Metaverse: You can not go to this country or build a house, but plots are still sold for thousands of pounds | Science and technology news

Johnny McCamley has spent almost £ 5,000 on plots.
But he can not physically walk on this land – and he can not live there or build a house on it.
This is because the 23-year-old’s investment is in the metaverse, which means that his country is completely virtual and exists exclusively in a digital world.
Mr McCamley, from Belfast, is one of many people who have decided to buy virtual property in the metaverse.
Last year, virtual land transactions reached $ 350 million (£ 267 million) in The Sandbox, the largest digital real estate platform, according to a report from the Center for Finance, Technology and Entrepreneurship.
Additional transactions worth 1[ads1]10 million dollars (84.2 million pounds) were made in Decentraland, the second largest metaverse platform.
What is the metaverse?
Metaverset is not a single digital space. It is a network of virtual reality worlds, set up by companies and platforms, where users can interact, play games, attend events and buy land.
A better known metaverse is Horizon Worlds. It is made by Facebook, which has now changed its name to Meta as the technology giant shifts its focus to virtual spaces.
Other brands have also announced their own digital realms.
Manchester City are planning to build the first metaverse football stadium in collaboration with Sony.
Mr McCamley, CEO of CryptoClear, bought his plot in The Sandbox in October last year. He said: “There are casinos in the metaverse, there are also museums, but there are also events like podcasts and also conferences that I have actually attended. So the best way to look at it is, it takes the real world and really digitize it goes far beyond those like Zoom. “
Why do people buy virtual property?
For Mr McCamley, the chance to make a claim in this imaginary world was an opportunity not to be missed, despite market uncertainty and price volatility that make it a risky investment.
“It’s like any new investment, any new asset class. When I entered Bitcoin when it was $ 300, I was told it was extremely risky, the same with Ether at $ 4. I think getting a piece of land in “Decentraland for $ 4,000 is an absolute bargain,” he said.
He intends to keep the purchase for 10 years: “I think the meta-verse will mature in about a decade, and I will think about selling the land when that time comes.”
Landowners can also use their virtual rooms to design experiences that others can enjoy.
“The jointly owned plots of land, they are my favorite. A really, really good example is, I think it’s a ‘gecko beach’ that someone has done, which, as you can guess, is a beach full of geckos.” Said Mr McCamley .
House hunting in the virtual world
Looking for the perfect home in the metaverse is similar to real life.
Land next to roads, and near attractive districts such as “fashion” or “museum” areas, will carry a higher price tag and be more attractive investment opportunities.
In The Sandbox, busier central areas near other landmarks are much more expensive than newer neighborhoods on the outskirts.
Who your neighbors are will also affect the value of your property.
In September 2021, rapper Snoop Dogg announced his own digital “Snoopverse” in The Sandbox.
Two months later, a property next to his plot of land was sold for over $ 450,000 (£ 350,000).
But unlike traditional real estate purchases, there is no third party or legal presence that can ensure that agreements are legitimate.
This can be risky when buying from a secondary market such as OpenSea, where purchases are made using cryptocurrency.
Why do people build virtual property?
In addition to landowners, there is a new generation of “meta-architects” designing virtual spaces.
Stavros Zachariades is a traditional architect working in south London, but began designing for the digital world over the pandemic after his brother Adonis founded Renovi, an NFT marketplace.
The 37-year-old recently designed pop-up stores for metaverse fashion week.
“Drawing to the metaverse and building in the metaverse is [people and businesses] can show what they are about, “said Zachariades.
“They can show their products. We can offer meeting places for different people, especially now with COVID and the last two years with people who are more remote.
“You can have, from the realms of super sci-fi, floating buildings that rotate and transform – and to the other side of the realm, historic, classical architectural styles.”
He thinks the metaverse can open doors for those who lack connection in real life: “I thought about how accessibility can change, for example, someone who does not have the same mobility can just be equal in the metaverse. Why not?”
“It’s just impossible to know what the playoffs are”
But many warn that these investments may flop.
YouTuber “Mitch Investing”, from Birmingham, regularly dives into topics such as personal finance and new technologies on his channel.
He thinks the promises that the metaverse will be a part of our everyday lives may be exaggerated.
“It’s so early in development that it would be like investing in a company that had only been in business for a year. You’re not sure if it will take off or not, not too sure where the business is going, not for “sure how the business model can develop … it is very speculative in my view,” said the 26-year-old.
There is a concern that not all virtual worlds will succeed in attracting a large enough number of users.
“There could be thousands of metavers like there are websites today. It’s just impossible to know what the playoffs are,” he warned.
Risk and volatility
The Financial Conduct Authority labeled cryptocurrencies as “very high-risk speculative investments” and warned that people who trade in them should be prepared to lose all their money.
There are also broader concerns about security for users when it comes to online damage.
The newly introduced Online Safety Bill will take into account activity in the meta-version, with companies required to take action if users commit fraud, including those in virtual reality rooms.