By Alyssa Exposito
The Metaverse calls but the digital land has priced out many aspiring inhabitants. Here’s what DAOs are doing to make life in the Metaverse more accessible.
Decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) are individuals that collectively organize in social applications and blockchains to pursue common goals and interests.
As the direction of the Metaverse keeps maturing, DAOs are rallying around the prospect of utilizing and investing in the Metaverse. Seeing that Goldman Sachs placed an US$8 trillion valuation on the sector, eyes and ears have peeled into the possibility of accessibility, usability and monetization of these virtual worlds.
Owners of digital land in the Metaverse tout some of the most recognizable names like Adidas, Nike, Snoop Dogg and JPMorgan. These entities are investing in the digital land and aligning themselves with the movement toward Web3 to better connect with consumers.
However, the biggest barrier to joining the digital landrush is cost. DAOs are searching to create more equitable means to invest in and utilize these virtual worlds.
DAOs could potentially assist with onboarding new entrants to Web3 in a substantial way by making engaging with digital land more accessible. This means exploring the means to share, rent and invest in digital land in the Metaverse.
NFTs are the new keys to digital land
In 2021, the two largest metaverse platforms, Decentraland and the Sandbox, made a combined total volume of approximately US$460 million in digital real estate. These are not the only metaverses users are turning to. Blockchain games like Axie Infinity are building out their respective metaverses within their land gameplay in order to yield valuable resources.
At the current prices of digital land across all metaverses, however, many investors are priced out. In Axie Infinity, the cheapest land plot is roughly 2.2 Ether (ETH), or US$5,550, and the most expensive currently stands at 10,000 ETH, or US$25,254,275. The range in prices come at the land’s speculated value based on its location. Similar to the real estate in real life, location holds a lot of value in the Metaverse, where users strategically try to position themselves to benefit.
Land in Axie Infinity is slated to not only provide means for passive revenue via its governance token, Axie Infinity Shards (AXS), but will also be a beneficial means for players to harvest resources to level up their in-game characters. Knowing that land is essential to gameplay, community members have come together to form AxieLands (AXL) nonfungible token (NFT) to enable players access to digital land.
The premise of AXL is that it acts as an access pass of sorts to the digital land purchased by the AXL NFT team. A community member could purchase an NFT for 0.1 ETH (US$252.15) to then have access to any land AxieLand NFT has purchased. The AXL NFT team intends to purchase 110 land plots in Axie Infinity, ranging from least valuable to premium plots. Although the project is still in its infancy, working through legal parameters before formalizing itself as a DAO, the AXL NFT model is best for gaming guilds.
Suited specifically for land gameplay, other projects are incorporating renting strategies to provide access and monetize these digital assets.
Investors can rent digital land for passive income
Beyond gaming functionality, digital land in the metaverse has endless possibilities, especially depending on who is purchasing and building on it. As such, LandWorks, is a community-driven marketplace on the Ethereum network. It has established a model for digital landowners to rent out their respective plots, while users can take advantage of a cheaper point of entry without the long-term hold.
LandWorks’ model is straightforward in creating capital efficiency in the Metaverse. Similar to lodging marketplace and platform Airbnb, LandWorks operates its community-driven marketplace for users to browse in search of land they can rent. Operated by the EnterDAO, LandWorks is governed by the native token ENTR, whereby lenders can farm the token through the Synthetix staking rewards.
Currently, only Decentraland landowners are supported on the platform, but that can change in the near future. The EnterDAO is all in on the Metaverse as it complements its renting marketplace with its other product, Metaportal, a hub for all games and events in the metaverse.
DAOs are squadding up to turn metaverse real estate into investments
PangeaDAO, a metaverse land cooperative, intends to create more equitable virtual worlds in the Metaverse by democratizing the ownership of digital land. PangeaDAO’s treasury, governed by its community, is the capital in which the DAO will acquire digital real-estate and assets. PangeaDAO will manage a diverse portfolio within the metaverse for members to benefit from by owning, operating and financing income-generating land.
Contrary to AxieLands NFT and LandWorks, PangeaDAO is a slightly more passive way for investors to expose themselves to the Metaverse but is more encompassing by how it intends to generate revenue on digital land via its partnerships and investment.
Although operations, functions and value distributions in DAOs are still in the earliest stages of development, teams of like-minded individuals are working toward the future of the Metaverse and its placement within the wider nascent ecosystem.
Investors are now entering new frontiers with the next iteration of the web via DAOs as a way to sort the point of entry to the Metaverse. While DAOs and the Metaverse developments are a long way away, it seems to be prime time for investing and building toward more accessible digital worlds.
