Bitcoin, NFT and Metaverse: Reflection on the Year of Digital Real Estate and Design

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Bitcoin, NFT and Metaverse: Reflection on the Year of Digital Real Estate and Design

Fashion street in Decentraland. Image courtesy of DecentralandShareShare

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https://www.archdaily.com/973814/bitcoin-nfts-and-the-metaverse-reflecting-on-the-year-of-digital-real-estate-and-design

Imagine if a few years ago you woke up to learn that someone had paid over a million dollars for three digital courts next to famous rapper Snoop Dogg’s digital mansion. You will probably ask yourself, “What is digital real estate and why would someone pay for it?” Over the past year or so, there has been a rush to buy property, artwork, and land, but it all exists in a virtual world called the Metaverse. While this world existed long before the pandemic, lockdowns have propelled the online world to a new level, catching the attention of private buyers and brokerage houses who have started funneling tier money into this augmented reality. . But how did this world emerge, what does the future hold in store for us and can we join the virtual world?

Place de la Genèse in Decentraland. Image courtesy of Decentraland

These new platforms that host digital realities feel modern and don’t match the online worlds we lived in not so long ago, thanks to early internet games like Minecraft and The Sims. With the exception of this time around, there’s a lot more money at stake – these universes are built on blockchains and bought with their own cryptocurrencies. Not only do you have the ability to create an alter ego online, make friends, share unique works of art, but you can also buy and sell virtual items. While this new world seems a bit unruly and filled with so much speculation, that hasn’t stopped people from spending large amounts of money.

MARS HOUSE NFT digital. Image courtesy of Krista Kim

Part of this frenzy started with the rise of non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, which were sold. It became widely known to the public when a coin sold for almost $ 70 million. As the digital real estate world began to take notice and The Mars House, a functional house designed by Krista Kim, sold for almost half a million dollars in March, investors began to build. and sell their own imaginary properties. For comparison, the average price of a home in the United States at the time of the Mars House sale was over $ 100,000 lower. Just a few months ago, Facebook announced that it would claim the Metaverse and even change its name to Meta to show its commitment to living in a new alternate reality.

Related Article Would You Pay For Virtual Architecture? What the NFT craze means for the future of the design profession

Now, even more, players have emerged in this field, such as Decentraland and the Sandbox. These universes do more than serve as sites for the next development. They also become worlds where people can attend virtual events like concerts and fashion shows, places to buy clothes for avatars and even buy items that can be sent to your home. Some people offer virtual sellers where people can sell their own products, much like an AR Etsy store. Major brands have already entered the business, Adidas having announced a major investment in recent weeks. Instead of creating whole new dummy worlds, some replicate famous cities and landmarks, like New York and Las Vegas, allowing users to purchase a digital part of a real world building.

Metaverse Group purchased the “116-plot estate in the heart of Fashion Street District” from Decentraland for 618,000 mana. Image courtesy of Decentraland

But if you are not a millionaire then the Metaverse is also for you as most of these deals are under six digits. Most of the financing happens when buying the land itself and then paying a builder to design and furnish their spaces with all of the amenities, finishes, and sparkle that they don’t get in their real homes. And if you can’t pay it all at once, virtual banks offer virtual mortgages to help you out.

So what’s next for the virtual world of NFTs and real estate? Many claim that this is just the beginning and the beginning of how we are using the next iteration of the World Wide Web. Even new companies are emerging to support these alternate realities, offering to manage digital assets, digital construction and digital wealth. When Justin Bieber gave a concert earlier this month, millions of fans didn’t have to miss out on physical venue tickets as they could simply log in to watch his virtual avatar perform his songs in the Metaverse. On the contrary, this new world shows how our real and digital lives will become more transparent and fully integrated than ever.

This article is part of the ArchDaily topic: Year in Review. Each month, we explore a topic in depth through articles, interviews, news and projects. Learn more about our monthly topics. As always, at ArchDaily, we welcome contributions from our readers; if you would like to submit an article or a project to us, please contact us.

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