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Metaverse Property Mogul Touts 10-Fold Appreciation In Virtual Real Estate Portfolio (businessinsider.com) 65

Posted by BeauHD from the location-is-key dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Markets Insider: Andrew Kiguel, CEO of crypto-asset investment firm Tokens.com, estimated his metaverse portfolio is valued at 10 times more than his purchase price, USA Today said in a report published Wednesday. "It's all about the location," he told the newspaper, saying that land in the core of a virtual downtown is key. "The more visitors who come, the more valuable the land, and the more a retailer and advertisers will be willing to spend to reach those people." Toronto-based Tokens.com acquired a 50% stake in Metaverse Group in October for $1.7 million, then completed an additional investment last week to give it a 67% ownership stock in the firm. The deal comes after Metaverse Group last month made a then-record $2.43 million purchase of parcels in the Decentraland metaverse platform.

Kiguel has high hopes for that virtual plot of land. "I think we're going to see a quick appreciation and monetize renting that land and space very soon," he told USA Today, adding that the plan is to develop the virtual area into a destination for luxury brands. Metaverse Group CEO Lorne Sugarman told Insider in November that the Decentraland property purchase, which was in its Fashion District, provides an early foothold in upscale commercial opportunities in the metaverse. "We think the Fashion District purchase is like buying on Fifth Avenue back in the 1800s or the creation of Rodeo Drive," he said, referring to the high-end shopping areas in Manhattan and Beverly Hills. Earlier this month, someone by the name of P-Ape bought a plot of digital land in Snoop Dogg's new virtual world, Snoopverse, for $450,000. "The rapper announced that he would be building his own virtual world in the metaverse on the Sandbox platform this September," reports Fortune.
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Metaverse Property Mogul Touts 10-Fold Appreciation In Virtual Real Estate Portfolio More

Metaverse Property Mogul Touts 10-Fold Appreciation In Virtual Real Estate Portfolio

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  • Worthless digital tokens being... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by klipclop ( 6724090 ) on Wednesday December 29, 2021 @08:16PM (#62126619)
    Quoted in theoretical USD conversion rates? If I waste my time reading the main article, will I discover that the snoop dog land was bought with some illiquid random crypto with a very theoretical conversion rate into USD? Either way, this whole premise of virtual real estate costing real world money is just stupid beyond all belief.

    • Either way, this whole premise of virtual real estate costing real world money is just stupid beyond all belief.

      It may seem stupid, but if you have been working yourself to death during the pandemic to avoid losing your job, have had your savings decimated, and now rapidly devalued, and meanwhile have had to watch while your landlord has made ~30-40% low tax capital gains on their rental portfolio while having their interest costs shredded, you might start saying the same thing about the 'whole premise' of the real world neo-liberal capitalist system.

      The government and central banks have made a joke out of those who

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      It's scams on top of scams at the moment. People are selling *replica* NFTs. Literally ctrl-c, ctrl-v a crappy cartoon ape and sell it.

    • Ever bought a video game? Virtual. Think it through, and just to agree with you, I didn't every consider a video game an investment, and I wouldn't consider an NFT-based online game an investment either. Could I sell off stuff for profit? sure, but even Ethereum is volatile, and no matter the DAO, value can be volatile.

      Whatever, this is the only use of NFT I think is interesting enough for me to spend real money on. If I would spend what, $60 on the latest Battlefield iteration, why not spend $10-20 here an

  • I'm not ready to buy virtual land yet (Score:3)

    by OzPeter ( 195038 ) on Wednesday December 29, 2021 @08:18PM (#62126629)

    So can someone sell me an NFT of some virtual land instead?

    • The idea of introducing artificial land scarcity to a virtual world is something that only exists in the feverish dreams of wannabe masters.

      Space is so cheap on the internet that it's practically free.

  • Andrew Kiguel, CEO of Toronto-based crypto-asset investment firm Tokens.com, estimated his metaverse portfolio is valued at 10 times more than his purchase price

    Thanks for letting us know - we'll be sure to dispatch Canada's equivalent of the IRS to your offices!

  • Is still not actually worth anything. The only way this is "worth" something is if you can get other people to believe it's actually worth something.

    The whole crypto "Meta world" is just mindboggling.

    It's like watching people playing Fantasy Football but spending actual money on it.

    Call me cynical, but I can't help think that this thing is going to come down like a house of cards.

    "There's nothing there." is a bit too literal here.

    • Well, with a purchase price of $.01CAD, and a current valuation of $.10 CAD, he's rolling in clover.

      Just not very much of it.

    • IF people get some entertainment value out of the virtual world and it is structured in such a way that this entertainment value varies with virtual land ownership and can be charged for (even if only with in-game currency) then eventually this will matter in the real world.

      Which is more or less an indictment of humanity.

    • It's a lot like people paying big money for domain names in the 90s. Except, in those days there was actually a theoretical reason that a domain name might be worth something (before search engines got a lot better).

      I can see the stupidity happening, and I wish I could figure out a way to profit from it.

    • Is still not actually worth anything. The only way this is "worth" something is if you can get other people to believe it's actually worth something.

      Some people are making a very good living as realtors on Second Life, or at least were back in 2006 [gamespot.com]. Any level of stupidity is possible.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by cstacy ( 534252 )

        Some people are making a very good living as realtors on Second Life, or at least were back in 2006 [gamespot.com].

        Yes, two or three people (out of the tens of thousands who "owned" virtual land) managed to make some money for a year or two by cornering the land market. Then Second Life simply added more land (servers) to meet the demand, instantly and fully tanking all those "investments" and permanently and deliberately deleted that segment of the economy.

        • Then Second Life simply added more land (servers) to meet the demand, instantly and fully tanking all those "investments"

          Most of them, I assume. But not all of them, because location x3.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by cstacy ( 534252 )

            Then Second Life simply added more land (servers) to meet the demand, instantly and fully tanking all those "investments"

            Most of them, I assume. But not all of them, because location x3.

            When you order land on Second Life, you get to specify where it is, how it looks, and you can change it around any way you like.

            If you want to be connected (able to walk/fly) to some existing land, you can negotiate that with the other "land owner" you want to collaboate with. But that's almost never done, as the normal way that people move in Second Life is to "teleport" directly from place to place.

            "Location" is therefore meaningless^3.

    • "The only way this is "worth" something is if you can get other people to believe it's actually worth something."

      Introductory economics in a single sentence. Good job, there.

  • Deja Vu? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    I feel like this is a repeat of Second Life

  • Andrew Kiguel, CEO of crypto-asset investment firm Tokens.com, estimated his metaverse portfolio is valued at 10 times more than his purchase price, USA Today said in a report published Wednesday. "It's all about the location," he told the newspaper, saying that land in the core of a virtual downtown is key.

    He is not just buying imaginary real estate, but he's buying it in a simulation which allows the creation of infinite amounts of it at will. Even Bitcoin at least has a mathematically limited money supply. Is he going to sell an aerial view of his "real estate" as an NFT?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Sebby ( 238625 )

      Is he going to sell an aerial view of his "real estate" as an NFT?

      If people are stupid enough to buy it, he certainly will.

      Perhaps you're familiar with the phrase that begins "A fool and his money...."

  • What happened to Second Life? Is that still a thing?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Sebby ( 238625 )

      What happened to Second Life? Is that still a thing?

      Yes it is. But this newfangled thing that's backed by money from stupid people is more "in" right now, so that's what getting all the attention.

  • Has the whole place gone insane?
  • Crypto-snakeoil investment firm, shurly.

  • I can't wait.... (Score:3)

    by Kelxin ( 3417093 ) on Wednesday December 29, 2021 @10:45PM (#62126989)
    For a giant solar flare. Crypto wallets? Gone. NFT's? Gone. Crypto miners? Gone. Virtual real-estate? Gone. People that can't live without their phones? Gone.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      For a giant solar flare. Crypto wallets? Gone. NFT's? Gone. Crypto miners? Gone. Virtual real-estate? Gone. People that can't live without their phones? Gone.

      Schadenfreude? Priceless.

    • If think the stuff is worthless, but this is a bad argument. 95% of your money is also probably stored on computers like all of us with banks.

  • A flaw in the concept (Score:3)

    by Walt Dismal ( 534799 ) on Wednesday December 29, 2021 @10:55PM (#62127023)
    There is a flaw. The assumption is that hyperspace is linear and only travellable by linear movement. Obviously a 'hyperGoogle' search for 'luxury brands' could leap past physical spaces on a block and jump to anywhere on a list. In the metaverse you are not limited to physical travel but can use new ways to direct where you go. So the concept of a virtual physical district is a bit flawed. In some hyper-Amazon you could jump all over to products from some virtual image of a list. So what we have here is a executive with a limited imagination touting a flawed idea that could come back and bite him in his..er, hyperass.

    • This was my first thought, how important is a trendy location when people can teleport at will? Or perhaps even open portals between spaces at will so that proximity isn't a factor either?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by jvkjvk ( 102057 )

      The metaverse gods will implement different rates of payment for different modes of transit. What, you thought it was going to be free to go from place to place? Maybe if you walk and take in all the sights (ads),

      Can't wait for the entirety of the metaverse to be monetized thusly.

    • Come to think of it, if you're decentra-Amazon virtual property has any non-Bezos owned property nearby, someone else like Alibaba or a pro-union group is going to try to buy up the land nearby and place giant posters. You can either solve this buy going to a virtual Time Square where everything is so expensive that nobody wants to waste the space or buy up the entire nearby area so any competitors and brand tarnishing messages are out of sight. Anything else would be like allowing competitors to place un-m

  • ...and OpenSimulator isn't involved, you're gonna have a bad time.

    We've been through this whole VR ride enough times now that you can tell what's going to stick and what isn't is how present is the furry community how early on. MU*s? Furries, still around. SL? Still around. OpenSimulator? Still around. Wii Miis? No furries, dead. PS Home? No furries, dead. Bob? No furries, dead.

    Meta? Not even a full representation of a human. This shit never had a chance.

  • What happened to investing in capital for *production*? This is nothing more than narcissism and greed. I hope these crypto douchebags who have contributed nothing to society get a proportional return on investment.

  • Glad to be old (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Glad to be old and not give a shit about any of this.

    • Yep, me too.

      I had high hopes for VR when I read 80s Cyberpunk but... in the 20s? Meh, it all seems to suck! :(

      Best use for VR that I can imagine myself using is for racing/flight games - it'd be better than my triple screen setup. Probably...

      • Your 3 screens still have waaay better resolution right now, and will continue to. In fact, wireless headsets may never catch up for reasons that boil down to physics-- you can simply fit more processing power in larger devices.

        What VR is good for is 6DOF physical movement. Meaning you can finally actually get exercise while inside all kinds of different games or simulations. This is working fantastically right now and is here to stay.

  • Andrew's Thesis is incorrect (Score:3)

    by Idimmu Xul ( 204345 ) on Thursday December 30, 2021 @12:48AM (#62127305) Homepage Journal

    > It's all about the location

    It's not. everywhere in the metaverse is immediately accessible by hyperlink, it's not like the hight street where you're forced to walk past shops and foot traffic counts.

    And I'm using present tense because that's how it already exists across multiple metaverse platforms and will continue to exist in to the future.

    Oh, and you can fucking fly.

    • Cause ant gonna.

    • Maybe, but early on internet portals were very valuable. (maybe still are). A lot depends on how the metaverse is run, but most likely it will be set up to highly reward the early investors so that then next group of idio.. clever investors will dump in tons more money.

    • It's not. everywhere in the metaverse is immediately accessible by hyperlink

      Also, the old quote about real estate being a great investment is "Real estate is the best investment in the world because it is the only thing they're not making any more".

      Only in this case they are, and the amount they can make is unlimited.

  • Will my virtual real estate continue to exist through every software and hardware update? What happens if I buy the commodore 64 version of real estate but the world has moved on to Pentium, and then, say a quantum processor running neural nets eventually? Should I spend 1 or 2 million?

  • This is old wisdom.

    The new wisdom is that suckers are born every couple seconds now.

    Population in 1880 was about 1.2 billion, with a birth rate of 33-34.

    Population today is 7.7 billion. So, even though the birth rate is now only 17-18, with 6x the population...

  • Everyone I know who's gotten excited about stuff like this comes out poorer than when they got in.

    This is just another MAKE MONEY FAST idea only without the spam. (That'll probably be next, though.)

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