Why are Crypto-fans Buying "Virtual" Real Estate?
Forget real-estate. It's time for virtual-estate to boom. The crypto world keeps getting crazier! Read on.
Not so long ago, a digital artwork (like an online image) sold for $69 million.
Then, an online kitten sold for $170K.
What makes them soooo special?
These are Non Fungible Tokens (NFTs), made and sold on the blockchain, which makes them "unique" and "limited edition."
Anyone on the internet can create a copy of it, of course, but they won't have the same "identity." Hence.
Sounds like madness?
Wait for it.
The real owners can even put the digital artwork on display in a gallery or sell the crypto kitty to some digital being. All within the realms of a digital world!
As bizarre as it may sound, stuff like this is really (virtually) happening and people are pouring their crypto-fortunes in them!
Look carefully. It shows a big market of secondary sales, which means those who bought these crazy NFTs, are also finding a market to sell to even crazier people and are getting returns on their investments. And, every time the asset is resold the original creator is rewarded with a royalty of 10-20%.
A lucrative market indeed.
But, what do these buyers/investors foresee that they are going crazy about the virtual world?
Well, history repeats itself.
Rewind a few years, and you will see how purchasing domain names seemed so weird. But, those who jumped in earlier on the trend made truckloads of money. The ones betting on the virtual world are hoping that it will be the same this time as well.
The metaverse built on blockchain tech hopes to give immersive experiences to its visitors. People can buy lands, buildings, avatars and names here. They can hang out and attend shows. Yes, virtual real estate is a thing now.
Decentraland, Cryptovoxels and the Sandboxes are some of the virtual worlds where you can buy and sell land. In fact, Decentraland has made sales worth $54 mn to date!
It has also built the biggest city on Blockchain, modelled after China. It targets the desire of the Chinese people, as they cannot "own" a piece of land in real life because of the local laws. But, a virtual world opens up this possibility for them.
Maybe, this could be a reason behind Metaverse's meteoric rise?
Giving people what they cannot have in reality.
To be honest, all of this could be a big bubble. There's no tangible asset!
But, we may be wrong, of course...