What is Virtual Land in Metaverse – Explain Like I’m Five

Virtual real estate is a booming industry. It’s one of the few industries that has continued to grow amid a recession. And with good reason: people are realizing that owning virtual property is a great investment.

It’s easy to get into as well. All you need is money and a lot of it. Several thousands of dollars at a minimum. But hey, you can sell your virtual property whenever you want, for whatever price you want. No restrictions on selling your virtual land or properties like there are with traditional real estate.

Virtual real estate is a fast-paced environment, if you want to keep up, you’ll have to crank up your gears. Start acquiring valuable properties that will have potential huge returns in the future.

So, what are virtual lands? What is their purpose? And why do investors pay millions of dollars just to own one? Let us dive deep into this matter and understand the underlying reason to see what the hype is all about!

What are Virtual Lands?

Virtual lands are digital spaces or land plots that you can buy, sell, build upon, and explore in a virtual world. Many platforms and blockchain games like Axie Infinity, Decentraland, and The SandBox sold their limited virtual lands to huge companies and other investors.

Investors are getting crazy over it because they believe that companies and other giant organizations will operate virtually in the future. And they hope to flip the virtual lands that they own for a considerable sum of money.

Companies would hire architects to design a building of some sort and then hire a 3D game developer to build it for them. It can be anything they desire, a virtual mall, amusement park, or even a stadium.

The possibilities would be endless, and unlike real-life structures, they can create any designs they could think of without the hindrance of the laws of physics.

Virtual lands could also integrate our existing VR (Virtual Reality) and AR (Augmented Reality) technology to allow a more immersive and realistic experience for their users. This could bring a new type of entertainment that we once thought only possible in movies.

Top 5 Virtual Land Economies

Dozens of platforms and games offering their very own virtual lands for sale have appeared one after another. And there’s no doubt that most of these platforms are simply riding the hype behind virtual land NFTs.

But there are also a few promising projects that focus on bringing results and value to their community, and some famous individuals and companies even invested in them. Below are the top five virtual land economies that are worth checking out!

1. Decentraland

Decentraland is a platform that supports Land NFTs referred to as Land tokens. Players can own lands that they can use to create a gaming experience, hold special events, and even rent their virtual lands. Similarly, landowners can monetize their land however they want. 

Like Axie Infinity, there’s a total of 90,601 parcels that investors can own. Also, Decentraland has a built-in engine where players can create different buildings and furniture designs even without prior knowledge about coding and programming. Decentraland’s most expensive land plot ever sold was a whopping $2.4 million.

2. The Sandbox

The Sandbox is also divided into several land plots of which players and investors can own and monetize. The Sandbox is made up of 166,464 lands in total, and landowners can purchase multiple land plots to form a state and districts.

Several corporations and companies like Safari, OpenSea, and the most recent one, Gucci, have invested in several land plots to establish themselves in this metaverse.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the Sandbox game made a record-breaking sale when Republic Realm purchased a land plot for a jaw-dropping $4.3 million, making it the most expensive metaverse land plot ever to sell!

3. Axie Infinity

Even though Axie Infinity’s land economy would pale in comparison with others on this list, It certainly deserves to be in the top 5 as it popularized the concept of play-to-earn mechanics and all that jazz about the blockchain metaverse. Axie Infinity’s land plots are called Terra, and there is a total limited supply of 90,601 parcels available. 

I’ll spare you the boring details, but these lands are upgradable and are classified into seven rarity levels. This scarcity is what makes it valuable, and it was even reported that a single Genesis land plot, considered an extremely rare type of land with only 220 of them in existence, was sold for an insane amount of $2.3 million. 

4. Aavegotchi

Aavegotchi is an NFT game built on Ethereum blockchain where players can purchase and grow ghost-like avatars called Aavegotchis. Players can use them to explore and interact with their metaverse, referred to as Gotchiverse, which is divided into a total limited supply of 16,000 land parcels called Realms.

Similar to CryptoKitties, Aavegotchis are rare NFTs that have unique qualities like body color and personality. Aavegotchis works like a piggybank, representing your staked assets inside this metaverse. And just like a piggy bank, you can also liquidate your investment.

In laymen’s terms, you can claim or withdraw your crypto asset as a GHST token in exchange for your Gotchi.

5. Bit.Country

Bit.Country is a metaverse platform that enables people to build their community and gameplay experience. And I’m not just talking about visual designs and buildings, Bit.Country also allows its users to create and incorporate their in-game currency to incentivize its players.

Aside from their 3D gaming platform, Bit.Country also has its 2D social media, much like Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Players can also collect unique NFTs that they can trade on Bit. Country’s in-game marketplace.

Bit.Country has a limited number of 100,000 land blocks that can be divided into 100 land units. It might be new to the picture, but with the help of its community and other game developers that operate within their platform, we could witness a diverse and rich metaverse economy like no other.

If you want to know more about the virtual land projects, feel free to click the links to visit their official websites!

Companies joining the Metaverse

One of the world’s largest producers of electronic gadgets, Samsung made its debut in the metaverse by opening its shop in Decentraland. Samsung announced that they’ve built a replica of their flagship store located in New York and that people can visit them through the Decentraland’s platform.

Furthermore, Nike and Adidas, two giant sneaker brands, also made a big splash on the metaverse. Both brands have made deals and created their own collectible NFTs. And just recently, The Sandbox disclosed that Adidas purchased virtual land on their platform. 

Nike has their virtual land as well. They’ve partnered up with Roblox and opened their land called NIKELAND. And they are now available for Roblox players to visit, play games, and view their products.

The Metaverse

Have you heard of the metaverse? Pretty sure you had since that word has been buzzing around on every social media. But what is it exactly? And how does it relate to virtual lands? Well, simply put, the metaverse is a concept where virtual lands, space, and alternate virtual universes coexist with each other.

The metaverse is about incorporating digital experience with our real-life experience. The vision behind metaverse will revolutionize how our society functions, including businesses, education systems, medical, and even the military.

On the bright side, this will unlock unlimited opportunities for everyone around the world. The old problem of working in third-world countries with minimal wages could potentially be resolved as virtual lands, and virtual jobs will open up for everyone.

I believe that this revolutionary concept will bring balance to our current world’s imbalanced disposition of financial power. It may be too early to say for sure, but the future does seem to look brighter, and I see our generation welcoming and embracing the shifts that are about to come.

What opportunity awaits us all?

Take a moment and think of the big companies that have already invested in the metaverse and virtual lands. What do you think will come next?

By transitioning their business on the internet, it opens up countless possibilities to create digital assets and experiences that they can monetize. Hence, opportunities will increase directly proportional to their success. 

To end

Virtual land’s popularity is spreading like wildfire, and land sales currently dominate the total of NFT sales. Investors are getting crazy over it, and we’ve only managed to scratch the surface of this newfound platform. I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to see where it will lead our future!