span lang="EN-US">Just recently, a property in the virtual world of ‘Decentraland’ changed hands for US$2.4m. Virtual real estate securitised via NFTs (a non-fungible token), which is a unique and non-interchangeable unit of data stored on a digital ledger, is growing in popularity and attracting the attention of investors with a lot of capital.

span lang="EN-US">Obviously, the properties cannot be physically visited, but are instead forgery-proof certificates stored on the blockchain - and yet people are willing to spend hundreds of thousands or even millions on them.

span lang="EN-US">Virtual real estate has been sold for some time now. Since the renaming of Facebook to Meta, however, the topic has increasingly come into focus. CEO Mark Zuckerberg said at the launch of Meta that the decision to rename Facebook was made to “reflect who we are and what we hope to build,” referring to the company’s plans to focus on the “metaverse.” 

span lang="EN-US">Various developments have already been achieved in the quest towards a real metaverse - an online virtual world which incorporates augmented reality, virtual reality, 3D holographic avatars, video and other means of communication. As the metaverse expands, it will offer a hyper-real alternative world for you to coexist in.

span lang="EN-US">However, by the looks of things, by the time you decide to live in this virtual world, you might not be able to afford to buy a home there.