An Introduction to Virtual Properties in the Metaverse

Those who use cryptocurrencies: players, programmers, designers, artists, and investors - have turned their eyes on virtual lands.

There are a variety of metaverses in which a virtual life can be started. The best known are Decentraland, Cryptovoxels, Axie Infinity, Enjin, Somnium Space, and The Sandbox. The development of each metaverse is unique and from one another.

The creation of the genesis cities of these metaverses with the creation of limited plots is part of the characteristics of these virtual environments. Therefore supply and demand play a preponderant role in these ecosystems.

The attraction of investors and Internet users to these virtual reality spaces is increasing. The non-fungible token, or NFT as they are known, has generated a market around these quite important metaverses, where the profits are usually substantial.

Now, the metaverses are more evolved. These virtual environments are not just virtual games. They bring with them non-fungible tokens or NFTs that allow a financial ecosystem.

Decentraland began with a limited sale of land within the metaverse, with certain measures, which later had to be increased so that programmers and players who interact on the platform could create more content. This is also an additional problem. If the plots are very large, developers and creators have a higher creation load, and sometimes that is not attractive.

The Sandbox, for its part, is a metaverse that is increasingly evolving with more force. Sébastien Borget, co-founder and COO of The Sandbox, said in an interview to Cointelegraph:

"At The Sandbox, LANDS are the epicenter of our user-generated content platform. A LAND is a digital parcel of real estate in The Sandbox metaverse that players can purchase to build experiences. Once you own a LAND, you can populate it with games and goods. Each LAND is a unique (non-fungible) token found on the public Ethereum blockchain (ERC-721). A total of 166,464 LANDS will always be available, contained in a map that will form the metaverse of The Sandbox ".

The evolution of this metaverse and others has been a true euphoria. In fact, the last land offer in The SandBox was called “Euphoria”; and that is related to the fact that each parcel, state, or farm has a strategic location within the game, therefore more player traffic, which obviously affects the trade of the NFTs that each developer can offer.

As in the real world, the cost of land in the metaverse can vary by location, extent, and in this case, the tokens you are willing to offer within each parcel. The cost of a plot depends on whether or not it is close to a platform development company or closer to the "city", which is generally the Genesis city of the metaverse.

This demand from investors has generated a certain shortage of supply because although it is true that they are virtual platforms or games, the reality is that the initial developers of these platforms created guidelines for the development of metaverses, and the current demand for land implies that the current holders, through the governance of each platform, decide to create more land.

The Other Lands

Axie Infinity is another metaverse inspired by the Pokémon game. It is a metaverse built in Ethereum, which is dedicated to the creation of cards with unique and unrepeatable models, allowing its valuation to depend on its rarity. 

Cryptovoxels is a metaverse that has to be creating new islands around its Genesis city, but not because the users who use the platform live as happens in Decentraland or The Sandbox or Axie. On the contrary, the development team of the platform has realized that the lands have been the subject of buying and selling businesses in many of the sectors that make up the platform. Although this does not directly affect the metaverse, in reality, the developers intend to promote the creation of content.

If you played Second Life, you know Somnium Space. It has a pc version that allows you to do everything, but its strength is virtual reality, and like the other metaverses, the acquisition of a plot of land to develop content is not cheap at all. This is due to the functionality given to the development of the lands in the metaverse that you choose to interact with.

Final thoughts

Each metaverse has a particular way of developing its environment, which is a common indicator in metaverses. For example, the lands are more expensive than avatars, and for simple reasons, the more space you have within the metaverse, the more possibilities of doing business you will have. You can develop from a house to a hotel, from a car paint shop to a collector's car factory.

The limit is the imagination of the developer.