Virtual real estate has recently become a thing, according to CBC Canada. As much as people are turning to cryptocurrency and blockchain to maximize the potential of real estate, they are also recognizing the power of virtual real estate in making trading easier.
The virtual city concept has been popularized by Decentraland, a VR platform backed by Ethereum blockchain. It already has a city--Genesis City--which is about the size of the US capitol, Washington. The plots appear on grids as a viewer sees it on his PC screen and each parcel of land can be bought using virtual currency, which is called MANA. In real-world currency, .03 MANA is equivalent to $1.
Virtual reality is a relatively new concept, but blockchain is not unheard of in the real estate world. Camila Russo, a financial journalist, explained the unique draw of Decentraland and virtual real estate. According to the journalist, it is Ethereum's power and the investors' 'lofty' goals that drive Decentraland to try and achieve its high ideals.
To that end, Decentraland has started a competition where it will award $55,000 to the best online plot designer. According to Crypto Briefing, those joining the competition have about two weeks to present their creation in the 'Creator Contest.' The winners will also be given cryptocurrency as a prize for having the best developed virtual land.
The 'Creator Contest' also welcomes the introduction of "The Builder" tool, with which designers can populate LAND (Decentraland's virtual plots) with pre-built 'assets' through a drag-and-drop method. These assets include real-world objects such as natural trees and rocks and manmade construction and infrastructure made available online.
The theme of the contest focuses on creating 'scenes,' where people will be making the environment on each individual LAND. Users will have to purchase first before they can use it. It can be brought off from a marketplace and the contract to it will be available to look at through an Ethereum smart contract.
Users will also be able to visit the virtual world using VR headsets and trade assets, just like in the real world. It's unheard of concept, but the developers believe that it is just as real as blockchain-based deals made on platforms using the same technology.
Perhaps, this is what the future looks like. Decentraland may represent yet another trend that real estate trading and transactions are going to go into.
