The Role of Blockchain Interoperability for a Sustainable Metaverse: A Research Agenda

The metaverse is increasingly finding its way into our lives, for example through its application in the medical field, which makes a solid technical basis important. Blockchain technology can ensure the immutability and uniqueness of avatars and digital assets in metaverses. Interaction between different metaverses requires the blockchains they run on to be interoperable. Lack of interoperability can lead to user isolation and lock-in, winner-takes-all effects and adverse outcomes for citizens as well as societies, which ultimately render a metaverse unsustainable. In contrast, blockchain interoperability and open standards could enable a multi-metaverse ecosystem that promotes UN Sustainable Development Goals. Based on a literature review, a research agenda is proposed that promotes a sustainable metaverse.