Big Ideas for Building Metaverse Neighborhoods & Micronations

Metaverse has been one of the bright points in this long, gloomy crypto winter. According to a recent report from DappRadar, in the first half of 2023, VC firms have invested $707 million into metaverse projects, which is 44% of all Web3 investments in Q1 and Q2 of 2023.

A down market is frequently a time to build out infrastructure, and metaverse makes up the largest portion of infrastructure investments. Even as the price of virtual land in the metaverse and associated tokens have taken a beating on value, the infinite potential of completely virtual space has too much potential for investors to ignore.

However, in order for any of this growth and building out the virtual footprint of the metaverse to make sense, we will need users – and virtual societies to give them focus for positive participation. Recently, in a Twitter Spaces hosted by market-maker Gotbit, I interviewed a panel of experts on building communities in Metaverse including Ayana Palermo, CEO of Be Future Media, Jillian Godsil, founder & Editor-in-Chief of Blockleaders, and Danny Brown Wolf, Chief of Staff for Upland.

Building Metaverse Society 101

In our discussion, we tackled the thorny issue of how to take the infinite potential - and potentially liminal and empty landscape of the metaverse - and fill it with life by building societies with a useful purpose that stimulates positive participation.

Brown Wolf said: “It’s not about a land grab, it’s about growth – community by community.” She explained that Upland, which is based on real GIS maps, has been growing city by city, with new cities opening regularly. The latest city that Upland added to its virtual world was London, which at peak times experienced 83 NFT mints per second. “Everything in Upland is an NFT which can be sold, traded or swapped, but not all of the NFTs are created by the platform, increasingly more and more are created by the community. So this level of activity shows the popularity,” Brown Wolf said.

Brown Wolf has a background in international relations and cited The Network State: How to Start a New Country by Balaji Srinivasan. Network State addresses how the formation of communities tends to focus on common values and interests, which are happening organically in Upland as people gravitate toward specific ‘neighborhoods’ or nodes. Once these people congregate, they tend to work jointly on projects.

The concept of organic communities was addressed by Godsil, who is Recipient of the Order of Merit of Liberland and Editor-In-Chief of Liberland Press, talked about the contested micronation’s leap into the Liberverse. As the digital twin of the micronation formed 8 years ago on the banks of the Danube River by Czech politician and economist Vit Jedlicka, Liberverse has all the room and the global reach that the small nation lacks in real life. “This digital reflection of Liberland allows world citizens to interact over the metaverse despite vast geographic discrepancies.”

Liberland has attracted some attention by offering diplomatic status to world citizens willing to recognize the 2.7 square-mile island as a sovereign nation.

Palermo commented that Be Future Media builds infrastructure in metaverses such as Sandbox and Decentraland. She observed that brands “Seemed to be entering the metaverse last year for general PR awareness – but this year they came for the experience.”

Brown Wolf concurred and observed that the difference between Web2 and Web3 was in the interactions. “

People are strollers not scrollers in Web3. They don’t want advertising, they want interaction,” Brown Wolf said. “And they want co-creation.”

Upland is apparently already delivering in monetization. Brown Wolf gave the example of Cafes owned by players in the metaverse. If they host events they might decide to have token-gated events or have free entry with tipping included.

So what makes a successful Neighborhood in Metaverse?

According to Brown Wolf, the key is to provide a system of governance and let a focus on collective good lead them forward.

“They need a place to communicate and they need to build their own governance systems in terms of how decisions are made. Some neighborhoods have delegated decisions to a governing body, or even elected a Mayor. Others meet up to make collective decisions. We're still at the stage of experimentation, where there isn't one right answer.”

However, like any sort of society, the incentives for gain need to be there.

“Part of what makes neighborhoods successful is that they were able to add value to their property just like in real life and eventually monetize it. If you have a shady neighborhood you start building it with everything decorated and beautiful, with community events, buyers will want to be a part of that and you will pay a premium on that property. The hard work that was put into building this neighborhood translates into monetary value. And that creates incentive,” Brown Wolf said.