The Metaverse was first introduced in the 90’s and has recently been made popular with the announcement of Facebook’s name change to Meta towards the end of 2021. Over the years, there has been a cumulative sum of collective efforts that has paved the way for a fully interactive, immersive, and social virtual experience in real time. In short, the Metaverse represents the future internet.
Let’s take a look at how the internet progressed, beginning with the early days of Web 1.0.
Web 1.0 Represented the dial-up internet that was very slow and limited to basic HTML. (example — AOL).
Web 2.0 Introduced the sharing of data and social interaction. Endless scrolling websites made in 2D (example — Google, Facebook/Meta).
Web 3.0 Where we are today, in the very early stages. People can now walk into websites and have a complete virtual experience. (example — Decentraland, Somnium Space)
We are in the very early stages of development. Some popular platforms include Decentraland, The Sandbox, Somnium Space, Axie Infinity, and Star Atlas.
The amazing thing about some of these platforms, is the ability for people to own part of the platform. You may be wondering how is that possible? Blockchain technology.
Blockchain technology allows digital code to be recorded and distributed but is immutable and unable to be edited or deleted. There are a lot of resources on blockchain technology that I will not go in detail about here. However, it is because of blockchain technology, we are able to create the future internet in the Metaverse.
One of the most intriguing parts of blockchain technology is NFTs or non-fungible tokens. NFTs are a one-of-a-kind digital assets designed to track ownership of virtual items. One of the items or assets that is rapidly gaining value is virtual land.
Programmable virtual land is a relatively new asset class, that allows people to own virtual real estate in the Metaverse. Think of this as buying land in Manhattan in the 1500’s. The tech is still developing, but if you can see where this is headed in the future, you will know this is an amazing opportunity.
Virtual real estate is like owning a website domain today, the difference is there is a finite amount of LAND for purchase in each platform. Because of this, land values have mooned and you can expect to pay anywhere from $15k on the low end to over $4 million and the value is not slowing down.
The development of virtual real estate will represent one of the largest transfers of wealth in history. People will be able to buy, sell, rent, and develop virtual real estate in different platforms of the Metaverse. Many early adopters have already benefited from getting in early.
Don’t worry if you are just getting started, you are not late. Do your own research and join some communities. Get involved. It is the only way to learn how you can maximize your experience in the Metaverse.
If you are interested to learn more about virtual real estate and the Metaverse, we welcome you to follow us on our Twitter and Discord.
