The original manuscript of Neil Stephenson’s Snow Crash — the book which coined the term “Metaverse,” — will be auctioned by Sotheby’s, according to a page on Sotheby’s official website. The auction is part of a Feb. 23 series called “Infocalypse” that includes six physical and six digital items related to the famous book. The original manuscript is in Lot 2 of the series. It is “wrapped in original Xerox 4200 Paper,” secured with masking tape and contains “corrections and notations throughout in Neal Stephenson's hand in blue ink.” It also has the title of the book written on the …

Real Vision CEO and co-founder Raoul Pal believes nonfungible tokens (NFTs) will act similar to “high-end property” in the traditional economy, outperforming Ether (ETH) during crypto market boom cycles. In an hour-long YouTube video published on Feb. 20, the former JPMorgan executive offered a run-down of what he felt most bullish about when it came to NFTs, including key use cases for the asset class, its underlying tech, and its potential performance relative to Ether. Boom! Here you go... My deep dive thesis and understanding on NFT's, what they mean, where they are going and why they are important and …

A career in the metaverse involves developing and designing virtual environments and experiences within a virtual world. Creating virtual characters, objects and interactive experiences is one example of this. There are job prospects in software development, content creation and project management in this expanding profession, which includes disciplines, such as game design, 3D modeling, virtual reality (VR) and artificial intelligence. Related: How to learn Web3 development for beginners Building a career in the metaverse requires a combination of technical, creative and business skills. Below are some of the key skills needed to succeed in this field. Skills required to build …

As borders open up following prolonged COVID-induced travel restrictions, the Metaverse, one of the latest sub-crypto ecosystems, is set to help travelers decide on the destinations they want to experience in person, reveals a new survey conducted by Booking.com personally. Popular online travel agency Booking.com surveyed 24,179 respondents across 32 countries, which revealed travelers’ strong interest in virtually exploring destinations as they decide on their itinerary. Out of the lot, people most likely to try out travel experiences in the metaverse were Gen Z (45%) and Millennials (43%). Nearly half, or 43% of the respondents, confirmed their will to use …

A Chinese court in the city of Hangzhou has said nonfungible token (NFT) collections are online virtual property that should be protected under Chinese law. A Nov. 29 article posted by the Hangzhou Internet Court — a specialist internet court — shared by crypto blogger Wu Blockchain on Dec. 5 reveals the favorable language for NFTs after the country began to crack down on cryptocurrencies in 2021, leaving NFTs in a legal grey area. Translated, the article says NFTs “have the object characteristics of property rights such as value, scarcity, controllability, and tradability” and “belong to network virtual property” that …

When new technologies and platforms are created, there are incredible discovery phases in which economic activity eventually picks up and starts taking shape. The metaverse is arguably in that discovery phase, with many entrepreneurs finding ways to earn passive income on it. As economic activity in the metaverse rises, new passive income opportunities are seemingly being created on a regular basis, as are opportunities to actively earn income. While what works and what doesn’t is still up for debate, there are some in the vanguard of metaverse passive income. What is the metaverse? Before digging into passive income opportunities in …

Third-quarter trading volume for the top 10 Metaverse projects may have fallen 80% compared to the second quarter, but analytics firm Dappradar suggests that interest in virtual worlds still remains. The Metaverse sector has been hit with a fair amount of negative press as of late, particularly around suggested low user activity across certain platforms, such as Decentraland and Meta — reports which they have refuted. DappRadar noted in an Oct. 20 report that while trading volumes have taken a sharp hit during Q3, the average number of NFT sales for these 10 projects only decreased by 11.55% compared to …

The United Arab Emirates Ministry of Economy has announced a new headquarters located where anyone in the world can visit — the Metaverse. According to the Gulf News, the announcement was made on Sept. 28 by UAE Minister of Economy Abdulla bin Touq Al Marri during the Dubai Metaverse Assembly, with the minister stating “this is not a proof of concept, this is our third address” before giving a live tour of the virtual headquarters. The headquarters will feature a multiple story building, each serving a different purpose. Visitors will be able to take a ticket, which will prompt a …

Intellectual property (IP) rights will continue to be a growing area of tension within Web3 and NFTs, as IP rights often rely on a single "identifiable entity," while Web3 is more often decentralized. Speaking to Cointelegraph, David Kappos, a partner at Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP said that IP is traditionally “owned by an identifiable entity, which makes it necessarily centralized from a legal viewpoint.” Kappos suggested that the tension between IP and decentralization does not have a clear solution, asking “how does a DAO really own the IP of the protocol it is supposed to govern?" Over the last …

MicroStrategy CEO and Bitcoin (BTC) advocate Michael Saylor doubled down on his support for Bitcoin as he explained the issues related to transferring the value of physical properties such as gold, company stocks or equity and real estate during the Australia Crypto Convention. Speaking about the underlying proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism, Saylor highlighted that Bitcoin is backed by $20 billion worth of proprietary mining hardware and $20 billion worth of energy. He then pointed out that traditional assets such as gold (in high quantity) and land are nearly impossible to carry forward across geographical boundaries, adding: “If you have a …

Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (A16z) announced Wednesday that it had devised a set of six licenses tailored to nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and based on the model pioneered by Creative Commons. Like Creative Commons licenses, there is a range of rights available through a variety of the proposed NFT licensed, titled Can’t Be Evil licenses. In a blog post, A16z general counsel Miles Jennings and general partner Chris Dixon wrote that, while some NFT creators use Creative Commons licenses and others customize their terms, many NFT projects have no licenses or poorly drafted licenses, leading to copyright and other legal …

Solutions built around blockchain technology offer several upfront benefits, including a censorship-resistant, irreversible distributed ledger. Deloitte’s study revealed blockchain’s position as a perfect fit for real estate use cases around leasing and selling. Blockchain innovations often outdo traditional systems by not only digitizing information but also introducing a near real-time trustless environment, among other features. Big Four accounting firm Deloitte uncovered six opportunities for blockchain to disrupt the commercial real estate (CRE) industry. The above infographic highlights six key pain points for CRE owners when leasing and selling their properties and maintaining complex transaction data. With this in the backdrop, …