Warwick is the co-founder of Illuvium, a gaming metaverse powered by non-fungible tokens (NFTs). He is also the brother of Synthetix’s founder, Kain.
Invested Early
According to Warwick, he invested early into virtual lands back in mid-2020 when the use cases for virtual land were limited. At the time, digital land did not have many utilities, given that it did not offer advertising and mining.
Despite the lack of utility, Warwick invested in the virtual land with hopes that Axie Infinity will create the Metaverse. While full development on Axie Infinity is yet to be realized, Warwick notes that the plots have significantly increased in value in the past year.
“Basically, it was speculation, I just thought that play-to-earn in itself, which is this new paradigm of gaming which is taking off now, is going to bring so many players to this game. No matter what, if I buy a rare plot of land, it’s going to be worth some money,” he said.
A Profitable Venture
According to Warwick, investing in virtual land was almost the same as investing in physical real; estate. Some factors for investors to evaluate include the potential of growth to know whether prices will increase or not.
Warwick also affirms that virtual land is not just good for speculation, but investors can also put their land to good use. He pointed to Decentraland, where investors use their lands for advertising various projects. According to him, advertisements in virtual real estate are “probably the biggest use case” for virtual lands currently. However, with the growth of the Metaverse, Warwick expects that the use cases will also grow.
The Illuvium co-founder also stated that he would soon launch the sale of land on the platform. He assured investors that virtual lands on Illuvium would have “a use case from day one.” One of these use cases is a mini-game that allows landowners to mine for minerals that can later be used to mint assets within the game.
“You can only mine it if you have land, so immediately there’s a use case,” Warwick said. Such a strategy will change investor perception that virtual land can only be used to HODL and speculate.
