Over the last few years, scores of startups offering a wide variety of utilities including blockchains and metaverses have emerged. This growth really kicked off in the summer of 2020 often now referred to as "DeFi Summer." Due to this explosive growth that led to immense sums being invested and fortunes made and lost businesses, governments have scrambled to figure out exactly what this space is, what it does, and how it functions. In the last year or so more and more, businesses and some governments have come to realize that this was not a flash in the pan fad while the companies, organizations, and participants have realized that during their growth a key thing was neglected.

Associations, trade groups, and lobbying groups are key fixtures of developed industries and something that not only industries rely on to represent them but governments rely on to understand what is going on within the industry and if there is anything that they need to address. Until recently in Washington, D.C. there were not really any substantial associations, trade groups, or lobbying groups, and those that were around often lacked members and funding to really be able to represent the industry. Luckily though this is changing and while some groups are better than others the fact we have groups now is a huge win. 

In the U.S. there are two particular influential groups I wish to highlight. The first one is called the Blockchain Association and it is a member lead group whose projects include building blockchain networks, trading platforms, and early-stage investors that support entire ecosystems. Many big-name players are members including Chainalysis, Compound, Circle, Dapper, Gala Games, Ledger, Solana, and Stellar Development Foundation among many more. As you would expect with a group like this a large part of what they do is help educate policymakers, courts, law enforcement, and even the public about crypto blockchains and promote regulation clarity to keep the space secure, competitive, and innovative. With recent bills presented in both the House and the Senate, the Blockchain Association has often been credited with assisting. They also release reports about the legislation to help provide transparency to the crypto space about how and why the legislation came to be. 

The other influential group that has recently been in the headlines because of what they said when discussing the Tornado Cash blacklisting is Coin Center. This group differs from the Blockchain Association because of its structure. It is not a member-led initiative rather it has a team, board of directors, and fellows that make it up. Coin Center falls in the category of a think tank when you compare it to other groups and it excels in its space. They are very very outspoken in their pursuit of privacy and have engaged in litigation to defend these digital civil liberties. If you are wondering where you might have heard of them before it would be because they are the most vocal group discussing suing the U.S. Treasury over the sanctions and blacklisting of Tornado Cash and associated wallets. With the possibility of filing a lawsuit, this really does show the difference between Coin Center and Blockchain Association. 

While these two might be the biggest ones right now and leaders for what they do others are still being formed and launched. Open Metaverse Alliance for Web3 or OMA3 is a DAO that has recently been created to work on developing metaverse standards that will create/build a open and boarderless metaverse. Member of this group include a nice mixture of different companies including Animoca Brands, Alien Worlds, Dapper Labs, Decentraland, Star Atlas, The Sandbox, and Upland companies that are true crypto/Web3 companies. While they have not said that they will be working with governemnt and regulators by default with what they are doing they will end up having to in some way shape or form. The creation of this DAO or consortium was huge for two specific reasons; first it was launched as a DAO as opposed to a traditional format and because it is a challege to traditional companies who have also come together to form an alliance.

The metaverse organization that it will be challengeing is called the Metaverse Standards Forum and its members are all large traditional technology companies. Founding members of this group include Microsoft, Meta, Alibaba, and Sony. These companies stand to lose a lot in Web3 if it turns into a place where people do have full power over their data so it is safe to believe that they would not exactly have the same idea of a open boarderless metaverse like the reason of us would have in our minds. When this alliance came out and lacked any big crypto/Web3 space companies it naturally lead to a pause in what they where trying to do. Luckily for the space OMA3 then launched who are 100% crypto/Web3 companies who are very large in the space with deep pocket backers thus surving as a solid oponent to anything that the Metacerse Standards Forum would advocate for that would harm the idea of a true open boarderless metaverse. 

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