Darkverse

Metaverse technology opens up new avenues for malicious actors as well as legitimate users. These actors can set up private spaces to facilitate illegal activities or communicate with other criminals. We define these areas as the darkverse. 

The darkverse is similar to the dark web, except it exists inside the metaverse, and is unindexed (not searchable by standard search engines).  In some ways, it is more dangerous than the dark web because of the pseudo-physical presence of the users. It mimics clandestine physical meetings versus the purely online open discussion threads in dark web criminal forums. 

We expect underground marketplaces to flourish in the darkverse. Users of these marketplaces will use authentication tokens for access and hide try to hide communications via proximity-based messaging or other methods. Even if law enforcement agencies (LEA) are aware of these spaces, they would be unable to infiltrate them without proper tokens. It would also be difficult for them to intercept exchanged communications. 

Although the main purpose of darkverse spaces is conducting illegal or criminal activities, these areas could also be used for free speech against oppressive entities or governments.