This weekend, a Phoenix couple linked their digital identities in their first marriage that took place in the metaverse.
The wedding ceremony took place in the Decentraland in the presence of Supreme Court Justice Clint Bulik’s witnesses and an actual crowd of 2,000 guests on Saturday.
The bride and groom, Ryan and Candice Hurley, hired the Rose Law Group to legalize the marriage. The group’s founder and president, Jordan Rose, stated that this was the first wedding to take place on the blockchain-based metaverse.
“Since the metaverse is still in its infancy, we have developed a legal model for legally recognized marriage,” she told Cointelegraph.
The wedding ceremony was held at Rose Law Group in Decentraland. The legal team developed a “Polymarital Framework” by including a “Virtual Prenuptial Agreement” in which the spouses’ virtual identities and digital assets were identified as registered on the blockchain.
Meanwhile, the meta-marriage license identified, registered and tokenized the virtual identities of the couple and the location of the marriage on the blockchain as a non-virtual token (NFT). Rose explained:
“There is currently no legal basis for marriage in the metaverse, so whether or not it is legal is a matter of contract.”
“Unlike the real world, the metaverse is not limited by the physical limitations that limit your perfect wedding. Only in the Metaverse can the most attractive and most exotic dream wedding come true,” reads the event description in Decentraland. Rose added:
“We see the future of the metaverse as truly decentralized and almost entirely on the blockchain, so the future of marriage in the metaverse should not have a real vision of their marriage.”
While the couple apparently envisioned their future wedding, they ran into some very old technical issues. Decentraland struggled to deal with the number of guests present, and gifts for NFT attendees were quickly received about 20 minutes after the event.
On top of that, Ryan’s avatar stayed in the aisle when Candice didn’t appear digitally, but only to a few guests. Depending on which server the contestants were split into, the bride was wearing a dress, a hoodie, or none at all.
An attendee struggles to make the party a success in Decentraland, instructing guests to check out Instagram’s Rose Law Group, as the couple sealed their vows live.
Despite Rose’s assertions about the legality of the wedding, it seems that many lawyers remain unconvinced. According to the US Department of Marriage, people should look like their real person during a formal wedding ceremony, not like their digital copies.
In addition, most US states do not allow the couple to marry via video conferencing or if the couple is in different locations during the ceremony.
The Hurley family has been married in the “real world” for 14 years after meeting them on Match.com.
Related: Couples Marry Ethereum Blockchain for $587 in Transaction Fees
While this wedding is the first of its kind in many ways, it certainly isn’t the only time the couple wants to immortalize their marriage on the blockchain.
In April 2021, a California couple working on crypto exchange Coinbase signed an Ethereum smart contract to issue token “rings” like NFT at the time of their wedding.
In 2014, the Disney World Bitcoin Conference hosted the first blockchain wedding, with the following message recorded on the chain: “For better or worse, until death do us part, because blockchain is forever.”
