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At Penn Today, Adjunct Prof. of Law Sarah Hammer WG’99, L’11 breaks down the basics of the new digital world

March 09, 2022

Hammer teaches an upper-level JD course on financial regulation at the Law School.

Penn Today recently spoke to Sarah Hammer WG’99, L’11, Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, about the “metaverse” and what can be found there. 

The following is an excerpt:

If the internet is two-dimensional—text and images on flat screens—the metaverse is thought of as three-dimensional and multisensory.
But what exactly is the metaverse, and what does it mean for daily life? Penn Today asked Sarah Hammer, managing director of the Stevens Center for Innovation in Finance at the Wharton School, for five key takeaways about metaverse.

The metaverse is …

A unified and interoperable virtual space where users can interact with each other and the 3D digital environment through technology. The metaverse is not entirely new—it is an extension of current technological innovations in virtual reality (VR). The metaverse’s primary technology is referred to as extended reality (XR), and includes virtual reality, as well as augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR). Essentially, then, the metaverse is a product or service, with core attributes including synchronicity and interoperability.

Importantly, the metaverse and blockchain are not the same thing. A metaverse does not have to be built on blockchain technology. However, the functions and transactions conducted in the metaverse require a high level of security and speed that may be best achieved through blockchain. A metaverse can incorporate blockchain in its technology and crypto assets, for example by using non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to authenticate proof of ownership of digital assets in both the virtual world and the physical world… .

Read more at Penn Today.