元宇宙中区块链的应用与展望

元宇宙是虚拟数字世界与真实物理世界无缝融合的新生态，近来引发了各界的广泛关注。区块链、人工智能、虚拟现实/增强现实及传感技术、移动通信及泛在计算等各种新型互联网技术愈发成熟，使元宇宙的进一步发展成为可能。关于元宇宙的研究主要涉及产业项目、基础设施、关键技术、隐私安全等方面，这些研究虽然涉及区块链技术，但未具体指出区块链应用于元宇宙的优势及具体应用方式。区块链技术不仅可以为元宇宙提供开放自由的去中心化环境，而且可以为其提供公平合理的数字资产分配机制。主要从区块链赋能元宇宙中数字身份和数字资产管理的角度出发，分析了元宇宙的发展历程和特征，讨论了元宇宙发展所需核心技术及面临的挑战。同时研究了区块链的关键技术，并从区块链的本质特征及与其他技术融合优势两个方面对区块链应用于元宇宙做可行性分析。进一步提出元宇宙生态体系架构，重点详细分析了基于区块链的自我主权身份管理模型、区块链-非同质化通证（NFT，non-fungible token）工作流程及其在元宇宙中的应用。结合区块链和元宇宙的最新研究进展，从基础设施、通信和计算资源管理机制、监管与隐私保护以及区块链可扩展和互操作性4个方面指出区块链应用于元宇宙将面临的挑战和未来的研究方向。

Application and prospect of blockchain in Metaverse

The metaverse is a new ecology that seamlessly integrates the virtual digital world and the real physical world, and has recently attracted widespread attention from all walks of life.With the maturity of various new IT technologies such as blockchain technology, artificial intelligence technology, VR/AR and sensing technology, mobile communication technology and ubiquitous computing technology, the further development of the Metaverse is possible.At present, research on the Metaverse mainly involves industrial projects, infrastructure, key technologies, privacy and security, etc.Although blockchain technology is covered in these studies, the specific points about the advantages of blockchain applied to the Metaverse are still lacked.Blockchain technology can not only provide an open and free decentralized environment for the Metaverse, but also act as a fair and reasonable digital asset distribution mechanism.The digital identity and digital asset management in the Metaverse empowered by blockchain was studied.The development process and characteristics of the Metaverse were analyzed.And the core technologies and challenges faced by the development of the Metaverse were discussed.Meanwhile, the key technologies of the blockchain were studied, and the feasibility of applying the blockchain to the Metaverse was analyzed from two aspects: the essential characteristics of the blockchain and the advantages of other technology integration.The Metaverse ecosystem architecture was further proposed, and the blockchain-based self-sovereign identity management model, blockchain-NFT workflow and its application in the Metaverse were analyzed in detail.Furthermore, combining the latest research progress of blockchain and the Metaverse, it was pointed out that the application of blockchain to the Metaverse will be from four aspects: infrastructure, communication and computing resource management mechanisms, regulation and privacy protection, and blockchain scalability and interoperability.Then the related challenges ahead and future research directions were presented at last.