By Dirk Lueth, co-founder of Upland
Mark Cuban’s interview on the Altcoin Daily YouTube channel sparked headlines this week, as he called digital land in the metaverse “the dumbest shit ever.” The more interesting part of the interview however, was Cuban’s thoughtful analysis of innovation in Web3. Projects “finding new ways to do business,” he said, is where he is looking to invest. Cuban rightfully pointed out that web3 innovation needs an iPhone-y / App Store-y platform moment. As more people bought iPhones, it made sense for developers to invest in creating apps for this platform, thus feeding the value loop. What Cuban missed is that metaverse land is an essential part of building a Web3 economy that will be THE platform moment for Web3.
Land is not “dumb”, it is necessary. The 4 factors of production in an economy are capital, labor, land and entrepreneurship, which is explained in more detail in my co-authored book “Navigating the Metaverse”. Capital is human-made goods that assist in the production of other goods. In the non-meta economy, capital can be machines, while in the metaverse it can be using tools like Blender to create a 3D file. Labor is the human effort. UGC created models, art skins and more are a great example of Labor that uniquely allows for direct contribution at scale through Web3 tools. Entrepreneurs combine the three other factors of production: land, labor and capital to create value. Land, even if virtual, can be seen as a platform for these entrepreneurs. Said differently: Like in the real world, without land, value creation is hard or even impossible because goods need to be produced and placed somewhere.
We in Web3 must admit that Cuban’s skepticism of metaverse land is justified given …
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