In 2021, an investment firmbought 2,000 acres of real estatefor about US$4 million.
Normally this would not make headlines, but in this case the land was virtual.
It existed only in ametaverseplatform calledThe Sandbox.
By buying 792non-fungible tokenson theEthereum blockchain, the firmthen ownedthe equivalent of 1,200 city blocks.
It turns out that legal ownership in the metaverse is not that simple.
Despite these claims, the legal status of virtual owners is significantly more complicated.
NFTs and the hype about the metaverse have sparked a virtual land rush.
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Your purchase assigns you ownership of an NFT, which is simply a unique string of bits.
Each NFT is linked to a particular virtual item.
Because of this, many people think that the NFT and the digital item are one and the same.
These are legally binding documents that define the rights and duties of the users and the metaverse platform.
Unfortunately and unsurprisingly, almost no one actually reads the terms of service.
Everyone else unwittingly gave away their first-born child to the fictional online service provider.
This is extremely problematic for legal ownership.
As it stands, each platform needs to link NFTs to their own proprietary digital assets.
NFTs exist on the blockchain.
These features are completely controlled by the private metaverse platforms and are subject to their unilateral control.
While admittedly jarring, this is not a far-fetched scenario.
It can do this without any notice or liability to you.
The Conversation reached out to The Sandbox for comment but did not receive a response.
Technology alone will not pave the way for true ownership of digital assets in the metaverse.
