Highlights:
- As NFTs now are a strong foundation of the metaverse infrastructure and economy, there are ways for NFT owners to make money using virtual assets.
- NFT allows individuals to sell, buy, transfer items to the metaverse or over the internet.
NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) are gaining all the craze They now have even expanded in the art world, with multi-million-dollar deals that have made headlines. The new update is NFTs making their way in the metaverse. Users can turn any of their creations into an NFT and sell them in open marketplaces. The metaverse relies on NFTs designed and created by users to grow and support open economies. NFT is a digital proof of ownership and authenticity of a given item, virtual or not. But for those who are not particularly interested in creating NFTs, there are other options to consider if they want to make money using NFTs. These include opening an NFT art gallery and selling someone else’s work in return for a cut of the profits, becoming an art broker, or advising metaverse clients on how to best navigate this new NFT world.
Here are five ways you can make money in the metaverse using NFTs:
- Virtual landownership
Virtual land ownership has gained popularity in the metaverse, especially in metaverses like Axie Infinity, Decentraland, and The Sandbox. An example of this technology is people can buy digital real estate in LAND, a digital piece of real estate in The Sandbox metaverse. Like deeds in the physical world, virtual real estate uses NFTs to reflect ownership of specific locations. Owning virtual plots of land in the metaverse can enable owners to combine them all to create a single estate.
For instance, in 2019, 64 separate plots of land were combined in Decentraland to create The Secrets of Satoshi’s Tea Garden, which was later sold for 1.3 million MANA (MANA is the cryptocurrency token built on the Ethereum blockchain protocol and is used to buy and sell things on Decentraland). Like in the real world, the location of any piece of real estate is of supreme importance, and since digital roads conveniently surrounded these 64 plots, they fetched a lucrative price. Plots close to entry points or virtual arenas that promise virtual foot traffic are more valuable in the metaverse. In 2021, the Metaverse Group bought an estate in Decentraland for an equivalent of USD 3.2 million.
- Through renting and lending
People can also generate income on the metaverse by renting NFTs. For instance, landowners in the metaverse can rent out NFTs through a Decentralized Finance (DeFi) platform, PARSIQ’s IQ Protocol, that provides ways for game developers to make money. Like traditional property and real estate, the IQ Protocol lets virtual landowners earn rent fees via predetermined conditions negotiated with renters and enforced by smart contracts. These self-executing computer programs enforce contractual agreements.
- Play-To-Earn in The Metaverse
For gamers, metaverse provides the fun of earning from playing. While playing blockchain-based games or investing in metaverse activities, users can collect and trade their in-game assets for tokens having real-world value. The Play-to-Earn (P2E) model has created new virtual economies in the metaverse. Here players are rewarded with NFTs and in-game cryptocurrencies that can be swapped, sold, or borrowed. Other games have found different ways to reward players. For example, car parts are released as separate NFTs in Battle Racer, which users can use to build or sell their vehicles separately on secondary marketplaces.
Global in-game spending is projected to amount to nearly USD 74.4 billion by 2025, and how people use NFTs is expected to compound this spending. In games like Fortnite, the ways people are using NFTs in blockchain networks can be applied to skins and cosmetics. Largescale advancement in NFT use is still a few years away, but NFTs would help players reflect the originality and ownership of their assets.
- Hosting Events and Private Parties
Entertainment will play a vital role in the metaverse. Parties, concerts, and sporting events can be hosted in the metaverse. With the pandemic opening the doors to enjoying virtual events, such parties on the metaverse are sure to attract thousands (if not millions) of fans. Therefore, hosting parties and events is a sure way to make money in the virtual world. NFT passes can generate revenue for virtual events, parties, and concerts. For instance, Snoop Dogg partnered with The Sandbox to host a private party in September 2021. 1000 Snoop Private Party Passes were made available, which gave people access to Snoop Dogg’s personal lifestyle, exclusive NFTs, and a chance to have Snoop Dogg perform an exclusive concert on their LAND.
- Earning Royalties from NFTs
NFTs are built so creators can set terms to help them earn royalty fees whenever their NFTs change hands on the secondary market. For instance, if the royalty for an NFT is charged at 10%, the original creator of the NFT will receive 10% of the total sale price every time their NFT is resold to a new owner. In this way, the creator can earn a share of the sale price of the NFTs indefinitely. The best thing is that creators do not need to enforce the royalty terms or manually track payment as the process is fully automated. Creators can set the predetermined royalty percentages while minting the NFTs and smart contracts to govern the entire process involved in distributing royalties.
Future of the NFT in Metaverse
Though in the earlier stages of development, the use of NFTs provides new ways for people to play, interact, earn, collect, and transact. Metaverse and NFT blockchain gaming are poised to become essential constituents of an era in which real-world businesses extend themselves into the digital space and users uncover the versatility of VR, video games, social media, and crypto. The metaverse is set to evolve as the internet becomes more readily accessible to the entire world. NFT ownership will open a world of opportunities in the emerging metaverse!
