The word metaverse has been thrown around a lot, especially since Facebook (NASDAQ:META) changed its name to Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ: META).
People’s love of video games and science fiction has apparently helped propel interest in the metaverse, and it is trending now more than ever on social media platforms.
What Is A Metaverse? The metaverse is the merging of virtual and physical reality that combines online interactions with real-life ones and is essentially accessible to everyone connected to the internet.
The metaverse has been put to use in many different ways. Roblox Corp. (NYSE: RBLX) has a go-to virtual world for musicians to host virtual concerts, while content delivery network (CDN) Cloudflare Inc . (NYSE: NYSE:NET) claims its network can deliver content in 50 milliseconds or less to 95% of the world’s population and offer cybersecurity solutions that could block billions of daily threats.
Metaverse-focused exchange-traded funds (ETF) like Roundhill Ball Metaverse ETF (NYSEMKT: METV), which include multiple metaverse stocks, also are out there.
Gaming To Earn In The Metaverse That said, one of the main activities in the metaverse continues to be gaming. While gaming companies like Roblox and Grand Theft Auto already have a metaverse, interest in online games seems to be surging because of the rapid release of new gaming platforms coupled with opportunities to earn profits.
In the past, video game developers and publishers held the rights to everything that happened within their games, including profits and in-game assets, while players merely enjoyed spending long hours playing and spending their money.
But the advent of play-to-earn games seems to have changed all that. Play-to-earn, which relies on blockchain technology, helps players earn digital assets like real estate, vehicles or other branded digital assets, based on the game, in the form of crypto tokens and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) from other players in a dedicated marketplace.
These items would be tokenized using blockchain technology, making them unique assets that cannot be replicated, and stored securely in a distributed ledger.
Several new metaverse blockchain games featuring diversified themes and areas of interest have sprung up.
Upland, a Silicon Valley, California-based blockchain metaverse company, confidently describes itself as the most dynamic blockchain NFT economy mirroring planet earth.
Upland says its vision is to be a metaverse where people will not only play but also socialize and eventually be able to earn money — a true digital economy that blends the real world with the virtual world.
As a layer-1, Upland provides different ways for entrepreneurs, contributors and brands to operate. Users can earn an income in Upland by setting up businesses called “metaventures”, such as showrooms on their properties, or factories that produce UGC (user-generated content) NFTs sold to the community. Developers of new or existing apps leverage Upland as a discoverability platform and set up shop.
The Upland vision is to build the foundations so that thousands of micro-entrepreneurs will exist alongside the big brands, and make an income by selling virtual assets or services to fellow Uplanders.
As an example, Upland recently partnered with Portugal’s football club FC Porto to help build the future of its fandom. According to Upland, FC Porto is the first European football club to enter the metaverse.
Upland kicked off the FC Porto partnership by opening the city of Porto, Portugal, which sold out in just a few hours. In all, over 35K properties were sold, adding to the over 4M+ digital assets minted to date on the platform. To celebrate the Club’s 129th anniversary, Upland is planning to build FC Porto's Estádio do Dragão (Dragon Stadium) virtually in the metaverse, together with the global fan base of the club - soon fans will be able to purchase player-featured collectibles called Legits that display the most important stats of each player and update in real-time during each match through which the rarity and value of the player Legit can be determined. Legits are an opportunity for the FC Porto fan community to celebrate the performance of their favorite players in matches throughout the season through digital collectibles that earn value over time.
As of August, Upland says it has added 20 cities in its metaverse, including Porto, the hometown of the FC Porto football club. Its players will have easy access to buy properties, manufacture cars and earn Upland tokens — UPX coins that can eventually be converted to cash via Upland’s partnership with Tilia Inc.
The Upland metaverse is embarking on the next step of its product offering on the path to platformization. The growth of Upland into new cities and with new partnerships is driven by the growth of its user base. This growth, in turn, drives the expansion of economic activity - also driven by the community’s contributors and entrepreneurs, as well as new platform products and features such as manufacturing, cars and UGC assets.
Visit Upland here.
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Featured photo by Upland.
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