# A Survey on Metaverse: Fundamentals, Security, and Privacy

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2203.02662 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.02662/

## Key facts

- Cited by 51 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 5 Mar 2022.

## Built on by (most cited first, 30 of 51)

- [A Survey on ChatGPT: AI-Generated Contents, Challenges, and Solutions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.18339/) (2023)
- [The Age of Synthetic Realities: Challenges and Opportunities](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.11503/) (2023)
- [Blockchain-empowered Federated Learning for Healthcare Metaverses: User-centric Incentive Mechanism with Optimal Data Freshness](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.15975/) (2023)
- [Metaverse for Healthcare: A Survey on Potential Applications, Challenges and Future Directions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.04160/) (2022)
- [ImMesh: An Immediate LiDAR Localization and Meshing Framework](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2301.05206/) (2023)
- [AI and 6G into the Metaverse: Fundamentals, Challenges and Future Research Trends](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.10921/) (2022)
- [Deepfake in the Metaverse: Security Implications for Virtual Gaming, Meetings, and Offices](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.14612/) (2023)
- [GS-SDF: LiDAR-Augmented Gaussian Splatting and Neural SDF for Geometrically Consistent Rendering and Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.10170/) (2025)
- [Hybrid-Generative Diffusion Models for Attack-Oriented Twin Migration in Vehicular Metaverses](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.11036/) (2024)
- [Fancy123: One Image to High-Quality 3D Mesh Generation via Plug-and-Play Deformation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.16185/) (2024)
- [The Seven Worlds and Experiences of the Wireless Metaverse: Challenges and Opportunities](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.10282/) (2023)
- [Edge-enabled Metaverse: The Convergence of Metaverse and Mobile Edge Computing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.02764/) (2022)
- [Towards Ubiquitous Semantic Metaverse: Challenges, Approaches, and Opportunities](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.06687/) (2023)
- [Artificial Intelligence for Web 3.0: A Comprehensive Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.09972/) (2023)
- [Blockchain-based Pseudonym Management for Vehicle Twin Migrations in Vehicular Edge Metaverse](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.15285/) (2024)
- [Mobile Edge Computing, Metaverse, 6G Wireless Communications, Artificial Intelligence, and Blockchain: Survey and Their Convergence](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.14147/) (2022)
- [Secure and Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence-Extended Reality (AI-XR) for Metaverses](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.13289/) (2022)
- [Mobile Augmented Reality with Federated Learning in the Metaverse](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.08324/) (2022)
- [Metaverse: Requirements, Architecture, Standards, Status, Challenges, and Perspectives](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.01125/) (2023)
- [Federated Learning for Metaverse: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.17987/) (2023)
- [The Metaverse: Survey, Trends, Novel Pipeline Ecosystem & Future Directions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.09240/) (2023)
- [Privacy Preservation in Artificial Intelligence and Extended Reality (AI-XR) Metaverses: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.10665/) (2023)
- [Human-Centric Resource Allocation for the Metaverse With Multiaccess Edge Computing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.15313/) (2023)
- [PointDreamer: Zero-shot 3D Textured Mesh Reconstruction from Colored Point Cloud](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.15811/) (2024)
- [Neural Surface Reconstruction and Rendering for LiDAR-Visual Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.05310/) (2024)
- [Federated Prompt-based Decision Transformer for Customized VR Services in Mobile Edge Computing System](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.09729/) (2024)
- [ESP-PCT: Enhanced VR Semantic Performance through Efficient Compression of Temporal and Spatial Redundancies in Point Cloud Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.01216/) (2024)
- [Two-Timescale Model Caching and Resource Allocation for Edge-Enabled AI-Generated Content Services](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.01458/) (2024)
- [Securing Virtual Reality Experiences: Unveiling and Tackling Cybersickness Attacks with Explainable AI](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.13419/) (2025)
- [Intelligence-Endogenous Management Platform for Computing and Network Convergence](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.03450/) (2023)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Metaverse, as an evolving paradigm of the next-generation Internet, aims to build a fully immersive, hyper spatiotemporal, and self-sustaining virtual shared space for humans to play, work, and socialize. Driven by recent advances in emerging technologies such as extended reality, artificial intelligence, and blockchain, metaverse is stepping from science fiction to an upcoming reality. However, severe privacy invasions and security breaches (inherited from underlying technologies or emerged in the new digital ecology) of metaverse can impede its wide deployment. At the same time, a series of fundamental challenges (e.g., scalability and interoperability) can arise in metaverse security provisioning owing to the intrinsic characteristics of metaverse, such as immersive realism, hyper spatiotemporality, sustainability, and heterogeneity. In this paper, we present a comprehensive survey of the fundamentals, security, and privacy of metaverse. Specifically, we first investigate a novel distributed metaverse architecture and its key characteristics with ternary-world interactions. Then, we discuss the security and privacy threats, present the critical challenges of metaverse systems, and review the state-of-the-art countermeasures. Finally, we draw open research directions for building future metaverse systems.