Published on: 04/07/2022
Real estate, gaming in metaverse still high in demand, research shows
According to new Chainalysis research, the cryptocurrency market is declining, but the metaverse is thriving. The findings show that prices of blockchain-based real estate in the metaverse increased by 879 per cent between September 2019 and March 2022. On the other hand, real estate prices have increased only by 39 per cent.
As per tracking indexes, the development of virtual real estate prices has surpassed physical properties by 532 per cent.
The study also discloses that blockchain-based virtual real estate (VRE) provides customers with diverse products and services. In contrast, access to private events and NFT-gated communities has proven to be a significant driver of demand.
“Blockchain-based virtual real estate (VRE) offers both present-day and prospective benefits to the people who own it. Currently, the ability to create exclusive virtual events and communities is one of the major use cases that is translating into the sale of virtual real estate,” said Ethan McMahon, Economist at Chainalysis.
The Chainalysis findings highlight differences in land prices in a variety of metaverse developments, indicating that investors have turned to digital assets for the purpose of “flipping” or retaining assets for brief periods of time with the purpose of selling them instantly and cost-effectively.
Gas prices, blockchain-based games’ growth
Furthermore, the price of land in the metaverse is determined by the blockchain on which it is hosted. According to Chainalysis, the price of land on Ethereum (ETH) and Solana is significantly different (SOL). Unlike ETH, where the gas fee ranges from $5 to $50, SOL charges an average of $0.00025.
As a result, metaverse-land owners and developers may find cheaper and better deals on Solana. However, Ethereum-based Metaverse initiatives are also incorporating Polygon, Polygon’s Layer-2 scalability platform. “This Ethereum sidechain provides Solana with competitive pricing and speed performance,” the report continues.
All the while, Ethereum-based Metaverses like Otherdeeds and Decentraland have recently integrated with Polygon to lower gas fees. The disparity in exorbitant costs, on the other hand, can be quickly clarified by the providers’ prominence and monetization strategy.
According to the report, the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) has linked NFTs to entertainment and other things. It has helped them sell $310 million in metaverse land. BAYC was able to sell metaverse assets that serve as actions for 55,000 digital plots. At the time, a plot of land was confirmed to cost approximately $5,800 in their native token, ApeCoin.
Paying rent and leasing are among the prospective utilities, as are free airdrops of future VRE NFTs and future AR/VR integrations and features.
“Because the metaverse is such a nascent space, most of these are hard to foresee. That said, we believe that a couple of drivers may be whether AR/VR [augmented or virtual reality] systems are more interoperable or proprietary, and the pace of adoption of new computing technology.” the study revealed.
The Metaverse Standards Forum (MSF) was recently established by tech titans such as Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, Sony, and Epic Games in an attempt to develop standard protocols for all things metaverse, including AR, VR, and 3D technology.
In the report, Chanalysis discusses how, in addition to interconnectivity, blockchain-based Metaverse projects benefit more from VR adoption. Through fully virtual interactions, users will be able to experience the vividness of NFT-based ownership of metaverse lands.
This brings us to the data interpretation of the current state of the virtual reality gaming industry, which has grown at a rate of 28.5% per year over the last four years. It appears that blockchain-based games are becoming more closely linked to metaverse developments.
