Look, I’m going to just come right out and say it. Mossland is another one of those blockchain-based virtual reality/augmented reality projects that makes you scratch your head and go, huh?
The concept behind Mossland is simple enough: users bid on virtual versions of real-world properties (this is very similar to another “augmented reality” game I had profiled earlier, called Worldopoly):
What is Mossland: The City?
- Mossland: The City is a location based Mobile Augmented Reality (AR) game that will launch on the 4th quarter of 2019. In this game players can view the actual buildings around you and purchase the virtual real-estate online. By using the blockchain based cryptocurrency, Moss Coin, you can safely purchase and trade in game real-estate and augment the buildings with various AR accessories. Users can enjoy the game while trading and interacting with other players.
What is the Mossland: The Auction?
- ‘Property’ are all the buildings that can traded in ‘Mossland: The City.’ ‘Mossland: The Auction’ is a service provided for players to start bidding on unique landmark properties that will be traded in the game before anyone else.
- Starting the opening of October 12th, each Friday five landmark properties will be released in the auction. Everyone who has an account for the Mossland: The Auction can participate in the auction, and the landmark is given to the user with the highest bid.
Do not be disappointed for not winning the bid, the participants receive incentives for just participating in the auction!
- The winning bidder receives 80% of the Moss Coin that was used for the final bid and the remaining 20% is given to the other participants in the auction.
- The user who is the owner of the property can auction out the Landmark to other users through a new auction on the open market.
Why participate in Mossland: The Auction?
- Mossland: The City provides an opportunity for anyone in the world to own a virtual building. Users can be an owner of a virtual real-estate after completing tasks and missions. This can be a famous building in your area, your school, your workplace, even a cafe that you often go to.
- You can become a forerunner of the virtual property that has actual value. Applying Augmented Reality(AR) advertisements to your buildings can generate additional values.
- It would be much more difficult for users to own unique landmarks after Mossland: The City launches and is provided to more users. Mossland: The Auction provides a one and only opportunity for the potential users of the game to monopolize in owning the exclusive landmarks.
- There are no limits and predictions on how high your property’s price might rise. You can expect a huge increase in your pre-acquired landmark property when Mossland: The City has an explosive number of users.
- Due to the nature of any auctioning system, there will always be a chance where a good landmark can be bought at a low price. Constantly checking the prices of the landmarks and checking out the auction pages will be an exciting experience.
I have to chuckle about the bit where they talk about “an explosive number of users”. But my serious question is (and this is a question I ask about many of these blockchain-based projects): why would anybody want to do this?!??
Amazingly, over the past three months, 170,000 bids were placed on 258 properties in 30 auctions:
The most expensive property to date is Seoul City Hall (which is not terribly surprising; Mossland is run by a South Korean company called Reality Reflection). The winning bid was 1,253,500 MOC (their in-game cryptocurrency), which works out to almost US$45,000, according to this online currency exchange calculator:
Why would anybody want to pay 45,000 dollars for the rights to a virtual property that you can’t even visit yet, and won’t be able to for at least another year?
Now, to cover their asses, the company does include this legal statement:
Notice: Mossland’s Moss Coin (MOC) is an in-game currency; it has no inherent value and should not be purchased for purposes of speculation, investment or profit.
As if people were not spending all this money on properties that they intended to flip for profit later. Another example of sheer greed overriding common sense. The problem is, who is going to buy these virtual properties? What can you do with them? NOTHING, from what I can tell. Sell advertising, as the company suggests above? Advertising requires visitors. Who is going to bother visiting these properties?!?? How are they going to visit them?? On their cellphones, as suggested by this promotional video? Why would they even bother???
Argh, this blockchain bullshit is driving me crazy.
Note that, since there is no indication that you can actually be social (i.e. interact with other avatars) in Mossland, I am not including this on my list of social VR/virtual worlds. Frankly, I should take Worldopoly off that list, for the same reason.
