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Here is an announcement for a live event. I will be doing a YouTube Live stream with Virtual Girl Nem, author of The Evolution of the Metaverse.

• Streaming date and time: On March 29 (Saturday), from 21:00, planned for approximately 1.5 hour
• Streamed free on YouTube LIVE
• Stream URL: In-Depth Discussion on the “Dividual Economy Revolution” with Nem and Nat Sakimura — How to Spark the Revolution That Opens the Door to the Next-Generation Internet

Virtual Girl Nem is a “metaverse native” who lives in the emerging virtual world and works as a “metaverse culture evangelist” conveying its culture. A self-described world’s oldest independent VTuber, she has worked as a virtual-girl idol since 2017 under the theme “Become who you want to be virtually.” Her book discussing the revolutionary nature of the metaverse, “The Evolution of the Metaverse” (Gijutsu-Hyoron Co., Ltd., 2022), won the grand prize in the business-book category of the “IT Engineer Book Awards 2023.” She also spoke at the United Nations international conference “IGF Kyoto 2023.” At the MoguLive VTuber Award 2023, she was selected as “the year’s most outstanding VTuber.” In 2024, she published the qualitative research report “Identity in the Metaverse (Nem x Mila, 2024).” She also serves on AIST’s Domestic Committee for the International Standardization of Avatars1.

Among the issues Nem identifies are the identity authentication, economic, and taxation mechanisms required for the dividual economy to mature into a new economic sphere. For example:

  • Why must someone photocopy both sides of their My Number Card and mail them to a business counterpart whom they meet only as an avatar in a virtual world?

Of course, proper taxation requires tax authorities to use My Number to track payments. But does that require mailing copies of both sides of a My Number Card, spreading identity information, and accepting the risk of unwanted record linkage? For many VTubers, exposure of their real identity, including their face, is one of the greatest risks. Could we create a mechanism that limits those risks, lets people conduct economic activity, and enables tax authorities to obtain the person’s My Number and tax them properly? This is relevant not only to VTubers but to people generally.

We hope to discuss these matters for a target duration of 1.5 hour.

In Nem’s words:

What exactly is the “Dividual Economy Revolution” that will open the door to the next-generation Internet? In the metaverse, an age is finally emerging in which avatars let us switch among multiple selves, or dividuals, and actively design both the form of our soul and its interface with society. Yet the identity authentication, economic, and taxation mechanisms needed to turn this into a new economic sphere remain entirely undeveloped. On 3/29, OpenID Foundation Chairman Nat Sakimura, who has worked for many years on standardizing digital identity on the Internet, and metaverse resident, VTuber, and author Virtual Girl Nem will discuss the issue thoroughly on YouTube LIVE. Will the next-generation Internet revolution begin here? (Source: Announcement — 3/29 In-Depth Discussion on the “Dividual Economy Revolution” with Nem and Nat Sakimura — How to Spark the Revolution That Opens the Door to the Next-Generation Internet)

See you on the day!

Watch this video on YouTube.
Playing the video connects to YouTube.

The Event Concluded Successfully

It was great fun. I summarized in slides some of the points raised during the discussion. Please view them at the link below.

Thoughts on the Potential and Realization of the Dividual Economy Revolution

Footnotes

  1. related to the ISO IEC/JTC 1/SC 35 subcommittee

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