Interoperability is a Fundamental Requirement for the Open Metaverse

To tap the diversity of technologies and the opportunities the Metaverse promises to offer, and to maintain the value proposition as technologies quickly evolve, requires interoperability. Interoperability standards are key to Metaverse builders being able to integrate their innovations for users at any scale and at multiple levels. This paper describes the benefits of interoperability, examines the risks of insufficient investments to ensure interoperability and suggests three key interoperability requirements for the Metaverse on which stakeholders can already collaborate to address.