All you need to know about Investing in Metaverse Real estate

According to Mckinsey, the market cap of the metaverse will be over $ 5 Trillion by 2030. Well, this seems to be the future of the internet. This primer breaks down all you need to know about investing in real estate on the metaverse.

What is the metaverse

The metaverse is described as a virtual world where you can interact, build a home, play games, host events and even attend meeting s and concerts. Think of anything you can do in the real world, and now take that online- except eating, at least not at the moment 😊. It is mostly powered on the blockchain and leverages web 3.0 technologies such NFTs and Cryptocurrencies.

The concept of having a metaverse is not entirely new as gaming companies have been trying to create them on their platforms. The recent foray of blockchain, its popularity and widespread adoption has given impetus to the metaverse, enabling gaming developers to create 3 D models of the world that replicate day to day real-life activities. Users can visit the metaverse through their laptops/ phones or they can access it through virtual reality headsets.

Buying Land on the Metaverse

These are popular sites where you can buy parcels of land on the metaverse:

  1. Sandbox- native token is SAND
  2. Decentraland- native token is MANA
  3. Upland- native token is UPX
  4. Somnium Space- native toke is CUBE
  5. Axie Infinity- native token is AXS
  6. Illuvium- native token is ILV
  7. Roblox-native token is Robux

Parcels of land on the metaverse are usually limited and scarce. For example, on Sandbox metaverse, there is a total of 166, 464 parcels of land. This means that once all these  have been sold, no new land can be developed on this metaverse. There are over 12000 land owners on the Sandbox Metaverse and this number keeps increasing. These parcels are big in size and are measured in Voxels. To put it into perspective, one parcel of land has a length 96 meters, width of  96 meters and height of 128 meters. One meter is equivalent to 32 voxels.

When purchasing land, visit the metaverse where you would like to purchase the land from and sign up. Once logged in, go to the market place and check various offering available. You need to have the native currency of the metaverse on which you will buy your land from. For example, if you are buying your land on Decentraland, you will need MENA tokens. If you are buying it from Sandbox, you need SAND tokens. The value of these tokens fluctuates with market forces and are also affected by the price of ETH. You can check the prices of these token on coinmarket cap. In some instances, you can purchase land from these metaverses on NFT marketplaces such Opensea. To get an experience of  parcels on Opensea, get the coordinates of the land and insert them on the metaverse you are buying from; it should give you details of the land and a general feel of the neighborhood. Before making any purchase, check and see how the parcel of land looks like by clicking on it and experience the area surrounding it.

Once the purchase has been made, you can build whatever you want on that piece of land. These lands are basically virtual grounds from which players can build their own experience and unlock their creative potential. When we talk about anything, we mean anything. This can range from property, wearables, games, parties, events, meeting and even a manufacturing plant. Metaverses are basically hinged on User generated Content- the users create the kind of world they would want and interact from there. On the metaverse, all assets created  are  NFTs- they are unique, represent ownership and can be traded.

The Value of Land

Value of land on the Metaverses is determined by the following factors:

  • Location/ Popularity

What’s the population and traffic that frequents that location?  Are there events that are hosted within your neighborhood? The higher the traffic, the higher the value of that parcel. As a buyer, you can also check the map and see who owns the parcels of land that surround your neighborhood. Land that is surrounded by big brands or notable names may be of higher value.

  • Size

Land sizes that are large tend to gain value over time as  they can host multiple businesses and can be rented out to large enterprises. Large piece of  land means developers have enough room to create more experiences within that  parcel, ultimately leading to more traffic.

  • Scarcity

In Sandbox metaverse, there’s a limited number of land that can be  developed. This scarcity tends to push the value of the land up since once all land has been sold on that metaverse then no more land can be developed.

Price of  Land

The price of land depends on its value and the metaverse you will be buying the land from. This can range from a few thousand dollars to millions of dollars. Land is usually priced in the native token of the host Metaverse. You can check the price of each land on the market place section of your preferred metaverse.

Uses of land/ Making Money from your Parcels

  • Buy and wait

You can buy your piece of land as a speculative asset and simply wait for its price to appreciate before selling it.

  • Build business and profit from it

You can basically build any business you want on your piece of land. Every asset you build is considered an NFT. Most metaverse platforms offer user friendly, no- code tools that gamers can use to build assets on their parcels of land. Land owners can create businesses that sell NFTs, assortments, in game ammunition and even avatars.

  • Rent it out

Land owners can also rent out their parcels of land to other buyers and earn rental income from the land.

  • Build a home

You can also build a home  and customize it to your liking, invite friends over, host parties and  meetings from this home.

Alternative strategies for Investing In Metaverse Real Estate

 Investors who consider buying land directly from the metaverse as being too  tedious still have a chance of benefiting from this tech trend. Here are some alternative land buying strategies to consider:

  • Metaverse Reits

Reits is short for real Estate Investment Trust. It is basically a fund that is managed by investment professionals who will invest on metaverse real estate on your behalf. As an investor, you will get annual returns from our investment based in the performance of your fund manager.

  • Metaverse Index

This is a basket of tokens that are related to the metaverse. If you invest in them, you get access to an assortment of tokens in the metaverse, thus, you are not exposed to the fluctuations from one token.

  • Invest in Metaverse Platform tokens

You can also invest in the native tokens of different Metaverse platforms. Seeing that this is still a novel technology, investors stand a chance to profit from the upside potential of these tokens as the market grows.

  • Invest in Metaverse Stocks/ Tech companies

Companies such as Facebook ( Meta) have expressed  their desire to pivot into the metaverse. Investors can take advantage of this by investing in their stocks early enough.

From all these, we see that there exists lots of opportunities to invest in land in the metaverse. Savvy investors can take advantage of this and invest in land on the metaverse.

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Hail, NFTs! 3 Ways NFTs are Changing the World

NFTs are not just jpegs uploaded and minted on the Blockchain. Industry players are finding new ways to harness this technology and create game changing products that are shaping the way we interact. True, the recent crypto market slump may have dampened the spirits of the general market. However, industry leaders opine this is part of the market cycle and soon we will be out of the woods. This article is a primer on NFTs, their use cases and where the world is headed with regard to this technology.

As an art form.

This is the most notable way through which NFTs have gained prominence.

This technology has democratized art, enabling previously unknown artists to be at the vanguard of artistic development- enabling designers, artists and graphic experts across the world to earn passive income. Some digital artworks have turned artists into instant millionaires and much-vaunted celebrities in the art world . There are exclusive clubs created around some of these artworks, attracting celebrities and sports stars.  NFTs have enabled artists to earn royalties even in perpetuity every time their artworks are resold. In some instances, sovereign countries are adopting them and finding ways to use them to boost economic output. Countries,

such as Japan, recently adopted  NFTs as gifts for the civil service.

Government employees who perform well are gifted with NFTs; they use them for commemoration.

In Supply chain

NFTs have found notable use cases in supply chain management .

Manufacturers can use them to create unique tags for their products  for provenance.

Consumers can easily scan these NFTs and help them get detailed understanding of the products they consume. Businesses can use NFTs to enhance transparency and boost efficiency as they can track products on real time . With one scan all supplier information can be brought to the fore.

This form of transparency can be, especially, helpful for perishable goods, medical supplies and fragile industrial products. Businesses can also use NFTs to enhance collaboration across

the supply chain – enabling them have one permanent track of records of the goods they procure. This ultimately helps businesses maintain a competitive advantage, cut costs, and build better inter- business relations.

As digital Identities

NFTs can also be used as digital identifiers. Their unique identifiers and qualities enable them to be potential tech candidates for a global registry. This is still controversial and industry players are still unsettled on how best to go about this.However, traction has been gained in the gaming industry where players can use NFTs to create unique personalities, ammunition or gaming accessories and even trade them. For sure , this is slowly gaining real-world adoption.

Some companies have developed NFT based KYC identifiers that automate the KYC process wile at the same time maintaining anonymity. What these do is that a user creates a single NFT with attributes  such as age, address, location and gender. These can then be used across multiple platforms anonymously in the event that one needs to pass KYC. The details can not be accessed publicly and can only be shared with express permission from the owner. In the UAE,

the government has established a digital presence(consulate) on the metaverse using web 3.0 technologies that also encompass NFTs. This metaverse is meant to offer a digitally immersive experience where the country can promote their services and  educate people about

the investment potential in this region. Visitors to the country’s digital platform will have a chance to interact with a customer representative and can be issued with a ticket where they’ll get their issues resolved.

These are tech  development that  can be directly  attributed to NFTs and their uses as this industry matures, more products and services will be developed anchored on this technology.

Hail, NFTs.This is the new norm.

Solana boosted by Bank of America

Alkesh Shah, a digital asset strategist at Bank of America, is sweet on Solana. This week in a research note he claimed that Solana, widely seen as a competitor to Ethereum, could become the “Visa of the digital asset ecosystem.”

Solana only launched in 2020, and since then has become the fifth largest cryptocurrency with a market cap of $47 billion. Its impressive growth spurt has outperformed that of Ethereum, and it has been used to settle over 50 billion transactions. It has also minted some 5.7 million NFTs.

Despite this performance, it still has its critics, and they argue that the speed at which it settles transactions comes at the cost of decentralization and reliability. Shah doesn’t buy this. He believes the benefits outweigh the drawbacks: Its ability to provide high throughput, low cost and ease of use creates a blockchain optimized for consumer use cases like micropayments, DeFi, NFTs, decentralized networks (Web3) and gaming.”

In his note, Shah also pointed out that he believes Solana will take market share from Ethereum, simply because it offers lower fees, is easier to use and has greater scalability. He told Business Insider, “Ethereum prioritizes decentralization and security, but at the expense of scalability, which has led to periods of network congestion and transaction fees that are occasionally larger than the value of the transaction being sent.”

Ultimately he thinks Solana may take over the transaction settlement side of the market, while Ethereum focuses on “high-value transaction and identity, storage and supply chain use cases.”

But perhaps the most surprising element of Shah’s note is the comparison of Solana with Visa. Visa processes an average of 1,700 transactions per second (TPS), although if pushed to the max it could do 24,000 TPS. By contrast Solana has an upper limit of 65,000 TPS. Ethereum handles about 12 TPS. The difference is striking.

However, as Solana followers will know, the network has suffered a number of problems recently, something that Shah acknowledges. Already in 2022 there have been withdrawal issues on both Binance and Coinbase and an alleged DDoS attack on 5th January, something the network denies. And in December of last year there was a DDoS attack, as well as reports of network congestion. This does not seem to have deterred investors this week. After several rough days, Solana (SOL) has bounced back to $151, an increase of 8.56% from a 52-week low of $130, although it has some way to go before it reaches its former ATH of $260.  But if Shah is right, and Solana becomes the “Visa of the digital asset ecosystem” who knows how high its price may go.

It’s the end of ‘Cash is King’