Editor’s note

编辑说明

This piece examines the early-stage social life of emerging technologies—before standards, regulation, or stable use cases are in place—through the phenomenon of virtual land speculation in the metaverse.

这篇文章关注新兴技术在制度、标准和监管尚未成形之前的社会形态，通过“元宇宙买地”这一现象，观察技术如何被过早地想象为基础设施并进入投机市场。

Key questions

核心问题框架

• Why can virtual land in the metaverse reach prices comparable to real-world real estate?
• 为什么元宇宙中的虚拟土地可以卖出接近现实房地产的价格？
• How do creators, platforms, and speculators assign value to digital land and NFTs?
• 创作者、平台与投机者如何共同塑造虚拟土地与 NFT 的价值？
• What kinds of governance, risk, and inequality emerge when virtual worlds adopt real-world property logic?
• 当虚拟世界引入现实世界的产权逻辑，会产生哪些治理风险与结构性不平等？

Selected excerpts

文章节选

Excerpt 1 · The price shock: when virtual land enters the speculative spotlight.

节选一 · 价格冲击：虚拟土地如何进入投机视野

2021 年11月23日，Decentraland中的一块数字土地被卖出243万美元（约合人民币1552万元）的高价。11月30日，Sandbox又以430万美元（约2739万人民币）的新出售价格刷新了这一交易记录。不久后，歌手林俊杰也在Twitter上宣布自己在Decentraland上购买了三块虚拟土地，根据外媒估算，这三块地大约花了12.3万美元（约合人民币78.4万元）。
为什么虚拟土地可以卖出堪比现实的价格？这些“元宇宙”游戏的吸引力究竟在哪？

On November 23, 2021, a parcel of digital land in Decentraland sold for $2.43 million (about RMB 15.52 million). On November 30, The Sandbox set a new record with a $4.3 million sale (about RMB 27.39 million). Soon after, the singer JJ Lin announced on Twitter that he had bought three plots in Decentraland; according to estimates in overseas media, the three plots cost roughly $123,000 (about RMB 784,000).
Why can virtual land reach prices comparable to real-world property—and what exactly are people buying?

Excerpt 2 · Creative labor before speculation: why artists enter the metaverse.

节选 2 · 创作先于投机：艺术家为何进入元宇宙

生活在佛山的辣椒油，去年还是位普通的平面设计师，大学专业学的传统绘画，这件事情引起了他对NFT和区块链的兴趣。一件传统的艺术品从艺术家手中进入市场后，与艺术家本人再无瓜葛，但NFT可以为艺术家提供永久的持续收益，除一次性的销售收入外，艺术家还能够获得二级市场中每一次转售的特定比例分成。这对于从事创作的辣椒油来说别具吸引力，在对这个领域进行一番调研后，他最终选择Sandbox这款游戏进入这个领域。

For Chili Oil, a designer based in Foshan, NFTs offered something traditional art markets rarely provide: continuous income. Unlike physical artworks, which are detached from artists once sold, NFTs allow creators to receive a share of every resale on the secondary market. After researching the field, he chose The Sandbox as his entry point into the metaverse.

Excerpt 3 · Coding scarcity: how virtual land mimics real estate.

节选 3 · 被编码的稀缺性：虚拟土地如何复制房地产逻辑

这些虚拟土地与现实世界中的房地产运作别无二致。Sandbox中的可用Land总共只有166464块，永不增减，并且每块地都被上传到区块链后出售，保证了其唯一性。当几块1*1的Land被合并成一块更大的地块时，就变成了ESTATE（土地群）。通常，ESTATE 的大小为 3*3、6*6、12*12和24*24。这些地将通过分批预售和公开销售的方式出售，并且允许玩家在Opensea等第三方 NFT交易所上进行转售。辣椒油向我形容道，“一块1*1的Land相当于现实生活中一个NBA篮球场的大小。”

These virtual plots operate almost exactly like real-world real estate. The Sandbox has only 166,464 usable Land parcels—fixed forever—and each parcel is sold after being uploaded to the blockchain, which is meant to guarantee uniqueness. When several 1×1 parcels are merged into a larger plot, it becomes an ESTATE. Typical ESTATE sizes include 3×3, 6×6, 12×12, and 24×24. These parcels are sold through staged presales and public sales, and can be resold on third-party NFT marketplaces such as OpenSea. Chili Oil described it to me this way: “A 1×1 Land is about the size of an NBA basketball court in real life.”

Excerpt 4 · Ownership without protection: risk, theft, and governance limits.

节选 4 · 没有保护的“所有权”：风险、盗窃与治理边界

强调唯一性和不可复制性、似乎颇具安全性的NFT也有缺陷。辣椒油此前并未接触过区块链、比特币、NFT之类的事物，所以当一个看起来跟官方并无二致的链接发到他的Discord，告诉他可以领取游戏奖励时，他竟没有多想，将自己一块Land的密匙输入进去，所以这块Land便被盗了。“还好我也怕丢，所以分开了几个钱包用来放土地。”辣椒油感慨道，“只要密码泄露了，其实还是很容易被盗，而且因为NFT强调匿名性，也很难追回。”

Despite its promise of uniqueness and security, NFT-based ownership remains fragile. After entering his private key into a phishing link that appeared official, Chili Oil lost one of his Land parcels. Because NFTs emphasize anonymity, recovery is often impossible once assets are stolen.