Own your hyper realistic penthouse in the virtual world

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Fancy living in a penthouse overlooking the Eiffel Tower? Yes, that’s the view from my residence in the metaverse and I’ve been spending a lot of quality time there.

It’s my first non-fungible token (NFT) mansion – a modern-day collectible or digital asset that links ownership to physical or digital items, such as works of art, real estate and much more.

I prepaid 0.6 ETH before the drop to secure allocation. I was keeping my fingers crossed for one facing the Burj Khalifa, my absolute favourite, but I was also thrilled when the team airdropped me one with the views along the River Seine in Paris. 

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I’d been keeping an eye out for affordable virtual real estate deals and this penthouse seemed like a holistic one with utilities, 500 square metres of equivalent space, a personal screening room, clean cut living spaces, furniture and a helipad – yes you read it right.

Additionally, each penthouse comes with premium access to spatial.io hosting tools, where the area can be accessed and customised. 

Buying real estate in the metaverse is a great way to understand the concept of shifting value of digital ownership and platforms for interoperable experiences and to explore the myriad of utility this space offers.

From designing the virtual rooms based on my interests, to showcasing NFTs, 3D objects and art, inviting guests to come over for meetings or events, streaming live presentations or closing business deals in a sophisticated virtual environment, you can pretty much establish your very own personal HQ in the metaverse.

Metaverse worlds are attracting millions of like-minded users socialising, building communities and gaming.

From attending a Travis Scott event in Fortnite to seeing virtual attendees lining up for catwalks by designers like Dolce & Gabbana and Philipp Plein during the Metaverse Fashion Week on Decentraland, users are finding some meaningful social experiences that go beyond the realm of physical boundaries.

In fact, luxury designer brands are leading the metaverse adoption by building unique brand experiences and focusing on the rising number of Gen Z users.

Gucci launched Vault and partnered with Superplastic and 10KTF to launch unique NFTs.

At Chalhoub Group, we too are exploring the Web3 environment and recently launched the first NFT for Christofle that sold out in just five minutes.

I am proudly showcasing my 925 Genesis MOOD by Christofle NFTs in my virtual penthouse, along with some additional surprise showcases. 

The recent announcement of Dubai’s Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority (VARA) establishing their HQ in the metaverse on the Sandbox platform has also generated a lot of interest and understanding in terms of the true potential of these metaverse worlds and lands. 

Beyond ownership, these assets give a futuristic view on how physical and virtual worlds will be interwoven in these interconnected, interoperable cross platform experiences around socialisation, finance, commerce, and entertainment. 

You’ll also be interested to know that metaverse property values can work much like real-life property values. In secondary NFT marketplaces, virtual lands near Snoop Dogg’s Sandbox real estate are listed for multiple times more than other locations.

So where is all this going?

Most of these metaverse worlds are accessible across the spectrum of hardware – mobile phones, tablets, AR/VR headsets and even from web browsers, and are waiting to be fully discovered.

Aside from my experience working for a world leader VR headset manufacturer and a natural bias towards futuristic technology, I truly see the value add for a number of industries – gaming, omnichannel retail, smart manufacturing, education, entertainment, and healthcare to name a few.

There will be unlimited opportunities for developers, artists, and content creators to imagine creative executions with enhanced value for everyone to build a protopian tomorrow and future. 

I will be spending the next few weeks decorating my penthouse with elements inspired by the Sistine Chapel, sci-fi movies and murals of people who have inspired me.

The space will be functional and useful, where I’ll convene gatherings of like-minded folks (in their Ready Player Me avatar forms) interacting, networking, and exchanging ideas. 

For those of you still sceptical about the possibilities, trust me – there’s no turning back now. I don’t see a future where digitally enhanced experiences will not be intrinsically interlaced with the physical world – and I think that’s a good thing.

There won’t be a final destination for the metaverse but rather point-in-time experiences that will push human imagination to ultra-reality and a new parallel of progress. What could be more exciting than that?

Ramit Harisinghani is general manager of Devialet, Chalhoub Group