Law and Economics in the Metaverse

The metaverse raises questions about an entirely new world. Law and economics are taking notice. After all, law has always been, as C. Schmitt put it, “nomos of the earth ” [ Nomos der Erde ]. Here, it is precisely the earth that disappears. This essay mainly focuses on some essential elements of the impact of the metaverse on legal and economic systems, examining a highly significant phenomenon such as virtual currencies. Three issues will be addressed by analyzing virtual currencies through a well-known rule by J.R. Searle, which underpins the construction of social reality: (i) Who makes the market? (ii) Can there be fake tokens of virtual currencies? (iii) Who administers a currency and a world without territoriality? These are not random questions. Quite the contrary. They challenge the often too-taken-for-granted beliefs about democracy, certainty, governance, and the durability of virtual currencies and the new world that supports them.