How can I enter the Metaverse, what can I do?

The fact that the values ​​of some of the lands on Metaverse platforms are over million dollars encourages investment in these platforms. Careless investors dream that the value of the land they will buy for a few thousand dollars will reach millions of dollars after a while. However, when you look at those million-dollar plots, it is seen that there is a building above all of them. Most of these structures are workplaces.

Let’s talk a little bit about how we can enter this new universe and what we can do. The most important feature that distinguishes the Metaverse platform from Second Life is the use of digital wallets and the fact that all kinds of shopping are done with NFT. First of all, you should create a digital wallet for yourself and put enough coins in it to meet the work you want to do in Metaverse.

The next step is to choose the Metaverse platform you will be on. That’s the hardest part of the job. Because dozens of new Metaverse platforms are released every day. There is also a good chance that there will be an unlimited number of Metaverse platforms in the future.

Of course, it is not possible for these platforms to be of equal value. Some are so powerful that they will either sink or buy and dissolve others. Others will go bankrupt because they can’t compete, or, like some vigilante brokerages in today’s cryptocurrency market, will just shut up and walk away. Unfortunately, there is nothing you can do in this situation!

The thing to do is to do research on a Metaverse platform before joining it. It is extremely important that the organization behind the Metaverse platform in question is trustworthy. Secondly, it is necessary to look at the reliability of the NFT used by the Metaverse platform in question. If NFTs offered for sale are of no value both today and tomorrow, stay away. In fact, anything you buy in Metaverse, including the land, is an NFT. NFTs are actually contracts made on Blockchains. (For more information on NFTs, you can read the footnote ‘ Types of Digital Currencies: Coin, Altcoin, Token ‘). 

NFTs are generally ‘minted’ (printed) on Blockchains. A significant portion of the NFTs minted so far have been performed on Ethereum. Recently, the Polygon network has also started minting a significant amount of NFT. Therefore, the fate of any financial transaction you will make on Metaverse will be determined by the Blockchain in which the NFTs used on that platform are minted. 

As you know, Blockchains can terminate their activities and disappear. However, if the land or product you bought is in NFT format, you can continue to keep that product and even sell it.

Another misconception is that since the NFTs traded on the Metaverse are on a Blockchain, it is thought that the Metaverses also operate on a Blockchain. However, almost all of the Metaverses operate on the servers owned by the companies. For this reason, you should pay attention to the fact that the product you buy in Metaverse is NFT. Otherwise, if the platform sinks, you may lose your purchased items. 

This is a subject that needs a little more explanation. For example, the products you buy in Second Life are not NFTs. For this reason, it is not possible to store products in a wallet. Also, we cannot say that you can sell every product you buy, as the resale of some products is blocked by the manufacturer. In short, the product purchased in SL needs SL. If the platform goes down, you may lose your entire investment. But in a real Metaverse project this is not possible. You can move, sell or use products purchased in NFT format to another platform.

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Let’s go back to how to enter the Metaverse; First of all, you need a digital wallet and enough crypto money in this wallet. Since all values ​​such as avatars, clothes, concert tickets, collectibles, and land you will buy in Metaverse are actually NFTs, you will keep them all in your wallet.

 After meeting these conditions, you must decide to enter a Metaverse platform that you trust. Some Metaverse platforms ask you for large sums of money. They charge this not as a membership fee, but as a download fee for each item you upload. For example, in Decentraland this fee is 500 MANA. So to upload your avatar, you first give 500 MANA. (1 MANA=3.28 USD as of 07.02.2022)

Suppose you are a developer and you want to produce and sell your own products within the Metaverse project called Decantraland. In order to upload clothes and accessories such as t-shirts and trousers that you have prepared for avatars to the system, you have to pay 500 MANA upload money for each piece with today’s money. This requires you to spend 4000 MANA ($13,120) to load a simple four-piece outfit into the game.

Now do you understand why Metaverse lands are worth millions of dollars?

Some games offer cash prizes based on success, to train players. So, after paying the membership fee, you have the chance to travel and earn a few dollars from the games.

If you want to go to the concerts or exhibitions that take place on the platform, you will have to pay a separate fee for these as well. Suppose you are going to attend a concert. The ticket you will buy is an NFT. Your avatar and what you dress on it are also NFTs. The area where the concert will take place and the buildings built on that area, all objects, are all NFT.

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Buying and selling land on Metaverse

Let’s come to the land sales operations, which are very popular today; In fact, the purchased lands are also NFTs. Therefore, everything I explained above regarding NFT also applies to the sale of land.

Currently, the most popular Metaverse platforms for land sales are Decentraland, The Sandbox and Upland. I would like to open another parenthesis here and draw attention to another misconception. After Zuckenberg announced his own Metaverse, land sales on Metaverse platforms exploded. People have misunderstood that this land sale business started with Zuckenberg. However, many Metaverse platforms have been doing land buying and selling for years. For example, Decentraland, one of the most popular Metaverse platforms, made its first land sale at the end of 2017.

Another misconception about Metaverse is that a city’s land is bought and sold only through a Metaverse platform. In other words, when a land is bought in any district of Istanbul, it is thought that that land will now belong only to the person who bought it. However, many different Metaverse platforms can parcel out and sell the land of the same city. Ultimately, this job depends on creating the NFT (minting) of those plots on a Blockchain.

Another misconception concerns the values ​​of plots on Metaverse platforms. The fact that the values ​​of some of the lands are over million dollars encourages investment in these platforms. Careless investors dream that the value of the land they will buy for a few thousand dollars will reach millions of dollars after a while. However, when you look at those million-dollar plots, it is seen that there is a building above all of them. Most of these structures are workplaces.

In the above lines, I explained that there is a very high fee for each object to be uploaded to these platforms. To build a building on a plot of land, the items you install will cost you (remember you have to pay 500 MANA – 1,640 USD for each piece) worth hundreds of thousands of USD. As a matter of fact, sometimes it is not the land itself that makes a land valuable, but the structures built on it. Of course, the location of the land can also make it valuable. For example, conditions such as being close to a celebrity’s land can increase the value of the land.