元宇宙和NFT入门报告（英）

Policymakers and executives must focus on the metaverse if they are not already doing so. Many “Metazens” are already spending significant time and money in virtual environments on things like gaming, virtual real estate, and non-fungible tokens, or NFTs.1 As the metaverse becomes a bigger part of people’s lives and livelihoods, financial and other activities will need a solid basis in law and regulation. Such a basis does not yet exist.

The metaverse has the potential to become a constellation of realistic and alternative worlds where, as in the physical world, individuals and institutions can purchase and sell all types of goods and services. It makes use of innovations in money: transactions are made with digital assets and some of the goods sold are packaged as non-fungible tokens. NFTs will play an important role in forming the building blocks of property in the metaverse, and both sectors are already growing rapidly.2 Some of the projections for the size of the metaverse market are eye-opening, ranging widely from $670 billion to $13 trillion.3 While the growth potential remains an open question, the market is too big for regulators to ignore.

In this paper, we seek to provide an overview of the metaverse and how NFTs will play a role in shaping it, covering topics such as:

• Basicsofthemetaverse
• Insandoutsofmetaverseuse
• Importanceofthemetaverse
• Virtualpropertyrightsconsiderations