Unlocking Metaverse-as-a-Service The three pillars to watch: Privacy and Security, Edge Computing, and Blockchain

In this article, the authors provide a comprehensive overview on three core pillars of metaverse-as-a-service (MaaS) platforms; privacy and security, edge computing, and blockchain technology. The article starts by investigating security aspects for the wireless access to the metaverse. Then it goes through the privacy and security issues inside the metaverse from data-centric, learning-centric, and human-centric points-of-view. The authors address private and secure mechanisms for privatizing sensitive data attributes and securing machine learning algorithms running in a distributed manner within the metaverse platforms. Novel visions and less-investigated methods are reviewed to help mobile network operators and metaverse service providers facilitate the realization of secure and private MaaS through different layers of the metaverse, ranging from the access layer to the social interactions among clients. Later in the article, it has been explained how the paradigm of edge computing can strengthen different aspects of the metaverse. Along with that, the challenges of using edge computing in the metaverse have been comprehensively investigated. Additionally, the paper has comprehensively investigated and analyzed 10 main challenges of MaaS platforms and thoroughly discussed how blockchain technology provides solutions for these constraints. At the final, future vision and directions, such as content-centric security and zero-trust metaverse, some blockchain's unsolved challenges are also discussed to bring further insights for the network designers in the metaverse era.