Keep the MetaVerse safe with MetaVoice

“On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog” is an Internet meme originally drawn by cartoonist Peter Steiner and published in The New Yorker in 1993. As a reference to Internet anonymity, it is as relevant now as it was then. Anonymity on the Internet is fine until it isn’t when online service providers need to know who they’re dealing with.

Financial institutions on the web, amongst many others, have been grappling with this issue from the beginning. But unfortunately, each successive form of online identity assurance was found wanting, and bad actors became increasingly sophisticated in the techniques they used to impersonate defraud businesses and consumers.

So, for many organizations offering digital services, they still can’t be sure they’re not dealing with the metaphorical dog. But what happens when the dog, or human, is an avatar?

This is one of many questions and regulatory issues that will arise with the evolution of the metaverse, that loosely defined network of virtual worlds to facilitate digital interactions of all kinds. While the metaverse defies a singular description in its current embryonic stages, we know it will be a digital virtual place for real people, organizations, and monetary transactions.

While presently concentrated around gaming, the metaverse will be much more than that. For example, banks like HSBC and JP Morgan have already spent real money purchasing virtual land to house virtual branches (with actual operations) in worlds like The Sandbox and Decentraland. In addition, companies such as Meta and Microsoft are investing heavily in the metaverse in virtual collaboration and working.

While virtual reality and augmented reality aren’t prerequisites for participation in the metaverse, they will undoubtedly enhance the experience and extend the scope of what’s possible. For example, today’s online Zoom meeting, perhaps involving work colleagues from multiple countries staring at their screens, could become fully immersive virtual workplaces, all in the same room, represented by personal avatars. ‘Back to the virtual office’ – essentially – working together collaboratively but without having to be physically together.

So, while anonymity might be fine traversing virtual worlds for whatever experience a user is after, real-world requirements around identity assurance will exist as the virtual world encompasses real-world scenarios of working and transacting. Payments for virtual objects will be made in non-fungible tokens, crypto, and fiat currencies, with the latter still requiring the exact security requirements that exist in the real world.

Traditionally ‘physical’ objects will also be virtualized and bought and paid for in the metaverse, with virtual shopping malls and virtual merchants; the same as today’s online merchants but in 3D. Of course, existing payment rails will still be in use, as will the anti-fraud measures that exist in the physical world today.

Virtual office spaces where real-world intellectual property is discussed and shared and where access to real-world systems is provided will require an equivalent level of identity assurance in physical corporate offices and for today’s remote workers logging in from home offices.

While we can identify colleagues in an office, remote workers in many organizations could still be that dog.

But when you’re an avatar, how do your colleagues and your company know who’s behind the digital persona?

As the only method of authentication that provides real identity assurance, as distinct to someone or anyone having possession of a secret or object, the obvious answer is biometrics. Furthermore, biometrics are portable, with portability or the ability to traverse different virtual worlds seamlessly, being a fundamental requirement of the metaverse.

But the metaverse is also effectively omni-channel. It can be accessed through VR headsets, AR glasses, a TV, PC, or a smartphone, maybe even with hologram devices yet to be developed and marketed. So, while an avatar is in a virtual world, the human behind it is in the physical world, and the same physical world constraints and considerations apply concerning identity assurance.

In today’s omni-channel physical world, the biometric modality that operates across all channels is voice. It is natural, it can be conversational or command-driven, it can be ultra-fast short utterance, or it can be continuous. And crucially, for companies that intend to operate in both the virtual and physical worlds, with customers or employees that transact or work in both, the exact identity assurance solution that works in both is imperative.

Would a bank that uses one form of identity assurance for a customer in the physical contact center, or on their phone app or web portal, want to use a different form of authentication for that same customer in the virtual world?

In the virtual workplace or office of the metaverse, would the physical organization behind that office not wish to know who is really behind those avatar employees?

ValidSoft’s MetaVoice® platform is the voice biometric solution that provides absolute human identity assurance in physical and virtual worlds. As a result, customers and employees can have the same authentication experience regardless, giving consistency, predictability, and dependability in identity assurance.

Unlike the Internet-using dog, ValidSoft’s MetaVoice® lets organizations know exactly who is connecting or transacting in both the physical and virtual world.