Is Metaverse the next step in value evolution?

There’s only one place you can spend a million dollars on a rock that doesn’t exist or several hundred thousand greenbacks on a yacht that will never be berthed in the Bahamas.

The Metaverse is either humanity’s greatest con or the next step in value evolution.

Mark Zuckerberg’s bet his future on it and other tech players and virtual worlds like Sandbox are already making hay, spinning straw into gold.

The Metaverse is also not a cheap playground and Sandbox properties are auctioned off monthly for astonishing sums.

And then, you still have to develop your property by building something, furnishing it with non-fungible tokens (NFTs) of original or replica furniture, and on top of it all, building your own pixelated avatar so that you can seat your virtual butt on your virtual easy chair.

NFTs are the nuts and bolts of Metaverse worlds.

It’s how you are able to furnish your virtual apartment, purchase your wheels in the metaverse or lay claim to an original piece of art that exists nowhere else, but online.

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And it’s not cheap. Jordan Sutherland, an NFT artist and Metaverse consult – ant, said that the value inherent in an NFT is its once-off nature.

He said: “They are numbered tokens that indicate ownership, and as such, cannot be replicated or forged at all.”

He added that scarcity adds an additional layer of value to the equation. “This is why a picture of a rock can reach millions of dollars or a virtual yacht sell for seven figures.”

Ran Neuner, host of CNBC Africa’s Crypto Trader show Crypto Masterclass Series on online learning site mymastery. tv, said that people are also likely to spend more on their virtual selves.

Italian designer label Gucci recently launched a range of designer NFT handbags.

He said: “The difference in the metaverse is that you can – not buy fakes, because you can – not invent them, everything is recorded and traced on the blockchain.”

Neuner said the same principle applies to land purchased in the Metaverse.

He said it holds innate value and coolness, so to speak, but grows in stature and value when developed and seen as a valuable online meeting place, for example.

READ MORE: Pricey pixels: Why people spend fortunes on NFT art

Additional revenue streams like advertising are also unlocked, then.

Sutherland agrees but adds that a significant portion of current NFT value is also based on future usefulness and value appreciation expectation.

Sometimes, he said, it’s just for art’s sake, too, and utility is not a measure.

“You can create a three-dimensional object, like land, and others can experience it which gives it usefulness.”

But NFT’s aren’t as simple as churning out pretty pictures.

It comes at an opportunity cost called “gas money” which, dependent on trading and values of blockchain currency Ethereum, can make it a low-yield endeavour.