Norwegian gov’t agency opens metaverse office in collaboration with EY

The Brønnøysund Register Center collaborated with EY to open a virtual office in the Decentraland metaverse to reach its next generation of users.

The Brønnøysund Register Center, a Norwegian governmental agency, partnered with Big Four accounting firm Ernst & Young (EY) to step into the metaverse with a new virtual office location. 

The center is responsible for managing numerous public registers for Norway, along with systems for the government’s digital exchange of information.

According to the announcement, the agency is choosing to create a metaverse location because the “future users of public services are there,” and it wants to connect with the younger generation that utilizes its services.

Magnus Jones, Nordic innovation lead at EY, told Cointelegraph:

“More and more authorities see a clear need of being present at the platforms where mainly younger generations are both for tax and legal purposes with regards to information.”

The virtual office plans to offer information on crypto reporting to users via the Norwegian Tax Agency and information on how to start an enterprise from experts at the Brønnøysund Registers.

Andreas Hamnes, a business developer at the Brønnøysund Registers, said if services continue to develop as they do now, it will contribute to increased alienation for generations who were “born digital.”

Jones continued to say that it’s the next generation that is really building “DeFi-based landscapes,” and they often have no clue or lack knowledge of tax or legal implications.

“That is why public authorities in Norway want to inform [them] about everything: from how you register a company, at what threshold VAT registrations arise, how to report your cryptos, etc.”

EY also has a metaverse office location in Decentraland, following its many Web3 developments, which include multi-million-dollar investments in the development of its own blockchain suite.

Related: Crypto ownership among Norwegian women doubles, mirroring global trends

This development comes after worrisome claims were made about usership numbers in Decentraland.

Initial reports claimed that there were only around 40 unique active wallets in the metaverse platform. These numbers were corrected by both DappRadar, the source of the data, and Decentraland.

In the weeks following the incident, developers and investors in the metaverse spoke out with confidence that the metaverse is still very much a major part of the future of the internet.

DappRadar’s Q3 report revealed that blockchain games and metaverse projects raised a cumulative $1.3 billion in that quarter alone. In the same time frame, the International Criminal Police Organization entered the metaverse with its own metaverse law enforcement.