Metaverse is the hottest topic in the current technology industry, and it is the out-and-out “The Next Big Thing”. Regarding the market value of Meta Universe, the valuation given by some institutions is: reaching 800 billion US dollars in 2024.
What is this concept? This number is equivalent to the total size of the global mobile phone market in 2020. In other words, some people believe that Metaverse will be able to complete the nearly 40-year journey of the mobile phone industry in the next three years.
The question is, how can ordinary people profit from it?
DailyCoin recently published an article “ The Metaverse and New Ways to Make Money “ (The Metaverse and New Ways to Make Money), which summarized 6 ways to make money through the metaverse.
DailyCoin is a professional media focusing on related technologies such as financial technology, digital assets and blockchain. The author Simona Ram is a well-known female reporter in the field of financial technology.
Six major money making models
1. Invest in NFT
The “money making” of Meta Universe started with NFT. NFT as a collectible is a speculative asset. The technical characteristics of NFT make it scarce and valuable.
One of the most famous events was the NFT work Everydays: the First 5000 Days created by artist Mike Winkelmann (also known as Beeple) , which sold for $69 million, detonating the market’s enthusiasm for NFT works trading. However, the current market is not yet mature, and there is a risk of overvaluation.
2. Land for rent
The developers of the meta universe can sell the empty land in the virtual world. Buyers can build anything on this digital land, such as hotels, galleries, casinos, cinemas, stadiums, etc.
Buyers can make profits from these buildings, such as renting out, charging entrance fees, selling advertising spaces, and so on. Moreover, the value of “land” may also rise, thus having investment value.
Are there real cases? Have!
In June of this year, a piece of land on the Metaverse platform Decentraland sold for $910,000. The buyer is Republic Realm, an investment fund focused on digital real estate.
3. Selling advertisements
User interaction in the virtual world is richer than in the real world. Therefore, the way companies, brands and products interact with users has unlimited imagination.
In the real world, in-game advertising has long been an industry worth tens of billions of dollars. It is foreseeable that Metaverse will become a new social place for people, thus bringing a new scale of market to the advertising and marketing industry.
4. Investing in stocks
Metaverse represents a new direction for the development of the Internet, and it may be deeply integrated into people’s daily lives in the future. Many Internet companies foresee that Metaverse has a huge market prospect and have entered the game.
For investors who prefer traditional investment methods, Meta Universe concept stocks may be good investment targets. Roblox, Unity Software, Microsoft, Amazon, Nvidia, Disney and Facebook and other technology, gaming, e-commerce, social media industry giants have announced their entry into the meta universe.
5. Invest in the underlying technology
Most of the existing Metaverse platforms are built on the Ethereum network. The popularity of these platforms has been reflected in the price of Ethereum (ETH).
But other blockchain platforms besides Ethereum are also interested in taking a share. Many platforms have opened NFT smart contract functions. Take Solana (SOL) as an example. Affected by the NFT boom and the attention of institutional investors, the growth curve of the platform in recent months has been almost vertical.
6. Play-to-Earn
The rise of blockchain games and NFTs has also created a new game mode-play and earn. In short, game players have ownership and control over the game assets they own, so they can trade with other players in exchange for real money in the real world.
One case is the meta-universe platform Axie Infinity. During the epidemic, a large number of Filipino people poured into the game, raised a virtual pet named “Axie”, and then traded online. Many people make more money than hard work in this way. At the same time, the share price of Axie Infinity (AXS) is also a great success, soaring 2140% in two months.
Three obstacles to development
In addition to summarizing several money-making models, the author believes that although the meta-universe imagination is huge, the obstacles restricting development are not small. Specifically, there are three major problems:
1. Lack of connectivity
The major meta universe platforms are currently fighting on their own, and there is no connection between them. For example, digital assets held by Axie Infinity users cannot be used on the Fortnite and Roblox platforms. The author thinks this is the biggest challenge.
2. Weak infrastructure
Although the support of investors and the unremitting efforts of developers are promoting the continuous evolution of Metaverse, at present, many basic applications have not yet appeared on the Metaverse platform.
3. Internet speed becomes a problem
Connecting to the virtual world and experiencing the colorful parallel world often has high requirements for network connection speed. However, at present, network speed infrastructure is still unable to meet the demand, and the commercialization of network technologies such as 5G still takes time.