BLUF

More and more people are interested in buying real estate in virtual worlds—land that only exists online.

Summary

Dong Xing, in this Dec 21, ABC-Australia article, makes the following points:

  • More and more people are buying virtual land in virtual worlds, many of which US companies own.
  • Many are paying for this land using virtual currencies such as bitcoin.
  • Virtual land exists within a Metaverse created by a real company.
  • Facebook is making a considerable investment in a Facebook Metaverse.
  • US companies are world leaders in developing virtual worlds where you can buy virtual land.
  • China is trying to stop its people from buying virtual land.
  • However, Chinese companies are developing their own virtual worlds.
  • Many people believe that they are right at the beginning of a market where digital land rapidly increases in value.
  • Some experts like Dave Karpf argue that digital real estate does not have any ‘fundamental value’.
  • He argues that it is a huge gamble where many people are likely to be defrauded of real money and end up with virtual land worth virtually nothing.
  • Metaverse virtual land is created using blockchain, where it takes a lot of computing power and time to develop new land inside a metaverse.

References

Runway posts about Blockchain and the Metaverse:

 

References from other sources:

 

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