Photo: freepik.comIn the last year alone, almost two billion dollars have been spent on virtual land in the metaverse where people live, work, exhibit, trade and sell, they can be anything they dream of in the real world. And this is just the beginning.
Artist Angie Taylor bought her first metaverse package in July 2020 and paid around £1,500 for it. "I bought it to exhibit my own work and to hold metaversal events that would promote my art and other people's art," she says.
Taylor has built two galleries full of digital artwork, which are sold in cryptocurrency, on her land in the world of Voxels. Angie's lots are the size of a small family home. Vokels is one of dozens of virtual worlds that describe themselves as metaverses.
People generally talk about a "metaverse", as if there is only one. But until one platform dominates, or until these different virtual worlds merge, companies sell their own versions of land and experiences.
Metaverse researchers Dap Radar say that in the past year alone, $1.93 billion worth of cryptocurrency has been spent on virtual land purchases, $22 million of which is on about 3,000 parcels of virtual land in Voxels. Dap Radar can track this because Vokels is built on the Ethereum cryptocurrency system where every transaction is recorded and published on the public blockchain.
One of the most popular virtual worlds is the cartoon Decentralend, launched in 2020, where plots are sold for thousands and sometimes millions of dollars. Samsung, UPS and Sotheby's are among those who have bought land there and built stores and visitor centers.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg hopes that by the end of the decade, a billion people will spend time in the metaverse, that by then technology will be so advanced that many people will find it more interesting to spend time in the virtual world than in the real world.
And in addition to spending a lot of time in the metaverse, they will also spend real money in it. Zuckerberg believes that users will spend hundreds of dollars on activities such as buying virtual clothes for their avatars, decorating their virtual houses or conference rooms.
Source: vreme.com
