Metaverse for Social Good: A University Campus Prototype

TL;DR

This paper presents a three-layer architecture for the metaverse aimed at social good, introduces a blockchain-based university campus prototype, and discusses its design and societal implications.

Contribution

It proposes a comprehensive three-layer metaverse architecture and provides a blockchain-driven university campus prototype to guide social good applications.

Findings

Developed a blockchain-based university campus prototype

Outlined a detailed timeline and attributes for metaverse evolution

Discussed societal benefits and design insights of the prototype

Abstract

In recent years, the metaverse has attracted enormous attention from around the world with the development of related technologies. The expected metaverse should be a realistic society with more direct and physical interactions, while the concepts of race, gender, and even physical disability would be weakened, which would be highly beneficial for society. However, the development of metaverse is still in its infancy, with great potential for improvement. Regarding metaverse's huge potential, industry has already come forward with advance preparation, accompanied by feverish investment, but there are few discussions about metaverse in academia to scientifically guide its development. In this paper, we highlight the representative applications for social good. Then we propose a three-layer metaverse architecture from a macro perspective, containing infrastructure, interaction, and ecosystem. Moreover, we journey toward both a historical and novel metaverse with a detailed timeline and table of specific attributes. Lastly, we illustrate our implemented blockchain-driven metaverse prototype of a university campus and discuss the prototype design and insights.