The Caribbean state of Barbados is partnering with several Metaverse companies to create digital sovereign land. But some questions remain unanswered for the time being.
Barbados was the first country in the world to have its own message in the Metaverse. The Barbadian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade signed a corresponding agreement with Decentraland on Sunday. Decentraland is one Virtual reality platformwhich is based on the Ethereum blockchain and trades in virtual real estate. According to one of CoinDesk quoted press release Barbados is also in the process of signing agreements with Somnium Space, SuperWorld and other Metaverse platforms.
What that means in concrete terms, however, is hard to predict at the moment. While the press release openly admits that “most of the details [über das Projekt] have not yet been announced ”. In the same breath, however, she tries to define a “metaverse message”:
The Barbados Metaverse Message will be at the center of activities designed to foster the growth of stronger bilateral relationships with governments around the world. In addition to e-consular services, the embassy will connect all metaworlds as a gesture of diplomatic standardization between technology platforms.
With the embassy opening slated for January, Barbados will be the first country in the world to recognize digital sovereign country. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Science and Technology and many other government agencies have “been studying the plans for several months,” said HE Gabriel Abed, Barbados Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates.
Abed also suggested that the messages could serve as a starting point for more ambitious economic plans in the virtual worlds. He added that the government plans to issue something called an “e-Visa”. But is such an “e-Visa” only intended for travel within the metaverse or is it also valid for the real Barbados? Who needs such a visa and who can get it? Meanwhile, those are the exciting questions.