Would you pay more for a virtual car than for a real one?

Would you be willing to pay more for a virtual car in the metaverse than for one in real life? If you go over 40 you will see it crazy; if you are around 30 it may not surprise you; and if you go below 20 you will see it completely naturally. The new generations see the real world and the digital world more and more united, to the point of spending almost more time with their friends playing online than playing a soccer game or shooting baskets in the park.

Since Mark Zuckerberg announced in October the change of the name of his company to Meta, in reference to the Metaverse that is being created in the digital world, everything that has to do with this new reality has multiplied exponentially, including the cryptocurrencies and us NFT (Non-Fungible Token) through the blockchain.

Paying for something that does not exist in a material way is already something common among the youngest. We see it every day in video games like Fortnite, or platforms like VRChat or Roblox, where one of the main sources of income comes from the sale of 'Skins' or other customization elements. They are purchased within the game and allow you to feel different, special and even unique, in the case of NFTs. So much so that brands such as Vans or Balenciaga already have special sections for the creation of digital products that represent an extraordinary source of additional income.

Cars and the Metaverse

The purpose of a vehicle is to transport its occupants from one place to another, although this does not require a million-euro supercar, or even a high-end model; instead, there is a large market for this type of vehicle, since the automobile world is especially passionate and aspirational.

In the open worlds of the Metaverse you will also have to move, and what better way to do it than in the car of your dreams. In racing or simulation games, there are already those who pay to have an exclusive model, or for the improvements that make their model run faster than others. Why then are you not going to pay to have in your digital life that car that you have always dreamed of and that also gives you prestige and distinguishes you from the rest of your community?

In virtual worlds it is already common to pay for clothes, a house or entertainment, and we are talking about fairly rudimentary environments compared to what is to come. As in the movie 'Ready player one', the user will enter an extraordinarily real digital world and with elements such as 3D glasses or gloves and capacitive clothing, which will make him 'feel' as if he were there in a real way. And the car brands will take advantage of that, developing ultra-realistic cars that faithfully reproduce the real ones and that transmit the same sensations at the wheel. Something that already happens with current simulators such as iRacing, Assetto Corsa or Gran Turismo, among others.

Precisely the latter can be taken as an example of what is to come, since the car brands have developed extremely complex prototypes for this saga within the 'Vision' range that can only be driven within the platform, although in some cases even have subsequently been brought to real life. These were accessed through exclusive versions of the game or updates for which the user had to pay a specific amount of money.

The NFT world in the car

NFTs are unique digital items, much like a piece of art in the real world. There may be imitations, but blockchain technology is responsible for determining which is the original and authentic. At present, authentic barbarities are already being paid for NFTs, which are mostly digital works in the form of drawings.

But if millions of dollars are already being disbursed in cryptonomedas for pixelated doodles such as CryptoPunks, it is hard for us to imagine how much one would pay for a car that a car brand made exclusively for a user. That is, a one-off from the Metaverse. The NFT technology would also determine which would be the first vehicle that a brand has created in a specific digital environment or the units of a certain special series, so that as it happens with the classics, its value would be multiplied.

We may now see all this as a dystopian and meaningless future, but seeing how the Metaverse and the digital markets linked to the blockchain are evolving, this 'unreality' may be much closer than we imagine.