A metaverse mogul is ready to make his move after buying $2 million in virtual land
The metaverse mogul behind a record investment in virtual land is about to start development.
Tokens.com paid more than $2 million for space in Decentraland, one of several burgeoning platforms in the metaverse, in November of last year.
In an interview, Tokens.com co-founder and CEO Andrew Kiguel said, “several big names are about to be part of an online fashion show” on the virtual plot. Kiguel said fashion labels Tommy Hilfiger, Cavalli, Elie Saab, Dolce & Gabbana, Etro and fragrance company Paco Rabanne have all signed up to participate starting March 24. The show will run over three days. There will also be several big name DJs and an after party sponsored by Mercedes-Benz.
Kiguel describes Decentraland, one of the platforms his company is focused on, as a different kind of NFT, or nonfungible token. Anyone can buy virtual land on the platform. In the case of Decentraland, you have to use a form of digital currency called MANNA, which can be purchased only with Bitcoin or Ethereum.
Users can then go to the site to see what's for sale.The parcels have been purchased already, but many are available secondhand. The price fluctuates just like real estate in the physical world.
As for Kiguel's November purchase of land in Decentraland, his team follows transactions there closely. They knew who owned what, and they knew where they wanted to buy. The transaction was registered on a blockchain, which acts as a digital deed in the metaverse.
There isn't infinite space on metaverse platforms. Worlds have beginnings and endings. Kiguel likens it to a Monopoly board.
“Decentraland has 45,000 properties you can buy, 45,000 little pixels,” he said. “There's actually 90,000 pixels up on the board, but some of them are not for sale like lakes, rivers, trees, the fountains in the downtown core, these are the areas that are kept by the foundation for beautification purposes.”
Decentraland's creators wrote code that doesn't allow expansion in their metaverse, so land is in a limited supply, just as in the real world.
What makes land more valuable? In most cases proximity to something else with heavy traffic. In the metaverse, you click to get somewhere. You don't need to walk, drive, fly or take the subway. Kiguel explains it this way: “The museum district has a whole bunch of NFTs and things on display, so when you're walking through, it's a little bit like being in a city, you see a building here you see something else there.”
Amusement parks and other attractions also exist, designed to draw people and their digital representatives, called avatars, into the action. There's a belief those avatars will use money or cryptocurrencies to shop for goods online. Some of those goods may have value in the real, physical world. Others may simply be for avatars who want to have the latest metaverse fashion like virtual hats, shoes and shirts.
While Decentraland's platform is purely fictionalized, another leading idea in the metaverse combines the real world with the virtual. Hrish Lotlikar, co-founder and CEO of SuperWorld, designed a system that takes space in the physical world and allows users to buy the virtual equivalent on city blocks.
Lotlikar describes his metaverse as “being built on top of the real world.” Blocks sell at an original price of $390, but the value increases or decreases in the second market. SuperWorld is aiming to have real-world utility allowing users to leave NFTs, holograms or messages on the platform that people could find if they visit the real-world equivalent in those city blocks. Among other things, those messages then show up on a user's phone when they enter a place, like a restaurant, designed to house the message.
“When you're buying land, what you're buying is a nonfungible token,” said Lotlikar in an interview earlier this month. “You're buying a digital asset that allows you to earn a share of all of the economics that happened on that plot of land.”
SuperWorld makes money by taking a 10% cut of all business done on anyone's property and by taking another 10% when land changes hands in a sale.
Despite all the recent hype and sudden growth, the metaverse concept isn't new. For example, the site Second Life has been entertaining and providing online commerce for almost 20 years.
Brad Oberwager, the executive chair of Linden Labs, which owns Second Life told CNBC in a recent interview, “the metaverse isn't a game, you don't play in Second Life, you reside in it.” Oberwager criticized the price volatility in new metaverse sites, saying “if the value of the house that I rent went up and down 50% in a day, I couldn't live like that.”
In Second Life customers rent land and build on it. Oberwager says Second Life is now a $650 million real economy.
虚拟土地创纪录投资背后的元界大亨即将开始开发。 去年 11 月，Tokens.com 为 Decentraland 支付了超过 200 万美元的空间，这是 Metaverse 中几个新兴平台之一。
在接受采访时，Tokens.com 联合创始人兼首席执行官 Andrew Kiguel 表示，“几位大牌将在虚拟情节上成为在线时装秀的一部分”。 Kiguel 表示，时尚品牌 Tommy Hilfiger、Cavalli、Elie Saab、Dolce & Gabbana、Etro 和香水公司 Paco Rabanne 都已报名参加，从 3 月 24 日开始。展会将持续三天。还将有几位大牌 DJ 和梅赛德斯-奔驰赞助的后派对。
Kiguel 将 Decentraland 描述为一种不同类型的 NFT 或不可替代的代币，这是他的公司关注的平台之一。任何人都可以在平台上购买虚拟土地。对于 Decentraland，你必须使用一种称为 MANNA 的数字货币，只能用比特币或以太坊购买。
然后，用户可以去该网站查看出售的物品。包裹已经购买，但很多都是二手的。价格就像物理世界中的房地产一样波动。
至于 Kiguel 11 月在 Decentraland 购买土地，他的团队密切关注那里的交易。他们知道谁拥有什么，他们知道他们想在哪里购买。该交易已在区块链上注册，该区块链充当元界中的数字契约。
Metaverse 平台上没有无限的空间。世界有开始也有结束。 Kiguel 将其比作垄断董事会。
“Decentraland 有 45,000 处房产可供购买，45,000 个小像素，”他说。 “黑板上其实有9万像素，但有些不是卖的，比如湖泊、河流、树木、市中心的喷泉，这些都是基金会为了美化目的而保留的区域。”
Decentraland 的创建者编写的代码不允许在他们的虚拟世界中扩展，因此土地供应有限，就像在现实世界中一样。
是什么让土地更有价值？在大多数情况下，靠近其他交通繁忙的地方。在元节中，您单击以到达某个地方。您无需步行、驾车、飞行或乘坐地铁。 Kiguel 是这样解释的：“博物馆区有一大堆 NFT 和展出的东西，所以当你走过时，有点像在一个城市里，你在这里看到一座建筑，在那里看到其他东西。 ”
游乐园和其他景点也存在，旨在吸引人们及其数字代表（称为化身）参与行动。人们相信这些化身将使用金钱或加密货币在线购买商品。其中一些商品可能在现实的物理世界中具有价值。其他人可能只是为想要拥有虚拟帽子、鞋子和衬衫等最新虚拟世界时尚的化身而设计。
虽然 Decentraland 的平台纯属虚构，但元宇宙中的另一个领先理念将现实世界与虚拟世界相结合。 SuperWorld 的联合创始人兼首席执行官 Hrish Lotlikar 设计了一个系统，该系统在物理世界中占据空间，并允许用户在城市街区购买虚拟等价物。
Lotlikar 将他的元宇宙描述为“建立在现实世界之上”。块以 390 美元的原价出售，但在第二个市场价值增加或减少。 SuperWorld 的目标是拥有现实世界的实用程序，允许用户在平台上留下 NFT、全息图或消息，如果他们访问这些城市街区的现实世界等价物，人们可以找到这些信息。除此之外，当用户进入一个专门用来存放信息的地方（比如餐厅）时，这些信息就会出现在用户的手机上。
“当你购买土地时，你购买的是不可替代的代币，”Lotlikar 在本月早些时候的一次采访中说。 “你购买的是一种数字资产，可以让你从这块土地上发生的所有经济中分得一杯羹。”
SuperWorld 通过从任何人的财产上完成的所有业务中抽取 10% 并在土地转手时再抽取 10% 来赚钱。
尽管最近有很多炒作和突然增长，但元节概念并不新鲜。例如，网站 Second Life 近 20 年来一直在提供娱乐和提供在线商务服务。
拥有 Second Life 的 Linden Labs 的执行主席 Brad Oberwager 在最近的一次采访中告诉 CNBC，“元宇宙不是游戏，你不能在 Second Life 中玩，你就住在里面。” Oberwager 批评了新元界网站的价格波动，称“如果我租的房子的价值一天涨跌 50%，我就不能那样生活。”
在第二人生中，客户租用土地并在其上建造。 Oberwager 说，第二人生现在是一个价值 6.5 亿美元的实体经济。
