How enticing would it be if money was no bar for your wedding? You could finally afford the wedding you always dreamt of- swans in the red-colored lake, dragons blazing fire in the skies, Dumbledore officiating the wedding, and full participation by every person you have loved or have loved you. Well, today, this is the very idea being sold to us in form of the new virtual landscape flaunted by Mr. Zuckerburg and other techies. Yes, I am talking about weddings in the metaverse.
However, hold on! don’t have your boo break your wedding savings for a Birkin just yet. You cannot legally marry in the metaverse- not yet at least. A marriage that takes place in the metaverse is not legitimate. Although there won’t be any legal complications because marriage in the metaverse isn’t recognized as a valid marriage in the actual world, there are already concerns about how some behaviors in the metaverse might be construed as actionable in the real world.
If a couple were to break up after being together but not married in the actual world, their claims to one another’s assets might be strengthened by evidence of a “marriage” in the metaverse. This is just one example of how metaverse action could have real-world effects. In a similar vein, if a couple invested in metaverse assets together, such as virtual real estate or anything similar, the courts might also consider it, along with issues like fraud committed through the channel that ultimately affects real-world money.
Moreover, there are no broad federal restrictions on getting married online because state and local laws on marriage vary. If you hold a ceremony outside of those restrictions, you run the danger of having your marriage deemed invalid.
Unlike merely live-streaming a wedding, a technique that has been popular during the pandemic, most jurisdictions do not even let a wedding officiant remotely marry a couple via video conference technology.
With the momentum it has been gaining, the metaverse is poised to emerge as a major digital medium. And there may come a day when the law is revised to change with virtual life as the scope of the role it will play becomes obvious over time. Therefore, even while a marriage in the metaverse is not currently considered to be legally binding, this does not indicate that it will always be so.
Meanwhile, get your hands on some coding websites, maybe? I hear, a florist is not necessary for a metaverse wedding, but a coder who can code the floral arrangements surely is. Moreover, one may still need to rent a spot because using a plot in a decentralized world costs money, and property in the decentralized virtual world isn’t free.
