Everything that is rare is expensive, it is well known. And right now the plots in Decentraland seem particularly rare.
The promoters of the metaverse assure us that they are building a new world for tomorrow. They forget to specify that this one is furiously similar to yesterday’s: a few large landowners monopolize the vast majority of the wealth created by others, and no regulation is on the agenda to limit the effects of their dominance.
Rent a plot in the metaverse, but for what?
We must recognize those who have bought plots in Decentraland (around 20 dollars per unit in 2019) had hollow noses. Indeed, if not all of them find long-term tenants, those that do largely repay the investment from the first day. Thus, brands such as Mastercard or Heineken rented some of them in 2022 for a few days or a few months during communication campaigns. Artists have also rented plots to give concerts.
If real estate 3.0 remains a niche market, it is important enough to generate new vocations, and virtual real estate agents already exist. The least we can say is that they have work to do. In Decentraland, one of the most popular virtual universes, only 40 plots on average are rented out of more than 300 available. The most expensive of them, located in the center of this world, is available for the modest sum of $7,000… per day.
Change the world ? But it is very good like that!
If you’re planning on getting into virtual real estate, it’s probably already too late. Today, you will have to pay much more than the initial $20 to become an owner and rather count your investment in tens of thousands of dollars. The current owners are therefore sitting on a pile of gold that has cost them little or nothing, and which does not generate the management and maintenance costs that buildings in the real world necessarily entail. The concentration of wealth in the metaverse therefore has the potential to occur infinitely faster than elsewhere. The few professionals who do business there otherwise have to pay part of their income to people who are reluctant to create value.
Already today, these few large owners are a class apart in the virtual world, and few new entrants can hope to integrate it. From this point of view at least, the metaverse did not invent anything. We wish them well before the invention of the e-fork, the cyber-torch and the meta-guillotine.
Source : Wired
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