This is the sixth article of a six-part series exploring the concept of the Metaverse.

The advent of immersive virtual space called the metaverse has been widely anticipated by many people worldwide. Today, the metaverse is no longer the stuff of science fiction and it is now a reality.

Defined in broad terms, the metaverse is a network of 3D virtual worlds where VR and AR technologies are utilized to build social connections. The digital economy drives the metaverse, which facilitates transactions and data exchange between users in the virtual worlds.

Below, we take a look at the major metaverse platforms brimming with potential.

Decentraland

Decentraland is a virtual world that allows people to buy and “own” virtual plots in the metaverse. The land is hosted on Ethereum’s blockchain and consists of 3D polygons that represent various features, such as houses, stores, restaurants, and roads. Users can purchase land parcels and “build” on them as they see fit. Once someone buys land they’ve created on it, they can sell that land to someone else or they can rent it to others to use their land for various purposes, such as hosting events, running businesses, or just decorating it to make it to make it beautiful to look at or hang out on. Real estate in the Metaverse is bought and sold in the same way as it is in the real-world and its value is tied to real (albeit virtual) real estate values. Decentraland has 90,601 plots of land in the form of the LAND NFT. MANA is the native token for all transactions on the Decentraland platform. 

Horizon Worlds

Horizon Worlds is one of the most well-known virtual worlds today. It was launched in 2021 by Meta. Since then, it has grown into a social metaverse that has over 300,000 monthly users.  Users can easily implement scripts to generate their own unique environments. And many of the people who do so have created fun, collaborative gaming experiences. Users have also created fun environments to socialise with friends. Mark’s Riverboat, Wand & Broom, and Pixel Plummet are some of the most popular examples.

Currently, Horizon worlds offers the following options when they start up the program: play, attend or hang out. Play lets people play games such as sports or video games. Attend is for attending events such as virtual concerts. And hanging out is for socializing with other users in a chat room or forum.

Roblox

Roblox is one of the most popular video games in today’s market. It is a virtual game that lets players create anything they want from scratch and then share it with others online. Roblox is designed for children within the age range of 7 to 15 years old, but adults of all ages have joined in on the fun as well. Roblox reports that an estimated 20 million games have been made within its metaverse. Most games are freely available for anyone to enjoy, but users can also monetize their games. The virtual world has an entire digital economy and currency called Robux, which is often used in-game to purchase avatar’s clothing.

The Sandbox

Sandbox was launched as a standard video game in 2012, but Animoca Branda acquired Sandbox in 2018 and transformed it into a 3D virtual reality world. Users were now able to freely roam the world as am3D sightseeing experience. SAND is the currency used on The Sandbox to buy and sell land plots. The land plots are arranged into an even grid and users can combine properties to make a complete whole. The total amount of land has a firm limit and is typically sold on Binance using the SAND currency. The total amount of land has a firm limit and is typically sold on Binance using the SAND currency.

Second Life

Perhaps not surprisingly, Second Life is widely considered to be the first virtual world and the most important metaverse virtual world in existence. Second Life has been in development since 2003, when it was created by Linden Lab. In 2022, Second Lif has over 70 million registered users. Some of the platform’s most prominent features include a flexible user economy based on Linden dollars, digital goods sales, and user-created content built by companies and private users alike. However, the most notable feature in Second Life is the world itself — a virtual world that users can inhabit and interact with using avatars. The virtual world can be accessed freely via Linden Lab’s own software.

Should you invest in land and real estate in the metaverse?

Virtual real estate is a scarce resource in the metaverse. Owning land gives you control over how you interact with people and builds communities in the metaverse. However, buying virtual land is risky because its value can fluctuate rapidly in value and your land can be stolen if your account gets hacked or compromised.

Ultimately it’s up to you to decide whether buying land in the metaverse makes sense for you or not, but if you are interested in doing so, here are a few things you should know:

• Land prices in the metaverse can vary dramatically depending on location, size, and condition.
• You buy land NFT in the metaverse the same way you buy land in any other virtual world.
• Once you’ve purchased a plot of land, you can build a house, a gazebo, a statue, and anything in between.
• Buying land on the metaverse is usually done with cryptocurrencies so getting hold of these is usually the first step.
• Sales and ownership of metaverse land is recorded via transfer of NFTs, so you will need a digital wallet capable of storing these. The most popular options are Metamask and Binance.
• You can also purchase land NFTs in third-party resellers’ marketplaces like opensea.io and nonfungible.com