Owning Digital Assets in Decentraland: Is Metaverse the future?

Digital assets market got bigger as everyone started buzzing about the new possibilities of the Metaverse. And now, it gained a definition of a New Digital Economy. No Metaverse enthusiast doubts: digital worlds will be the next big thing and will allow people to create their independent economies within. But it seems that owning an asset that people can put to work is still a challenge and takes more luck than a strategy to choose the right one.

All about the Decentraland

The most popular world that caught many people's attention is Decentraland, and it's full of activities to offer. Decentraland is a decentralized 3D virtual reality platform that consists of 90,601 parcels of land. Units of virtual land in the Decentraland are NFTs that can be bought with the $MANA cryptocurrency. Decentraland was opened to the public in Feb 2020 and is overseen by the nonprofit Decentraland Foundation. There are 90,601 total parcels of LAND, and 43,689 of them can be bought and sold.

It is one of the first Metaverses available for the public to join, gathering the attention not only from tech enthusiasts but also gradually gaining popularity in gaming and fashion communities.

What do people do in the Decentraland

With big brands like Samsung joining the Decentraland world, people are eager to check what's the buzz is all about and, of course, vice versa. Coming to the world is an easy and playful experience. The moment you're there with your customizable avatar, you can participate in various activities like playing in a casino, trying mini-golf, or showing your moves on the dance floor with your favorite DJ playing. And most importantly, socially interact with other avatars.

How to own a digital asset: strategy and luck

You can always upgrade yourself to a proud LAND owner when you're tired of just wandering around. And for that, you'll need to visit the marketplace. According to Decentraland data, last week, the biggest trade in Decentraland was worth $354,315.0 (149,500 $MANA at the time). The buyer purchased a bundle of 19 parcels, and it seems that he has plans to build a shopping mall there. So the economy is active, and surging prices and speculators are joining the game every day, making an average deal of $18,819 for one land.

Nevertheless, nobody is sure how to choose a LAND. And the biggest question remains - what criteria should it pass as a good choice? Some say it's all about your location and how far you are from the main attraction places like Plazas and Districts, and some say it's nothing because people usually teleport to the different sites. But everyone agrees - there's also a buyer's luck to grab the one that will be in high demand soon. But more and more data can be found floating around the Internet.

So the economy is active, and surging prices and speculators are joining the game every day, making an average deal of $18,819 for one land.

Key metrics to follow

Trying to rationalize the purchase of a digital asset - land, one should try to follow the metrics available. But unfortunately, there's no one truth out there, and landowners tend to disagree on what things should matter. I reached out to a couple of experts in the field and asked what they are predicting. It seems that traffic will be the key metric to rely on. "Attention is the most important metric that describes the value in today's digital world. Virtual worlds will be a new, spatial platform to experience shopping, entertainment, and work. Traffic will be used as the main metric to show how much attention a land or an area around it gets, and therefore how valuable it is. Lands and areas that offer best experiences will have the highest attention, therefore most traffic and will be most valuable.", says Laurynas Jokubaitis, co-founder at SqubeNFT

"Attention is the most important metric that describes value in today's digital world. Virtual worlds will be a new, spatial platform to experience shopping, entertainment and work. Traffic will be used as the main metric to show how much attention a land or an area around it gets, and therefore how valuable it is. Lands and areas that offer best experiences will have the highest attention, therefore most traffic and will be most valuable."

Instead of the conclusion

There's no arguing that the virtual land market is still on its rise and has no signs of stopping anytime soon. With the potential and opportunity for long-runners and short-term flippers, it grows bigger every day. And we're here, on the tipping point, experiencing our real lives, slowly adapting the concept of virtual and enriching our social and professional worlds to move into the next big thing by creating economies within economies.