‘’I go so far to say that 90% of the NFTs produced, they probably will have little to no value in three to five years. You could say the same thing about early internet companies in the late 90s’. He then talks about the top three NFT categories: Collectibles 76%, Art 9%, Games 7%, and how the NFT market evolution to decentralized namespaces. Tom states that the key drivers for Web 3.0 are: goals that represent digital identity, means which represent decentralizations (Disrupting the centralized authority), and change driven by technologists while policy and governance bodies are missing. He went on to suggest a few leading web3.0 Browsers, which are privacy-focused browsers that could mint NFTs including Beacon, Opera, Brave, and Puma, encouraging people to ditch Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Microsoft browsers. In the end, he concludes with a quote, “Anything that can be monetized, will have an NFT”.