People's Daily comments on the Yuanzhou universe real estate speculation: Risks of being burned by heat must be prevented | People's Sharp Views

Recently, the top ten buzzwords of 2021 were released, and "metaverse" was among them. The so-called metaverse is regarded by some as a carrier for the integration of the virtual world and the real world, and it hides opportunities for the transformation of scenes such as games and social networking. Recently, the "housing speculation fever" has also swept into the metaverse.

This "metaverse real estate speculation" craze first appeared abroad, and it became popular along with the concept of the metaverse. On November 23 this year, a piece of digital land in the American virtual platform Decentraland sold for $2.43 million, which is higher than the average price of a single house in Manhattan, New York, USA; on November 30, a piece of virtual land on the American virtual game platform Sandbox sold for $4.3 million; some artists also participated, and a singer invested $123,000 to buy virtual land. Using real-world funds to buy virtual world land and form a real and operable market is indeed a new thing and a new field.

In China, virtual real estate has also attracted many people to buy and hoard houses. A certain game platform has issued 350,000 virtual houses and graded them to represent their scarcity. After some players bought the so-called "rare properties", they put them up for sale on second-hand trading platforms, with the price even reaching more than 900,000 yuan. Buying land, buying houses, buying materials, doing renovations, waiting for appreciation, and then selling... The process of buying and selling virtual real estate is roughly the same as that of real estate transactions in real life, except that the space and scenes are different. However, whether it is speculation or investment, bubble or outlet, hype or trend, still needs to be questioned.

(Photo source: Network)

New things will inevitably bring all kinds of new understandings. Regarding "metaverse real estate speculation", people have different views on how to define its nature, how to predict its direction, and how to view its trend. Some people see it as an opportunity and believe it is the "wealth code" of the future; some people feel it is magical, "the body has no place to rest, but the spirit starts to build a house"; some people participate in speculation, "if it can rise to several million, it will be sold"; some people see it as speculation, "creating a sensational communication effect to attract investors"; some people are full of expectations, believing that this type of real estate has transaction and circulation attributes and has room for appreciation; some people can't help but worry that it may hide a scam of "passing the parcel"... All these, each view is like one side of a prism, and it is not enough to present the whole picture. Perhaps, we need to let the bullet fly for a while, and observe more clearly and understand more deeply over a longer period of time.

At present, the Metaverse and its related application scenarios are still in the initial stage of development. This is the basic premise for analysis and discussion around related topics. Especially as an industry, the Metaverse, although there are infinite possibilities, there are also many uncertainties. Whether it is enriching concepts or exploring extensions, whether it is developing industries or investing in the market, it is still an exploration attempt based on technology, ideas and needs. This is a gradual development process. From virtual to real, from visible to tangible, there is still a long way to go. It is better to think calmly and beware of the risk of burns.

New things are bound to be accompanied by new risks. At present, "metaverse real estate speculation" is often based on NFT (non-homogeneous tokens). In this sense, virtual real estate transactions are suspected of "real estate speculation" and "coin speculation". Some experts pointed out that the NFT investment market has compliance risks of trading platforms, compliance risks of whether the issuer constitutes a coin issuance behavior, and whether the buyer has liquidity risks when reselling. The "metaverse real estate speculation" associated with this also has risks such as product financialization, skyrocketing and plummeting, speculation fraud, illegal fundraising, gambling and money laundering. More importantly, China's legal nature, trading methods, supervisory subjects, and supervision methods of NFT have not yet been clarified; some other forms of virtual asset trading behaviors are not supported by law in China and many other countries. In fact, the value growth of any innovative product should be based on a safe market environment and a normal financial order. Awareness and prevention of potential risks will help guide the healthy development of the industry. Therefore, the advanced development of new things cannot be boundless or disorderly, and requires both tolerance and indulgence. Supervision should be encouraged to be ahead of innovation.

Is participating in "metaverse real estate speculation" a wealth opportunity or a way to be ripped off? At present, there are many virtual world products claiming to be metaverses. As long as any company goes into recession, investors will lose all their money in the virtual products they buy. Such lessons are everywhere in the history of game props trading. Whether "metaverse real estate speculation" is Alibaba's cave or Pandora's box, we might as well wait and see. However, it should be clear that being in a virtual space and anchoring speculation to make quick money may be a "bubble" that bursts at the slightest touch. In the final analysis, the maturity of new concepts and their industries still needs to be built brick by brick. Only with the development of technology, the support of reality, the constraints of rules, the cohesion of consensus, and the advancement of concepts can it truly go forward steadily.