Seoul, the capital of South Korea, took the initiative by introducing the primary phase of “Metaverse Seoul” on 16 January. It’s a web-based metaverse platform where the federal government offers services to the general public, like administrative, economic matters, taxes, and education. The authority claims it because the world’s first publicly supported metaverse platform backed by a city government.
In a press conference on Monday, Seoul Mayor Oh Se-Hoon announced the official release of this project. Seoul’s first phase after its successful beta testing. The town’s mayor has stated that the web will function a “place of communication for residents,” where people can view official documents, lodge specific complaints, and get details about paying city taxes.
The second phase will begin in 2024 and include a more comprehensive range of services, similar to real estate consulting and introducing overseas investors to domestic businesses.
Seoul’s Officials expect to finish the general public metaverse by 2026, claiming that the third stage will have the opportunity to make use of a mix of Virtual reality technology tools to administer town’s physical assets more accurately.
Seoul Authorities Showing Interest In Metaverse
The federal government of South Korea has shown a keen interest in maximizing the advantages of the Metaverse, or virtual reality environments. This project is an element of the so-called Web3 movement, a brand new step for the web supported without the intervention of centralized entities and toward decentralized platforms built around blockchains.
The Ministry of Science and ICT of South Korea announced proposals to spend a 223.7 billion Korean WON – $180 million fund to take a position within the country’s metaverse sectors in February 2022.
The president of South Korea, Yoon Suk-Yeol, has considered developing this technology a top priority. Consequently, big South Korean firms like Samsung Electronics, SK Telecom, and Naver Corp have all expanded into the metaverse.
The Science ministry of South Korea defines the metaverse because the junction of the digital and physical worlds, where users can interact to supply economic, social, and cultural advantages.
The Digital Policy Division of the federal government portrays Metaverse Seoul as a spot where reality meets online, and creativity meets communication. Recently, a Korean neuroscientist named Jang Dong-Seon stated on the municipal government’s Podcast channel that the cyber platform had transformed town right into a “first mover” in the worldwide public service sector.
The platform can be concerned with stopping illegal acts like sexual crimes involving user avatars, verbal harassment, and knowledge leakage. For that reason, Seoul Digital Foundation’s “Code of Ethics for the Metaverse” was chosen because the platform’s guiding code of conduct. Avatars aren’t allowed to the touch one another, vulgarity is robotically screened out, and users can report any issues they encounter.
Besides this, quite a few businesses worldwide announced their intentions to construct virtual offices once Facebook rebranded to Meta in October 2021. Nevertheless, several distinguished systems, including FTX, Voyager Digital, and Celsius Network, went silent in 2022, which could have slowed adoption.
On the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading around $21,300, 23% up from the last week.
Featured image from Washingtonpost, Featured chart from Tradingview.com.