We are approaching an exciting new phase of virtual reality, where the digital world is becoming popular. Soon, individuals and enterprises will traverse the metaverse, another reality where they will exhibit themselves as three-dimensional avatars, therefore broadening their market reach. However, there are always two sides to any creation, much like with new technologies. You will have full control over your avatar and look in the metaverse, on the one hand. However, what about security on the other hand? In a virtual setting this open, how do you safeguard your personal information? When connecting with individuals and businesses on a whole different level than you have ever encountered before, how can you make sure that your identities are secure?
Biometrics is the only solution!
While traditional authentication methods are fairly effective in stopping breaches, biometrics is the most reliable method for protecting digital identities in the metaverse. Let’s examine the function of biometric authentication in the emerging virtual reality and discuss the implications of digital identity for enterprises operating in the metaverse.
What is Biometrics?
Biometrics is a technique that uses a person’s distinctive physical or behavioural traits to identify them. To confirm an individual’s identification, these distinguishing characteristics must be measured and statistically analysed. Typical biometric methods include DNA testing, iris and retina scanning, hand geometry analysis, fingerprint scanning, and facial recognition. Apart from these widely recognised techniques, sophisticated biometric equipment is capable of measuring intricate attributes such as heart rhythms, palate traits, vein patterns, and even scent.
The main goal of biometrics is to offer a reliable and effective way to verify an individual’s identity. Applications such as digital service authentication, access control, security systems, and decentralised digital IDs (DID) all depend on biometrics. In the modern world, when quick and accurate identification verification is essential, it is extremely pertinent.
How Will Digital Identities Appear in the Metaverse?
There is a growing discussion about digital identity. Individuals will have authority over their data thanks to the metaverse, also known as Web 3.0, which ensures that no one can access your personal information without your consent.
Does this imply, however, that private data ownership is desirable? How does that affect one’s privacy? How will it be controlled, too? The race to develop a common digital identification system for the metaverse is on, but no obvious front-runner has surfaced yet.
What Role Does Biometric Authentication Play in the Metaverse?
Within the broader area of digital identity management, biometrics is a subset. It means identifying persons by their distinct physical traits, such as fingerprints or facial features.
Many businesses are now utilising biometric technology for employee authentication Businesses’ online user authorization and authentication processes are being negatively impacted by the rise in social engineering attacks and other security risks. And since fraudsters are focusing on weak authentication security lines, things are quickly getting worse when it comes to the metaverse.
If a company creates a hole in the whole authentication process, the consumer-facing malware could result in identities being compromised. The majority of organisations aren’t taking the necessary action to reduce the underlying security and authentication concerns in the metaverse, despite the fact that many are worried about them. This is the point at which a reliable identity management system that uses biometric authentication is required.
Users can securely and swiftly authenticate themselves using face recognition or fingerprint scanning using biometric authentication. This also reduces the likelihood of identity theft significantly because no two people are alike in their biological characteristics.
Biometric Verification In the Metaverse
The metaverse’s potential benefits of combining biometrics and blockchain could be numerous such as
High-Level Security
On the one hand, blockchain systems offer highly desired features like data encryption, immutability, decentralisation, and improved security. Conversely, distributed digital identification systems can be strengthened, procedures inside the metaverse can be made simpler, and users’ identities can be secured with the aid of extremely accurate, dependable, and convenient biometric identity verification.
Two-Factor Authentication
Frequent biometric verifications can guarantee that the metaverse user’s device—such as virtual reality goggles—hasn’t been taken by someone else. This type of verification raises the level of security of metaverse biometric data and can be combined with other security measures like geolocation information or two-step verification. Metaverse coins like MANA and SAND can be traded with the help of AI bots. But there is always the risk of losing money as not all bots are secure. Crypto trading bots like Bitcoin 360 AI have strong security protocols to ensure people that their personal and financial data is completely safe.
Greater User Experience
Biometrics could improve the metaverse user experience. Users can employ biometric verification for customer verification procedures on all of their devices, including goggles, phones, and browsers, as biometrics is platform-agnostic. This makes using biometrics with different devices convenient. Additionally, decentralised biometric identification is far simpler to use and faster than passwords. The users of the metaverse are unable to forget or misplace their biometric information because they constantly have it on hand.
Furthermore, the metaverse experience might be highly customised via biometrics. In this approach, people in the metaverse can engage and modify their preferences depending on shared data, through the display of items and any non-player characters (NPC), whether they are friendly or hostile individuals or beasts.
Now is the moment to create biometrics standards for the metaverse!
Since biometrics provides a simple means of identity verification for those without access to passwords or PIN codes, it is important to the creation of secure digital identities in the metaverse. Unlike passwords, which may be stolen or guessed, biometrics relies on distinct biological factors like fingerprints, voice, and facial traits. No two people can have the same biological characteristics. Additionally, it has a very slim probability of being compromised due to its robustness.
Because biometrics provides so many benefits over conventional password-based systems, its use has grown in popularity over time. Through a strong identity management system, brands can leverage the full potential of this technology to secure billions of identities without sacrificing the metaverse user experience.
Concluding remarks
The metaverse ecosystem is expanding quickly, yet there are risks involved in this growth.
First, because users engage with one another in virtual places, there is a higher chance of fraud and identity theft. Second, thieves can target metaverse networks to obtain critical corporate information or steal private information.
Third, there’s always a chance that hackers would attack a single game or server with phishing techniques in an attempt to obtain private data or perhaps take over the whole network. Companies, governments, and authorities will define the metaverse’s potential and customer acceptance as they make decisions today that will impact how people and businesses interact with immersive experiences tomorrow.
