WISeKey Helping Governments Prepare for the Metaverse

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Geneva, Switzerland – April 8, 2022 – WISeKey International Holding Ltd ((SIX: WIHN, NASDAQ:WKEY), a Swiss based cyber security, IoT, AI platform company, today announced that it is helping Governments prepare for the Metaverse. Recent developments have forced governments around the world to take steps to quickly understand how Metaverse, this new frontier of innovation, is challenging the traditional conception of Sovereignty.

With data being stored virtually on the Metaverse anywhere in the world and government employees and citizens using information technology systems that are hosted and operated from anywhere (even outside of their jurisdiction), the expected sovereign rights over that date on the Metaverse needs to be reconsidered. Many information technology companies are telling governments that that their versions of the Metaverse will be enough to ensure sovereignty over their data and citizens. Others are stating that new legislation is needed to protect citizens. All in all, the solutions they propose are partial and unsatisfactory.

WISeKey, has been at the forefront of balancing technology, law, policy, and geopolitics from its headquarters in Switzerland for over 23 years. Over the years, WISeKey has developed solutions to the problems of State sovereignty and the challenges brought on by technology, including now the metaverse, that can be defined as a virtual world where citizens can exist simultaneously and interact in infinite ways with their government services and among themselves. Citizens can use their digital identities to conduct Metaverse-government transactions like, voting, pay their taxes, get married, while they also run private activities such as work, meet, collaborate, shop, stroll, watch movies and concerts, and do almost anything else they could do in the real world.

WISeKey has recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Government of Seychelles, represented by the Department of Information Communications Technology (DICT), to initiate a pilot project for the development of an innovative Digital Identity platform for Seychelles. The Digital Identity platform is expected to be integrated with different national initiatives especially the eGovernment and potentially eTourism and eHealth. Last year WISeKey also signed two MoUs with the Government of Gibraltar and the Mayor of La Línea de la Concepción, for the development of a joint 4^th Industrial Revolution Center of Excellence (LLG 4IR Center of Excellence) spearheading innovation in the region with the objective to build a collaborative metaverse.

The metaverse is a great way for governments to interact with their citizens and the next step in the evolution of the internet from a two-dimensional interactive to a three-dimensional immersive experience. Governments should take the future opportunity represented by the metaverse seriously. The metaverse will present entirely new ways, for example, to create employment, impart education, deliver healthcare, and plan urban spaces. It will be the next major labor organizing platform. New organizations, products, and services will handle everything from payment processing to identity verification, hiring, ad delivery, content generation, and security. The Metaverse is based on Web 3.0, also known as the decentralized web, is an evolution of the Internet that allows users to interact with each other in a more secure and private way. It does this by using blockchain technology to create a peer-to-peer network where users can transact without relying on intermediaries. This makes it ideal for developing virtual worlds, as it provides a platform for users to interact without fear of censorship or data theft.

WISeKey is teaming with governments to facilitate services related to the complex regulatory issues that a metaverse would present and establishing MoUs allowing the governments to test the technology and participate in working groups on anticipatory regulation commissioning research on the regulation process that would become necessary and collaborate with the private sector to explore regulatory approaches for a metaverse.

The company is also providing the WISeID second generation Digital Identities in Metaverse that includes an identification module that its built into the protocol, while supplementary applications will be developed. Users will have autonomy over their identity meaning that they are in full control of their personal identification information and hence need not to rely on any central entity or third party for identity verification. With a truly NFT identity, users can create, sign, and verify claims, while parties who interact with a user will be able to prove their identity. Additionally, users will be able to selectively disclose their information.

Users can establish a reputation on Metaverse through digital identities, improving the way we exchange value. Value is exchanged through digital signatures, requests for verification and transactions; these transactions then allow a user to gradually build a reputation which can be inspected and verified by other digital identities and value intermediaries. You can download your ID from WISeID.com.

About WISeKey

WISeKey (NASDAQ:WKEY, SIX Swiss Exchange: WIHN))) is a leading global cybersecurity company currently deploying large scale digital identity ecosystems for people and objects using Blockchain, AI and IoT respecting the Human as the Fulcrum of the Internet. WISeKey microprocessors secure the pervasive computing shaping today's Internet of Everything. WISeKey IoT has an install base of over 1.6 billion microchips in virtually all IoT sectors (connected cars, smart cities, drones, agricultural sensors, anti-counterfeiting, smart lighting, servers, computers, mobile phones, crypto tokens etc.). WISeKey is uniquely positioned to be at the edge of IoT as our semiconductors produce a huge amount of Big Data that, when analyzed with Artificial Intelligence (AI), can help industrial applications to predict the failure of their equipment before it happens.

Our technology is Trusted by the OISTE/WISeKey's Swiss based cryptographic Root of Trust ("RoT") provides secure authentication and identification, in both physical and virtual environments, for the Internet of Things, Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence. The WISeKey RoT serves as a common trust anchor to ensure the integrity of online transactions among objects and between objects and people. For more information, visit www.wisekey.com.

Press and investor contacts:

WISeKey International Holding Ltd

Company Contact: Carlos Moreira

Chairman & CEO

Tel: +41 22 594 3000

info@wisekey.com

WISeKey Investor Relations (US)

Contact: Lena Cati

The Equity Group Inc.

Tel: +1 212 836-9611

lcati@equityny.com

Disclaimer:

This communication expressly or implicitly contains certain forward-looking statements concerning WISeKey International Holding Ltd and its business. Such statements involve certain known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, which could cause the actual results, financial condition, performance, or achievements of WISeKey International Holding Ltd to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. WISeKey International Holding Ltd is providing this communication as of this date and does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements contained herein as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

This press release does not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any securities, and it does not constitute an offering prospectus within the meaning of article 652a or article 1156 of the Swiss Code of Obligations or a listing prospectus within the meaning of the listing rules of the SIX Swiss Exchange. Investors must rely on their own evaluation of WISeKey and its securities, including the merits and risks involved. Nothing contained herein is, or shall be relied on as, a promise or representation as to the future performance of WISeKey.

WISeKey Helping Governments Prepare for the Metaverse