This introduction explores how the evolution of the metaverse as an additional virtual public sphere challenges existing governance frameworks, and demonstrates the need for a comprehensive multi-disciplinary approach to adapting and re-imagining these frameworks.
When the metaverse distributes authority across states, platforms, protocols, and communities simultaneously, the only viable response is a governance framework that allocates functions across all four layers rather than insisting, against the evidence, that any single actor holds the reins.