Guest Editorial Special Issue on Social Studies, Human Factors, and Applications in Metaverse

The term “metaverse” was first introduced in Neal Stephenson’s 1992 science fiction novel, Snow Crash. It is conceived as the successor to the contemporary Internet, wherein users, represented as avatars, can interact with others or with applications within a three-dimensional (3D) virtual space, which is ubiquitously accessible. Although the metaverse remains a digital construct, establishing a sophisticated virtual societal framework—including a stable economic system—is paramount as users acquire assets and foster communities therein
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. The implications become profound and potentially unpredictable should any single entity gain dominance over this virtual societal infrastructure. Such anxieties have been vividly portrayed in recent cinematic offerings such as “Ready Player One” and “Free Guy.” In response, blockchain technology emerges as a promising countermeasure. Trailblazing metaverse platforms leveraging blockchain, such as Decentraland, CryptoVoxels, and Sandbox, utilize cryptocurrency and nonfungible tokens (NFTs) to define programmable assets or access privileges
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. These tokens may facilitate a borderless and frictionless payment layer, ensuring the uniqueness, persistence, and tradability of users’ digital assets
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. Furthermore, the rise of smart contract-driven decentralized applications (DApps)
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—spanning decentralized finance (DeFi) to innovative social applications
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— ushers in an era of transparent, self-regulating digital ecosystems. As a multimedia community predicated upon vast online participation, advancements in blockchain may pave the way for a fair, transparent, and sustainable metaverse
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.