Pina Coladas, pink sky sunsets, and pristine beaches… the islands of Hawaii are famous for all three. Now, you can buy a piece of virtual paradise too. First, some context: The Hawaiian islands have a long history as vacation getaways for well-off Americans. In recent years, that’s changed. The price of real estate on the islands has skyrocketed as vacationers struggle to afford the high costs of accommodations and activities. Not to mention, interest in traveling is way down in a post-COVID world. NFT-based virtual real estate ownership has the potential to bring this paradise back to the masses. The concept is simple: Buy virtual real estate assets on a blockchain, and hold them as your one-of-a-kind virtual property, or re-sell them. All this is made possible by Next Earth, the project that’s put a digital replica of Earth on the blockchain. The Opportunity Virtual real estate ownership offers metaverse enthusiasts the opportunity to have a piece of virtual land that can be used for building houses, parks, casinos, hotels, and other structures. These plots of land are called “tiles” and they’re sold as 10×10 square meter parcels. That’s different from buying a plot of land in Hawaii or another popular vacation spot where you’d need to buy an entire acreage. In Second Life, which was one of the first online metaverse games with its own currency system and economy, people would purcha...
