Besakih Temple in the Metaverse?

January 2022, there was much news that Yogja square is for sale on platform metaverse nextearth.io. The response immediately burst to respond to the issue. Sultan Hamengku Bhuwono X, the governor and king of the unique region did not take this matter seriously. He seemed to think of it as a kind of prank immediately extinguished once the trend and euphoria subsided. However, many people are guessing what will happen next if left unchecked?

Meta became popular when Mark Zuckerberg introduced his new company name to Meta. In his vision, with the Metaverse, the world will be connected virtually without any boundaries. There will be new worlds in the virtual realm that are alternatives to human life.

The movie “Ready Player One” depicts that currently, some people are actually in two worlds: the game world and the real world. In that movie, everyone makes the game world their place to find and earn money. Purchase of goods is also made in the game.

The film gives a good overview of the Metaverse; digital reality is built as an alternative where every user interacts and acts in the digital realm while staying connected to the objective reality.

However, the Metaverse is not as simple as the picture in the film. It is far more integrated into real life. If in “Ready Player One” there is still a divide between the natural world and the game world, in the Metaverse of real-life and digital life, there is no partition at all.

This happens only when several technologies are combined, such as augmented reality and virtual reality. The two technologies are similar to reality experience, machines dedicated to building a new reality. Virtual reality tends to form a reality that is entirely on a digital platform, while augmented reality makes digital reality seem to blend in with objective reality.

In the Metaverse, those of us who work from home in pajamas can be seen sitting behind an office desk wearing formal attire. We can have dinner under the Eiffel Tower with colleagues in Paris, even though we are perched in a food stall near our house. In the Metaverse, we are free to express ourselves and create our imagination. This makes it exciting and is considered very helpful for creative workers in presenting their work.

The Metaverse builds on the next infinite possibilities, such as a world with a new mechanism where we can move from one Metaverse to another to rent out tor there while accumulating assets in another metaverse. Although it is still in the realm of imagination, technological developments and the generation of supporters make it feel like it is already at the door.

What If Besakih is sold on Metaverse?

Returning to the issue of the Yogjakarta square being sold, how should we react to it? Isn’t that a serious thing? Calm down. Not all items in the Metaverse have any affiliation with actual items. That metaverse reality only exists in the virtual world as long as he is not affiliated. So the Yogjakarta square sold in the Metaverse is only the metaverse square. Not the original.

However, we should not take this for granted. On the other hand, we must pay close attention to the great potential behind it. Because, like it or not, the Metaverse continues to creep in and will become our future, whereas, on the positive side, it will provide many opportunities for a culturally rich area like Bali.

Let’s make a simulation: The Besakih area was sold by someone in the Metaverse. Even though it has not affiliated with the original temple, I imagine sentiments will trigger a stir in Bali. Well, this is what must be anticipated.

Now let’s look at the bright side, namely the opportunity for us to build an “ideal” Balinese Culture where we can keep the sacredness of temples or mountains or whatever we want to be sacred. People who violate it will automatically be affected immediately.

In the Metaverse, we can build Besakih Temple, just like in the real world where people can go in and out of the temple for prayer or sightseeing. This allows tourists to visit Pura Besakih in its Metaverse only. That way, in the real world, we can restrict tourists from entering the temple to maintain its sacredness. Besakih Temple, Mount Agung, and all sides of the sacred island of Bali can also be made a similar mechanism.

What about temple ownership?

In the Metaverse, some rules were prepared by the virtual world’s creator. In my opinion, for virtual land, the Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) mechanism is the most suitable mechanism. DAOs are organizations governed by automated rules embedded in smart contracts and listed on the blockchain network. DAO gives the possibility that an organization does not need a manager because it manages it. Like Bitcoin, which is currently moving without any management at all. However, it is driven by intelligent contract rules embedded as the governance of the coin.

DAOs can form the basis of virtual worlds in the Metaverse, where land, ownership, and zoning are arranged in such a way. This is where a temple-like Besakih is regulated as a public facility in a smart contract so that no one can afford it.

Then, who should play a role to ensure that? In this case, everyone must take part. The government formulates rules regarding virtual land so that the management or establishment of a DAO can be regulated and agreed upon by the public. In order for the virtual land that we have built in the Metaverse to be authentic and unambiguous, the recognition of the Balinese people is very much needed.

In this context, the role of community leaders is vital. It is also necessary to consider registering temple names to the Intellectual Property Rights agency as trademarks to avoid the misuse of temple names for purposes other than religiosity/religiousness.