The Mayor of Seoul South Korea, Oh Se-hoon, announced on January 16, that the city would soon be launching the first phase of “Metaverse Seoul.”

Planned to launch as a beta test, the metaverse initiative is said to include a variety of resident services, including the ability to view official documents, get help with tax guidelines, and file complaints related to the city — as first reported on by Cointelegraph.

4/ “Metaverse Seoul will be an important communication tool for citizens in the new normal,” Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon said at a press briefing Monday. “It is an inclusive administrative service that everyone can take advantage of without any time and space obstacles.” pic.twitter.com/MzWLZjQhgQ

— Harry Liu @ Forj (@harry_forj) January 16, 2023

According to the Mayor’s announcement, the online environment will also be a “place of communication for citizens,” and will allow them to visit several of the city’s main attractions.

Based on a report from ChosunBiz, the city has already invested approximately $1.6 million USD for the beta version of the project. Following the beta, Oh shared that the next phase will be aimed at making the metaverse accessible to senior citizens or those who are not mobile enough to make it to city offices in person.

South Korea in general has also shown itself to be forward-thinking in the crypto space for the most part, with its gift taxation stance on airdropped digital assets in August 2022 being an example of this.

While the country has proclaimed crypto as a virtual asset accepted in its law, authorities have not been shy about declaring the difficulties that come with regulating them — however, it would seem they are working to find fair solutions.

Towards the end of 2022, South Korea also garnered interest from Crypto.com, which established an office in the country, with its CEO Kris Marszalek being eager to work with regulators.

“We are committed to working with regulators to continue to bring our products and services to market, particularly in countries like South Korea where consumers have shown strong interest and adoption of digital currencies,” he added that “we believe our services can not only help further evolve and empower commerce in South Korea but also support the greater creation and development of our Web3 ecosystem.”

The country now takes its next step from adopting digital assets like crypto to stepping into the metaverse as it continues to explore the offerings of Web3.

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