Investors Are Buying Land in Virtual Worlds
2021-04-26
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1Last month, a Singapore investor bought a digital artwork for $69 million.
2Since the art does not have a physical form, it cannot appear in a usual museum.
3The artwork is "Everydays: The First 5000 Days," by the American artist Beeple.
4It is a non-fungible token, or NFT.
5It only exists in digital form.
6It is based on a technology called blockchain, which is also used with digital money systems known as cryptocurrency.
7The investor is Metakovan, whose real name is Vignesh Sundaresan.
8He plans to show the artwork in four virtual world environments.
9He is working with professionals to design structures where people can enter using computers or virtual reality technology.
10As a whole, the name given to virtual worlds and the internet is "the metaverse."
11But art is just one part of a new economy of virtual worlds based on blockchain in the metaverse.
12In these worlds, there are NFTs representing land, buildings, images and even names.
13They often sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
14There, people can walk around with friends, visit virtual buildings and attend virtual events.
15Metakovan says he is the world's biggest NFT investor.
16NonFungible.com, a web site that records sales of NFTs, says his collection is valued at 189 million dollars.
17Anand Venkateswaran is Metakovan's business partner and uses the name Twobadour.
18He thinks sales of NFTs will increase even more after people see for themselves how they work.
19"The real explosion will happen when they're able to ... experience these NFTs as they were intended," he said.
20Existing virtual worlds, including Decentraland, Cryptovoxels, Somnium Space and The Sandbox, have seen new highs on prices of land, images and others.
21Decentraland sold a 41,216 virtual-square-meter piece for $572,000 on April 11.
22And Somnium Space said a structure on its virtual world received more than $500,000 on March 16.
23Decentraland conducted a virtual fashion show with clothing maker Adidas where designs were sold as NFTs.
24It also had interest from musicians to perform and sell tickets as NFTs.
25One example of an attraction in the virtual worlds is Atari's game-playing area within Decentraland.
26The videogame company also plans to open a casino.
27Frederic Chesnais is head of Atari's blockchain division and the company's former leader.
28He told Reuters that online environments are going to be "very, very big" and land prices could one day sell for millions of dollars.
29Sebastien Borget is co-founder of The Sandbox.
30He said the economic activity within virtual worlds is like a new nation forming.
31He thinks the NFT-based economy would be larger than the real-world one within ten years.
32Ben Nolan is founder of the virtual world Cryptovoxels.
33He warned, "Doing NFTs as an investment or as a way to make money is really ill-advised."
34However, he sees a future for virtual worlds and NFTs.
35"Actually walking around with another person in a virtual space and looking at art together is a really nice way to spend time," he said.
36I'm Jill Robbins.
1Last month, a Singapore investor bought a digital artwork for $69 million. Since the art does not have a physical form, it cannot appear in a usual museum. 2The artwork is "Everydays: The First 5000 Days," by the American artist Beeple. It is a non-fungible token, or NFT. It only exists in digital form. It is based on a technology called blockchain, which is also used with digital money systems known as cryptocurrency. 3The investor is Metakovan, whose real name is Vignesh Sundaresan. He plans to show the artwork in four virtual world environments. He is working with professionals to design structures where people can enter using computers or virtual reality technology. As a whole, the name given to virtual worlds and the internet is "the metaverse." 4But art is just one part of a new economy of virtual worlds based on blockchain in the metaverse. In these worlds, there are NFTs representing land, buildings, images and even names. They often sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars. There, people can walk around with friends, visit virtual buildings and attend virtual events. 5Metakovan says he is the world's biggest NFT investor. NonFungible.com, a web site that records sales of NFTs, says his collection is valued at 189 million dollars. 6Anand Venkateswaran is Metakovan's business partner and uses the name Twobadour. He thinks sales of NFTs will increase even more after people see for themselves how they work. "The real explosion will happen when they're able to ... experience these NFTs as they were intended," he said. 7Interests in virtual worlds 8Existing virtual worlds, including Decentraland, Cryptovoxels, Somnium Space and The Sandbox, have seen new highs on prices of land, images and others. 9Decentraland sold a 41,216 virtual-square-meter piece for $572,000 on April 11. And Somnium Space said a structure on its virtual world received more than $500,000 on March 16. 10Decentraland conducted a virtual fashion show with clothing maker Adidas where designs were sold as NFTs. It also had interest from musicians to perform and sell tickets as NFTs. 11One example of an attraction in the virtual worlds is Atari's game-playing area within Decentraland. The videogame company also plans to open a casino. Frederic Chesnais is head of Atari's blockchain division and the company's former leader. He told Reuters that online environments are going to be "very, very big" and land prices could one day sell for millions of dollars. 12Sebastien Borget is co-founder of The Sandbox. He said the economic activity within virtual worlds is like a new nation forming. He thinks the NFT-based economy would be larger than the real-world one within ten years. 13Ben Nolan is founder of the virtual world Cryptovoxels. He warned, "Doing NFTs as an investment or as a way to make money is really ill-advised." 14However, he sees a future for virtual worlds and NFTs. "Actually walking around with another person in a virtual space and looking at art together is a really nice way to spend time," he said. 15I'm Jill Robbins. 16Elizabeth Howcroft wrote this story for Reuters. Jill Robbins adapted it for Learning English. Hai Do was the editor. 17______________________________________________________________ 18Words in This Story 19digital - adj. using or characterized by computer technology 20cryptocurrency - n. a digital currency in which transactions are verified and records maintained by a decentralized system using cryptography, rather than by a centralized authority 21virtual - adj. existing or occurring on computers or on the Internet 22intend - v. meant to be; planned 23ill-advised - adj. not wise or sensible; foolish 24What do you think of the NFT art? We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section.