The Rise of the Blockchain-based Virtual Lands: What’s Next?
Nowadays, people are spending a lot of their free time online, considering the current COVID-19 restrictions that have taken over the world at the beginning of the year. This trend has also been supported by smart algorithms of the social networks and technological advancements that are keeping people online.
In fact, the digital world has become so popular that global investors started pouring their money into virtual assets, including virtual land, unique pieces of digital art, and more. In fact, in the course of 2020, the world has seen a number of substantial investments into the virtual land by buyers, who are eager to grow their digital possessions.
Thanks to the latest developments in the blockchain industry, people now are able to buy houses with Bitcoin or take out a mortgage on a blockchain. As a result, more people started to realize the benefits of the blockchain technology application in a lot of industries, and, in particular, in the real estate market.
With the rise of blockchain awareness in this sector, more people started creating virtual worlds and a number of innovative projects have entered the space. Accordingly, Blockchain-fueled projects that offered an opportunity to purchase and own virtual property have been gaining a lot of popularity lately.
What are virtual lands? 🌍
Virtual land represents a piece of land in a 3D virtual space, where users have the ability to do almost anything they want with their land. Numerous virtual world projects have diverse metrics of the virtual lands they offer, and, of course, there is an assortment of experiences that can be built on those virtual lands. For instance, players who own a piece of virtual land in the game are able to sell or rent it, just like in the real world.
With the growing trend of virtual worlds and the rising demand for virtual lands, a lot of new projects started focusing their efforts on developing virtual reality worlds of their own. Below are some of the most popular virtual world projects in the space.
Somnium Space
Somnium Space is a cross-platform virtual reality world that was launched back in 2018. It enables users to purchase land and build and import objects to the platform, creating a common virtual universe. In Somnium Space, players are able to choose between three different sizes of land: small (200 square meters), medium (600 square meters), and large (1,500 square meters).
The project aims to facilitate access to the immersive experience of the virtual world by allowing players to create a functioning economy within the virtual reality world.
Decentraland
Decentraland is a virtual world where users can build, buy and sell different 3D creations, socialize, and play games. The strategic idea behind the project is to create a virtual space that users can call their own. The platform offers them an opportunity to purchase pieces of virtual land and create any objects on them, including shops, cities, and the like.
The Sandbox
The Sandbox is a community-driven virtual world where players have the opportunity to build, own, and monetize their gaming experiences on the Ethereum blockchain. The platform aims to overcome the current limitations of a gaming market and accelerate the adoption of the blockchain globally.
In The Sandbox metaverse, a LAND is a digital piece of real estate that players can acquire to build experiences on top of it. LAND owners are able to populate it with various Games and Assets. Each LAND on The Sandbox metaverse is a unique non-fungible token on the Ethereum blockchain.
The Sandbox’s biggest LAND presale will start on the 12th of November, at 1 PM GMT. Check out the details here.
Virtual Land Value is On the Rise🚀
At the beginning of this year, the crypto community was shocked by the news of Decentraland’s sale of land worth $215,000 to an unknown user. Overall, it is reported that the Decentraland’s community has spent $1 million on digital land within the platform.
Such huge numbers are not surprising, as the trend for the virtual world is growing day-by-day and even the big crypto industry figures are investing in digital land.
Source: https://nonfungible.com/
For instance, earlier this September, one of the leading cryptocurrency exchanges, Binance, has announced its intention to buy LAND NFTs in The Sandbox. The exchange has purchased 4,012 LAND in The Sandbox metaverse, adding:
“It is clear that blockchain technology has great potential in the gaming industry. It provides significant improvements for gamers and developers, especially in regard to decentralization, transparency, and interoperability. Binance is taking a step further to demonstrate that blockchain technology can bring mainstream adoption into gaming through our collaboration with The Sandbox. Together we work on a brand-new field of entertainment that brings more freedom to players.”
Following a number of generous investments into their digital estates, a series of successful partnerships, and the overall growth of the community, The Sandbox ecosystem saw an increase in the value of their LANDS.
In the recent update, the project’s co-founder and chief operations officer, Sebastien Borget, mentioned that the metaverse saw the sale of two estates at 210 ETH ~ $76,931 USD (28x original price of $1,400 each). Below you can see the table that summarizes the LAND sale value on The Sandbox metaverse over the period of almost a year.
Final Words
Overall, considering the element of the scarcity of virtual lands available on the current platforms, the demand is continuously growing. While virtual reality offers the right tools and blockchain provides the layer for monetization of the virtual lands, the growing trend is set to continue. In addition, with the Coronavirus pandemic causing a shift toward more digital forms of communication, VR worlds might be the safest space to interact.
These days, as we witness the booming development of the digital economy, big players along with the general community have adopted a steady direction towards wider applications of virtual reality and property. It is expected that with more time and substantial research & development, the virtual reality world can help build a path for the transparent and sustainable digital world.
