I spent my life savings on virtual ‘metaverse’ land’ – I now tax people to use it and it’ll make me rich
A TECH-SAVVY investor has spent his entire life savings on a piece of virtual land in the metaverse - and plans to earn the money back by taxing people to use it.
The $20,000 plot of digital real estate is set in the metaverse's oldest digital world.
Entropia Universe launched in 2003 and helped pioneer some of the aspects of the digital economy that are widespread today.
The platform is powered by Project Entropia Dollars (PED) which can be bought and exchanged for real cash.
The gameplay uses the sandbox model where players can freely explore worlds, interact, and do commerce with one another in the metaverse.
One user whose been logging into Entropia Universe for 20 years makes their living by taking a percentage of all players' findings on his digital land.
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“I get a revenue based on everything that a player finds out there. If they go out on doing their mining, I get a 3 per cent tax revenue on that. And that’s how I get my income,” Justin Reed told .
Reed reportedly pays $60 to keep his land teeming with digital animals.
"I know it sounds like a lot, and it's a crazy thing to tell someone that, you know, I'm a virtual landowner, and I put my life savings into it. But I believe in Entropia."
reported that metaverse real estate sales have surpassed $500million and the trend is expected to stick.
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Of all the digital assets in the online market, digital land appears to be the most functional.
One of the top criticisms against cryptocurrencies and NFTs is a to justify their value.
Buy low, put the token or NFT in a crypto wallet where it stays untouched, and hope to sell high.
But Reed's Entropia Universe land can be put to use by other players, and through tax kick-ups to Reed, he can collect income without parting with the asset.
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There are people who have dumped loads of money into digital assets which proceeded to tank in value.
Just ask the man who bought Jack Dorsey's first tweet as an NFT for $2.9million and watched it drop 99% in value in a year.