This article unpacks the future role of the real estate market within the metaverse. Keep an eye out for the part where Bryan Colin, our co-founder, shares View Labs plan to join the metaverse space as well as his views on the possible success that can come from the transition to a digital market.
Since Facebook rebranded as Meta in October 2021, the word ‘metaverse’ has floated around more than ever, often leading to puzzled looks among non-gamers. Mark Zuckerberg’s multi-billion-dollar bet to recast the battered social media giant into the builder of the next iteration of the internet has many asking justifiable questions. The metaverse sounds like science fiction because, well, it is. The term was coined by sci-fi writer Neal Stephenson in his 1992 dystopian novel Snowcrash. It’s been a common sci-fi trope over the years of living in a virtual world, also shown in the book and film Ready Player One. But if it sounds far out compared to ‘traditional’ real estate, it helps to know that very real, large sums of money are being spent on digital real estate speculation.
First off, what is the metaverse? A simple definition is what our current version of the internet looks like, but instead, it’s fully immersive. Right now, metaverse platforms exist like Decentraland and The Sandbox, but they’re 2D and primarily browser-based. The long-term vision of the metaverse is to have enhanced virtual reality and augmented reality capabilities. An example of this vision would be to step into a virtual shopping mall, purchase a unique digital item for your avatar, and then sell the same thing later in a different virtual world.
Metaverse activities would also include attending concerts or anything else you’d do IRL, except you’re interacting with people all over the world via an internet based platform. We currently consume content on the internet, soon metaverse enthusiasts say we will experience it. All the metaverse platforms now exist separately, but the eventual goal is interoperability so users can jump from world to world. For this lofty vision to happen, there will need to be a new internet infrastructure and VR and AR tech will have to improve with higher internet speeds and super processors that handle hyper-realistic graphics.