Minecraft’s recent updates adding more life, variety, and realism into the game have greatly increased its popularity again. But the future of the world’s most popular game since Tetris might look very different from the addition of goats and copper ore. The future of Minecraft may very well be based in the Metaverse.
The global, integrated Metaverse idea has been a standard feature of dystopian thrillers since the late 90s, but recent developments have seen society creep closer and closer to an augmented reality future. The biggest historical issue with the idea is that previous attempts at a central online interactive augmented reality community space has gone down in the history books as lackluster, empty, and eventually become overrun with corporate promotions.
However, recently, a new project called District 53 aims to build on the successes of past attempts and finally realize the controversial metaverse dream. The fun part is that the District 53 experience is based on Minecraft.
Essentially, you’ll be able to purchase land in the format of something similar to a property auction. This is similar to how Decentraland and Sandbox operate, with a few improvements. The commerce system powering this auction-like utility is designed to burn 90% of the initial transaction cost. The remaining 10% will be distributed to District 53’s developers.
You’ll then receive your parcel of land within the Minecraft-esque world as a nonfungible token (NFT), and you’ll be able to enter the game with your wallet address. You’ll then be able to build up and modify your assets within the District 53 experience. The land you bought will remain yours until you decide it’s time to sell. The sale will then take place on the Solar NFT marketplace, and you’ll retain 100% of the proceeds.
As an added bonus for anyone looking to get into the corporate landscape in a fun way, there will also be in-game opportunities to interact with corporate entities.
While this isn’t Mojang’s Minecraft, this is a possible future application for the world’s favorite game. Imagine a Minecraft where you can buy land that is inherently yours to build up, monetize, and then sell for a profit. Imagine a Minecraft world that blurs the line between playing games and creating virtual corporate empires that trade in cryptocurrency and NFTs.
It’s nice to dream, but for now, we have to be content with Minecraft’s latest update.