While the majority of South African business don't make use of blockchain technology, half said they'd participate in the metaverse.
This is according to a recent ITWeb survey, which was conducted in partnership with KnowBe4.
The objective of the survey was to gain insight into what corporate South Africa thinks about the metaverse, NFTs, Blockchain and Web3. Currently, metaverse is an umbrella term for extended reality, both virtual and augmented, and the rapid adoption and development of tools like AR and VR headsets.
A total of 176 responses were captured, with 60% of respondents being at executive or middle management level. While 38% of respondents came from the IT sector, the remaining 62% come from a wide range of major industry sectors, with finance, government and telecoms being the best represented.
Just over half (54%) of the survey’s respondents say they have plans to participate in the metaverse. The majority of respondents (82%) say their business doesn’t use blockchain technology, with only 18% saying that they do. However, 83% say that their company plans to deploy blockchain technology
Anna Collard, SVP Content Strategy and Evangelist at KnowBe4 Africa, says, “Whether blockchain-based technology is going to form an integral component of the metaverse remains to be seen. However, regardless of what the underlying infrastructure is going to look like, the metaverse will be a myriad of technologies coming together as building blocks and each of these brings with it its own risks. And the security problems that exist currently - scams, impersonation, credential theft, technological debt, social engineering, espionage, vulnerabilities, misinformation - will come with us into the metaverse and may have even more damaging impact.”
Whether blockchain-based technology is going to form an integral component of the metaverse remains to be seen.
Asked whether they were excited about the opportunities of Web 3.0: 57% of respondents said yes, they were a proponent of a more decentralised future Internet; 26% said they didn’t know what it was about; and 15% said they didn’t believe the technology catered for the hyped-up promises of Web 3.0.
Respondents were asked if they were personally interested in connecting with others via some virtual world in the Metaverse. Just over half (53%) responded ‘yes’, 39% said they were neutral and 8% said they weren’t interested.
When asked to identify their personal stance towards the crypto ecosystem, respondents ranked the following statements:
- I have hopes that the technology space will develop (30%)
- I have invested in cryptocurrencies before or am still actively involved (20%)
- I’m concerned about the impact crypto mining has on the environment (14%)
- There are too many scams to get involved (14%)
Asked if they were considering the metaverse, Web 3.0 or Blockchain in their security plans, 27% said ‘yes’, 26% said ‘no’ and 30% of respondents said they planned to update their security strategy. Fourteen percent said they had well defined security controls for these emerging technologies.
Respondents were asked if they were personally interested in connecting with others via some virtual world in the Metaverse. Just over half (53%) responded ‘yes’, 39% said they were neutral and 8% said they weren’t interested.
Collard says, “Organisations interested in getting involved need to collaborate with their security and risk teams early on to identify what could be at stake, where possible vulnerabilities are and making sure that developers are adequately trained, and apps thoroughly tested and audited before going live. End-users should be made aware that participating in any new technology such as the metaverse makes them a bigger target.
“People need to become familiar with the threat of social engineering and common scams as well as best practices on how to protect themselves, their digital assets, wallets and identities. Lastly regulators and policy makers need to come up with regulations that can be applied to the metaverse, protecting vulnerable groups and consumers, while not stifling innovation.”
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