When new technologies and platforms are made, there are exciting discovery phases that lead to economic activity. The metaverse is in the discovery phase, and many entrepreneurs are finding ways to make money without doing anything.
As economic activity in the metaverse grows, new ways to make money, both actively and passively, pop up all the time.
Even though what works and what doesn’t is debatable, there are people in the metaverse who have found ways to make passive income.
What does the metaverse mean?
Before figuring out how to make passive income in the metaverse, you need to know what it is.
In recent months, “metaverse” has been one of the most popular buzzwords in the Web3 space, with digital economies moving millions of dollars toward it.
The word “metaverse” first appeared in Snow Crash, a cyberpunk science fiction book written by Neal Stephenson in 1992.
In the Web3 world, the word means a digital place where people really own their own assets.
The metaverse is different from other digital worlds, like those in video games, because it uses tokens that can’t be used in other places.
Users can trade these tokens based on the blockchain, but they can’t be duplicated or copied.
Researchers are still trying to figure out what can be done in the metaverse, but real businesses have been set up there.
The metaverse is also based on the idea that different things can work together.
Metaverses could be thought of as virtual worlds like the one in the popular video game Roblox.
Still, users don’t have control over or ownership over their assets, which is different from the new blockchain-based versions.
Walmart seems to be getting ready to join the metaverse, and both Ralph Lauren and Gucci have said that virtual clothing could be a big growth area for them.
In two years, the sector is expected to be worth $800 billion, and it is already growing very quickly.
Passive income could be excellent depending on the size of the space.
Those who already spend a lot of time in the metaverse may find it easy to take advantage of opportunities to make money without doing much work.
Still, no one knows how long each change will let businesses make money.
Renting out metaverse land
Real estate rentals are one of the best-known ways to make passive income in the metaverse.
Users of metaverse platforms like Decentraland and The Sandbox can rent land to other people for a fee.
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Since this information is not widely shared, not many people know what kind of money metaverse landlords can expect to make.
Even so, businesses want to hold events in the metaverse because it is seen as a good market.
Pavel Sinelnikov, co-founder and CEO of Ethereum layer-2 scaling solution Metis DAO, said that the goal of metaverses was digital land ownership and the ability to buy, sell, and rent land and other virtual things.
Metaverses are a simplified version of reality where a living virtual economy in a game is not limited to the digital domain but goes beyond it. These are real assets that have value outside of the digital sphere.
Sinelnikov says that the economics of metaverses like Decenraland and The Sandbox have an effect on the larger DeFi decentralized finance ecosystem in the real world and open up new ways for it to work with other systems.
Renting a home
You can also rent out assets to make passive income in the metaverse, since some users may not want to buy expensive NFTs outright.
Axie Infinity is a well-known example of how users can rent out NFTs to make money without doing anything.
The game is based on non-transferable tokens called axes, which used to be very valuable when the bull market was going on.
Axies had to compete to win Smooth Love Potion (SLP) tokens as prizes in the game.
Players who couldn’t afford Axies could get them from “team managers” in exchange for a portion of the SLP tokens they earned.
In essence, the managers made passive income from their axies, which other players, called “scholars,” used to win prizes.
Since leasing Axies was so common, some Venezuelan scholars made a lot of money from it.
Depending on the platform, you may be able to lease other metaverse assets.
In the metaverse, interactions like lending, renting, and dividing up assets have already developed.
The best part is that you own the assets, so no single provider can control how you use them or take over the market.
Payment from the secondary market
Some NFT artists have made a lot of money from the secondary market, where collectors sell and buy each other’s works.
The same kind of interaction is possible in the metaverse.
Prakash Somosundram, co-founder and CEO of the blockchain game launchpad Enjinstarter, said that any wearable designer could get royalties when their assets are sold on the secondary market.
John Burris, the head of strategy for the metaverse app IMVU, says that the metaverse is full of ways to make money. He says that while some metaverse worlds are play-to-earn and others have gig-like economies, the vast majority of them let you make and sell items:
“Blockchain and NFTs have unlocked a new way of thinking about ownership and royalties.”
As these products change hands, royalties may and will continue to go back to the original author, giving them well-deserved passive income.
Burris says that the metaverse is a great way for anyone, no matter who they are or where they come from in the real world, to make money.
He said that having the ability to make, own, and sell goods gives people choices they wouldn’t have otherwise.
Virtual games
Gaming is one of the best ways to use the metaverse, and most metaverse worlds are either all about gaming or have a lot of users who focus on it.
Some involve gambling, while others find different ways to make money.
One of the most popular places to gamble in the metaverse is Decentralised Games’ ICE Poker virtual casino.
Because it takes place in the metaverse, it doesn’t have many of the costs that regular casinos do.
But some games have nothing to do with betting.
Some people make money by selling assets, getting royalties from the secondary market, or giving money to charity.
The founder of global investment firm Lemniscap, Roderik van der Graff, told Cointelegraph that one of the firm’s portfolio companies had made a tower defense game to make money in the metaverse.
Van der Graff says that Spark Defense lets players make money off of their territory and complete goals to get, earn, and own NFTs that can be used in the game.
Advertising
As a last resort, we can use ads to make passive money in the metaverse.
Large billboards in high-traffic areas might attract advertisers who want to tell people about their products or services, whether they are in the metaverse or not.
After a campaign ends, an advertiser may lose interest, and the billboard owner may have to look for a new tenant.
Most of the above options will probably need the entrepreneur’s help.
But true passive income isn’t possible because even the least active investments need to be checked on from time to time.
Does it make sense to look for passive income in the metaverse?
Given the cons, some people might decide that it’s not worth their time to try to make money in a way that isn’t completely passive.
Burris says that some of the problems are speculation and having to deal with the volatile nature of the cryptocurrency market since most transactions are done in either NFTs or crypto tokens.
Somosundram says that the viability of an income stream depends on how well each metaverse and game where you make passive money does. This may mean that you have to switch to new projects often.
It is also important to remember that entrepreneurs may bet on a metaverse environment that is later shut down, making their investment useless.
Every way to make money without doing much work in the metaverse depends on a lot of traffic.
Somosundram said that getting passive income from the metaverse is a great way to add to traditional ways of making money, and that as the metaverse business grows, there may be a growing number of options.
Since exact numbers are not made public, it is up to businesses to decide if they want to bet on the metaverse and start building their income streams on it or if they would rather put their efforts somewhere else.
Those who want to be successful in the metaverse might have to come up with new ideas to stand out.
Achieving success to make money in the metaverse
Renting out a house or a digital billboard doesn’t require a lot of creativity, but some of the most successful people are using other methods.
Somosundram told Cointelegraph about an entrepreneur in Singapore who started a GameFi guild that built up a pool of assets that could be rented out.
He also gave the example of tattoo artists who use a service to make wearable tattoos that earn passive income from royalties on the secondary market.
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Burris said, “More than 200,000 active designers make more than 350,000 new items for sale every month on the platform he represents.”
Whether or not entrepreneurs want to pursue passive income ideas for the metaverse, it is important to remember that there are no guarantees that the time or money invested will pay off because the space is always changing.
The economy of the metaverse is still in its early stages because many people are still trying to figure out how things work.
As the metaverse changes, it’s likely that new opportunities will open up, just like they do in the cryptocurrency industry as a whole.
