【This article is authorized for reprint by lawyer and freelance Japanese translator Huang Yashen. Original title: Could AR/VR be the best application scenario for blockchain? Starting from COVID-19】

Due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, governments around the world have enforced social distancing measures and individual quarantines, affecting human activities. This has further increased the demand for contactless activities. Recently, the popular game "Animal Crossing: New Horizons" unexpectedly became a way for friends to gather during the pandemic, creating virtual meet-up alternatives by creating various props and visiting each other's islands.

E-commerce platforms, food delivery services, and logistics have also expanded due to the demand for contactless services, becoming a stabilizing force in maintaining social operations during this period. The most significant change brought about by the pandemic is in the impact on social work and education. While concepts of online collaboration and education have existed for some time, such as the previously popular MOOCs, the idea of online learning and work is not novel. However, before the outbreak of the pandemic, most social and economic activities, apart from specific industries or professions, relied heavily on in-person interactions. Online activities were merely seen as supplementary. During the pandemic, it has become a necessity for everyone, from employees to businesses and governments, to invest in contactless economic activities to continue mainstream social activities.

The 2018 movie "Ready Player One" opened up a world of virtual reality where people engage with the world. Through this VR world, people can experience not just games but also a part of life, their "oasis." Since the concept of VR emerged in 2016, many have imagined a future world with significant changes. The appearance of Pokemon Go brought the world of virtual Pokémon into reality, further popularizing augmented reality (AR) in the public eye, fulfilling many people's childhood dreams of being Pokémon trainers. While most people associate VR and AR with gaming applications, these technologies have various other practical applications. For instance, VR simulations can be used for crisis training for military and police personnel. AR smart glasses and dedicated applications can provide detailed instructions for maintenance workers or present virtual objects and concepts, assisting technical workers in understanding details and improving their work efficiency. When applied in education, it allows for immersive learning experiences.

Under the current pandemic's influence, many industries are forced to consider the possibility of implementing remote work and start using various remote collaboration tools. Platforms like Microsoft Teams, Google Hangouts, and the privacy-concerned Zoom have seen increased usage. With physical events being canceled due to epidemic prevention measures, many companies have introduced virtual exhibitions to maintain market visibility in the contactless economy. For instance, HTC launched the VR virtual meeting service VIVE Sync, aiming to facilitate multi-user collaboration and remote meetings.

Amid the pandemic, it has become apparent that many jobs still heavily rely on face-to-face interactions, even though remote work and tools have existed for some time, they were limited to specific job categories. This highlights a problem: why, despite the existence of remote tools for a long time, most industries still prefer face-to-face interactions, and were caught off guard during the pandemic? This article believes that the main influencing factors are "the degree of organizational digitalization" and "psychological perceptions of individuals":

(1) Degree of Organizational Digitalization

For example, in a company, factors like whether data is kept in physical or digital form, whether the services or products provided require face-to-face interaction, whether the products or services are physical or virtual, the level of automation or robot assistance in the production process, whether employees understand digitalization enough, whether they can operate digital tools proficiently, communication devices, stable internet connections, etc. These are all objective factors that determine whether a company can engage in remote collaboration as a contactless production behavior.

(2) Psychological Perceptions of Individuals

The psychological perceptions of individuals drive original transactions, not only generating supply and demand but also influencing our behaviors and habits. Applied to remote collaboration tools, if communication between individuals remains consistent with their lifestyle habits, it is less likely to lead to significant adaptation issues. For example, using Line for remote communication in Taiwan allows for seamless communication activities without many issues. However, if unfamiliar collaboration software or remote video software is used, and organizations have not practiced using them before, it can be challenging. Additionally, using these remote tools does not create a feeling of being in the "same place" with others; it is just a "common space." The difference lies in whether our senses can share the surrounding environment. People prefer physical environments because they provide a sense of togetherness, where we hear, meet, and interact in a consistent manner, and can better perceive each other's emotions. It's a "warmth" that makes face-to-face interactions more appealing.

However, this phenomenon is not limited to physical environments. In the era of booming online games, players in games also experience a sense of being in the same place, such as fighting enemies alongside comrades in Azeroth or creating and contributing to a virtual world in games like Minecraft. Through VR, individuals can directly enter a virtual world, intensifying the sense of being in the same place. With AR, more virtual objects can be brought into the physical environment, while MR enhances this concept further, blurring the lines between the virtual and real world. When a virtual object is operated in MR, the boundary between the real and virtual becomes blurred. For instance, if there is a virtual image of a person in actual size that can engage in fluent conversation and experience the surrounding environment, it can create a sense of being in the same place.

When it comes to gaming, we can see that this feeling has already been experienced. However, in many work or social environments, achieving this sense of being in the same place is not easy. This feeling is a selling point of physical services, such as traveling abroad or having casual discussions over coffee. When stories or virtual world elements are presented to us, the best examples are Universal Studios movie themes like Harry Potter or Disney parks, which immerse individuals in a fairy tale setting, bringing the virtual world into reality. The distinction between a common place and a common space has a significant impact on our behavior, with a preference for the feeling of being in the same place. As the relationship between our lives and these aspects becomes significant, the importance of the virtual environment and the physical world is equally essential. In a large VR social platform where interactions reach a certain level, the items created on the platform will naturally have transaction value, and even require protection. If the items are further scarce, their value will be enhanced.

When it comes to using blockchain to address trust issues, there is often a debate about whether blockchain is necessary for handling these issues or if it is criticized for being blockchain for the sake of blockchain. A key point of this debate lies in the process of chaining physical world information on the blockchain, questioning the authenticity of this physical information. While information on the blockchain may be difficult to tamper with due to algorithms, there remains a possibility of falsifying information before uploading it.

The authenticity of physical world information is a challenging aspect that blockchain struggles to handle, as it cannot determine the correctness of physical information. Therefore, the idea that if native digital data can be generated and immediately chained to the blockchain, it can enhance the credibility of the information on top of it. Hence, some applications focus on integrating IoT sensors, automatically chaining the data when the detectors generate it, reducing the possibility of human manipulation. In a digital environment, blockchain is a natural and preferable application environment, leading to a saying that the best application model for blockchain is Bitcoin itself.

However, for trust issues alone, achieving the same through a centralized certification authority like a CA may be more effective. But this raises the question of whether we trust this centralized CA, and whether it has the potential for falsification. Therefore, the trust relationship between participants in the system should be considered. In situations where participants do not trust each other or it is difficult to rely on a central authority, a decentralized blockchain may be a better direction to consider. This dilemma commonly occurs in transnational scenarios, such as financial flows, logistics, supply chains, or cross-border identity verification. While seemingly trivial in normal countries, it becomes a significant issue for a Syrian refugee when the government is ineffective, and verifying their identity becomes a challenge. It boils down to the question of "how can you prove you are who you say you are," which often arises in a digital environment for digital identity verification.

As mentioned earlier, if original data can be immediately chained, this model is a more favorable application model. The data or creations generated by AR or VR worlds are potential development directions. However, when there is little connection between our lives and the virtual world, such demands are challenging to generate value. For example, when many people play Animal Crossing, it has led to the creation and sale of in-game items by some individuals. But if a game has few players or attention, the trading value of the in-game items decreases. This concept is familiar to many gamers, as virtual goods in online games have generated significant value, even prompting legislative changes to protect their value, such as Article 359 of the Criminal Code.

Therefore, assuming that with the advancement of devices and communication technologies, if the AR/VR industry becomes as ubiquitous as smartphones or a medium for social software in the future, and serves as a crucial auxiliary tool for integrating virtual and real work, all records and creations in this environment will hold value, akin to the physical world. Consequently, there will be a necessity for value creation and transactions, such as tools or devices created in a VR world or specially designed props, necessitating anti-counterfeiting measures.

The next question is whether we should entrust this mechanism to a centralized entity? Should we hand over all information to a single entity (like Facebook or Google) and then regulate its permissions through laws? Or should we go beyond legal regulations and have a more direct method to turn our desired legal rules and product characteristics into rules that can exist directly in the virtual world, like writing them as code to serve as a rule akin to law, ensuring that native digital information and creations are safeguarded? Perhaps this is the direction we expect. Using blockchain (public or consortium chains) to address the transactional interaction issues arising from the aforementioned problems may be a solution, where "Code is Law" may no longer be just a saying.

Original Article Link

Further Reading

• AsyncArt Programmable Art Experiment: A Cryptographic Artwork Sold for 160,000 ETH, Demonstrating a Display of 31.3 Billion Ways
• Avoiding Zoom's Security Concerns in Remote Teaching, President Tsai Ing-wen Holds Online Meeting with MIT Graduates, Seeing a New Dawn for Video Conferencing
• Not Letting Zoom Dominate, Facebook Announces the Launch of Video Conferencing Software Rooms Integrated into Its Platforms

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