Digital Summit 2023: "The Metaverse is Here"

At the 6th Digital Summit Liechtenstein last Tuesday in Vaduz, Liechtenstein, ETH professor and Disney Chief Scientist Markus Gross and Fritz Kaiser, founder of Roarington, made an appearance. "The Metaverse is here," the scientist stated and the entrepreneur introduced Roarington - The Classic Car Metaland.

Prof. Markus Gross at the Digital Summit

"The metaverse, the digital overlaying of the real, is after all not a new vision," Markus Gross remarked by way of introduction, "it has existed in science fiction films for many decades."

Today, however, the basic technological components are available that are necessary to realize a virtual world that can correspond to the real world. This is also the prerequisite for digitally replicating a constantly changing real world, Markus Gross said. In the meantime, there are also customers who have grown up digitally and also use these technologies.

Prof. Markus Gross about the Metaverse

In the Metaverse, there will be so-called digital images of everything that also exists in the real world. "This," Markus Gross explained, "naturally includes digital people, i.e. ourselves." Disney in particular, he said, has learned over many years to create and visualize these avatars as special effects in their Hollywood films.

The technologies used to develop the metaverse, such as 3D Graphics, 3D ComputerVision, image recognition, fast web, or artificial intelligence have all reached a level of maturity that makes many things possible, he said. "In order to constantly update the digital model of the world, in addition to enormous cloud services, people will also be needed as users, because we will not only be consumers in the metaverse, but also data producers who constantly scan our environment and thus ensure that the digital model of the world always remains up to date," the scientist said.

Finally, Markus Gross highlighted the following thought: "I personally believe that in this digital world that is coming, where we will have digital twins of everything and everyone, the management of digital assets will become absolutely central. The institution that is able to manage the digital assets of all of us, to assert the corresponding rights and to ensure brokerage, will be the "Glencore" of the future. I see a great opportunity for Switzerland and Liechtenstein because they are small countries with a very high digital infrastructure. They have the international reputation in asset management, the corresponding tradition and neutrality."

Fritz Kaiser about Roarington

Fritz Kaiser presented a Metaland as a digital overlay of the real classic car world. In doing so, he spoke by way of introduction about his personal passion as a collector of classic cars, which he, as a successful entrepreneur in the financial sector, classified as emotional assets.

“These wonderful automobiles from yesteryear now receive a second digital home and a second lifeline on Roarington. And in addition to the real value of the real automobile, their digital twins are evolving into valuable digital assets. We're applying all kinds of technologies that work today, and we're constantly developing the Roarington technology platform further," Fritz Kaiser explained in his presentation and concluded that Roarington was created as a new virtual ecosystem for the real classic car world to inspire a younger generation for great cars of yesterday and make them accessible to them.