How Are NFTs Tied to the Metaverse?

Stefan Smiljkovic - May 13 '22 - - Dev Community

How Are NFTs Tied to the Metaverse?

You’ve probably seen Free Guy, a 2021 comedy movie where Ryan Reynolds suddenly finds himself posing around cities in a crazy metaverse game. How about Ready Player One in 2018? A show featuring a real-life simulation known as the OASIS — -a perfect depiction of the metaverse.

In all these, people could play games, get killed in virtual reality (not in real life), earn a lifetime’s worth of property or fame, and more. So we’ve seen it in the movies. But the metaverse is upon us after all. Don’t be surprised; the NFTs you buy now stand a chance to be worth a fortune, as you can sell them for millions of whatever currency of exchange in your metaverse.

So there are NFTs and then the metaverse. What ties NFTs to the metaverse?

What Exactly Is the Metaverse?

The metaverse is a virtual simulation of every event, attribute, and object of the real world. It encompasses a vision that’ll immerse us into modeled realities such as games and animations. The metaverse combines immersive technology with virtual and augmented reality. Invariably, it describes a technology that requires you to wear a virtual reality headset, something like an Oculus headset, to experience a simulated world. Its experience wouldn’t have been complete without your ability to feel what you see. But thanks to haptic gloves, you can feel and touch virtually everything in the metaverse.

Hence, the metaverse has come a long way from being a conspiracy theory into what we can feel and touch. And now, it’s a space many companies are investing in to create a world where seemingly unrealistic events turn into reality. With its design, it’s possible to buy land, purchase houses, play games, and perhaps, even get married and have children in the metaverse. Besides, some of these are even happening already. One example we’ve seen recently is the $2.4 million worth of virtual land bought by the Metaverse Group in the Decentraland.

How Do NFTs Track Your Digital Assets?

Whenever you buy digital art, game, music, or any other digital property, you’re only paying for a token to track it in the blockchain; so it doesn’t get stolen or replicated. These tokens are available in various cryptocurrencies, and their prices vary depending on the value placed on the digital asset they track. Of course, the property creator or owner decides its value based on factors, including popularity, community, and adoption.

Therefore, the price of a token depends on the value of the digital asset it represents. This token is what you mint as a non-fungible token (NFT). So when you mint an NFT, you invariably buy the asset or property it tracks. And no other property can replace it within the blockchain since it’s unique. Hence, NFTs help collectors track their virtual properties regardless of where they are in the blockchain. This is why you get to earn revenue in royalties for subsequent sales of your NFTs whenever collectors resell them.

The Metaverse and NFTs: How are they Related?

Physical assets are somewhat hard to steal once laws bind their purchase. Of course, this isn’t the case when buying assets over the internet. Anyone can claim ownership of your property if no contracts are binding it. This is where NFTs come into the picture. They foster the instant purchase and transfer of digital assets within the blockchain. And more specifically, they help track the lifecycle of any product within the blockchain.

You can buy properties in the metaverse using any cryptocurrency. But how do you ascertain ownership of these properties? Thanks to NFTs. They provide tracking tokens powered by smart contracts to prove your genuine ownership of assets you buy. And this is one of those places NFTs come valuable in the metaverse. The concept is simple: you don’t need attorneys or third parties to prove an agreement in the metaverse. All you need are these NFTs.

Moreover, it’d seem that this isn’t the only value NFTs offer the metaverse. For instance, Sandbox and Decentraland are popular virtual spaces where you can buy and sell virtual lands and in-game assets. What’s intriguing is you can decorate a piece of purchased land in the metaverse with NFTs representing your digital assets like artworks, music, shoes, clothes, houses, and many more. What’s more? The kittens and Apes and other animals you buy now as NFTs can grant you access to like-minded communities in the metaverse. Investors can even troop into your metaverse property to relate with you and purchase your collections.

Metaverse Properties are Tied to NFTs

Properties you own in the metaverse are tied to NFTs. This brings us to an inference that NFTs are more than arts. Besides, this is obvious enough with the advent of virtual games, concerts, lands, buildings, cities, malls, and more. It’s probably not strange that you can test items you intend to buy in a virtual box before paying for them and ordering them online.

Thus, we see the metaverse as a virtual space where people can come together and interact, transact businesses, and have fun as they would in the real world. Only this time, they’d do so virtually. But of course, regardless of where you are, you’d be as close to a friend, family, or an investor who’s miles away as meeting physically.

Should You Invest in NFTs?

Undoubtedly, NFTs are becoming the new gold. And we’ve seen some of them sell for as much as millions of dollars. The value of an NFT isn’t its current floor price. NFT investors would agree that, like any investment, an NFT brings value when it appreciates as people sell it within the blockchain. Even though you sell your NFTs and get paid, you’re expecting returns in royalties for subsequent sales made by its collectors.

Further, a promising feature of NFTs is their use in the metaverse. As you’ve seen, they provide an avenue for tracking digital assets you purchase within this virtual space. Also, the NFTs you buy now can be worth keeping to make your digital environment (metaverse) more attractive to investors. Here’s the idea: investors will hardly overlook a well-decorated asset with unique collections.

Therefore, while there’re many market spaces like Solana marketplaces, where you can buy NFTs, the metaverse creates a more interactive avenue for interaction between collectors and owners. We can’t also overstate the anticipated influence of NFTs in web 3.0. Indeed, opportunities are boundless in the crypto-verse, and you can hold them with NFTs. And because the metaverse and NFT concepts are still new, there’s no better time to invest in NFTs than now.

Also, there are many NFT tools to help you succeed. But Moonly stands out excellently as a real-time analytic tool many NFT investors use to decide which NFT projects are worth their investment.

With that said, beware. Don’t invest in scammy NFT projects. Moreover, there are ways to spot fake ones.

Winding Up: Take Advantage of the Metaverse and NFTs

Many of what we see in sci-fi movies erode our imaginations and thoughts. But these are becoming a reality in the long run. One of such is the metaverse, a fascinating and adaptive technology. As you’ve seen, NFTs are tied to the metaverse more than you probably thought. So the earlier you accept these technologies, the better you are at seeing investment possibilities in the future.

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