8 September 2021: Upland is a blockchain-based NFT metaverse game in which players can purchase virtual property using the game's native tokens to own digital realestate. The game launch in 2018 by entrepreneurs Dirk Lueth, Mani Honigstein and Idan Zuckerman in Silicon Valley, California. Since then, the game has grown to about 10,000 daily players and 40,000 monthly players. This article will explore the game Upland and why you should join in on the hype.
Living in Upland
As an NFT metaverse, Upland is literally mapped directly to the real world. This means that each piece of property available in the game is mapped directly to the property that exists on that lot in real life. So far, the mapped cities available on the game include San Francisco, CA, Manhattan, NY, Fesno, CA, Brooklyn, NY, Oakland, CA, Staten Island, NY, Bakersfield, CA, Chicago, IL, Cleveland, OH, and Santa Clara, CA. Additionally, Upland has just announced that two new cities - Kansas City, MO and Rutherford, NJ - are launching on the game September 10th.
The game starts by giving the player a starting amount of UPX (the in game token used to purhcase properties). Then, you can set out and buy a starter property. Once you find a property you like in your price range, once you purchase a property it is minted directly on the blockchain forever - literally digital realestate that is 100% verifiable. The above picture shows the property I purchased in Chicago - a corner lot shown in blue. Below, you can see the verifiable transaction directly on the Upland blockchain showing proof of my ownership of this digital property. Pretty interesting.
Once a player acquires property, that property earns passive income over time. Income can be increased by completing collections within the game, such as acquiring three properties in the same city, owning properties in certain neighborhoods, and so on. Additionally, UPX can be generated by finding treasures and hidden collectibles on the map. UPX itself can actually be purchased to increase holding by exchanging US dollars for UPX if the player chooses to do so.
So, at this point you are probably wondering - who cares? Well, this is why you shouldn't overlook it. These digital properties have real USD valuations attached to them. Plus, in the future players will be able to build up their properties and even start digital businesses from them, quite literally creating a metaverse economy that can actually generate income. Every 1,000 UPX is about 1 USD. The game typically starts most users with 4,000 or so UPX, so about $4 in value. Some properties in Upland, like the NY Stock Exchange (yes, you can literally buy anything that exists in the real world) sold for thousands of dollars. Some players in Upland that have been engaged on the game for a long time have portfolios built up of hundreds of millions of UPX.
To be eligible to trade properties, each players must aquire a total of 10,000 UPX to become an official "Uplander". This can be accomplished through total networth - so the combined value of held UPX and value of the property purchased. Right now I am currently around 7,500 UPX in total wealth, so I am not a full Uplander yet.
Tons of new features are still scheduled to be coming in the future. This is all available to look at on the Upland roadmap available here.
Summary
While I have only been playing on Upland for a few days, I must say the game itself is actually fun. It is very interesting to travel the map and find all the real world properities mapped within Upland. As the map continues to expand, more opportunities will arise for players to gobble up interesting properties - all minted directly on the blockchain. Upland has now been around for a few years, and I suspect the metaverse will continue to grow as new features get added.
Can you make a bunch of money playing Upland? I wouldn't necessarily count on it, however the real USD price valuations that can be listed in game along with the growing metaverse itself does raise some eyebrows. I encourage all to at least check it out and give it a shot as I have enjoyed exploring the game to this point.
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