Barbados to establish world’s first Metaverse embassy

• Barbados has announced that it will be the first sovereign nation to host its embassy on the metaverse.
• The Caribbean nation’s cabinet decided to adapt its diplomatic affairs to the burgeoning new virtual platform in August.
• Barbados has agreed to open a digital embassy in Decentraland, a blockchain metaverse platform that offers a user-owned, 3D digital environment with 90,601 plots of 'land.'
• The metaverse has become increasingly popular in the past months after social media giant Facebook announced it was turning its attention to the online space, even changing the name of its company to "Meta".
• Barbados plans to inaugurate the virtual embassy in January 2022.

Important Takeaways

About Metaverse

• Meta is a Greek prefix that signifies "beyond, after, or across." So, metaverse, a combination of "meta" and "universe," would denote a place that exists in the virtual realm yet feels just as genuine as the real world.
• It is a concept involving an online world in which people can interact, collaborate, and communicate virtually without having to be in the same physical space.