Tech entrepreneur Justin Halladay has long been fascinated by technology’s vast potential for innovation and discovery. He is continuously inspired by the future of technology and its capacity to uncover solutions for problems that real people experience every day. His diverse career experiences in tech span IT, education, software development, and beyond.
Up next, Halladay is working on projects including a precious metals company, a learning management system and educational platform, and gaming and real estate in the metaverse.
“We are at the beginning of some very exciting times[AC1] ,” he says.
About Justin Halladay
A philanthropist and tech entrepreneur, Justin Halladay has worked across the nation in both small startups and large firms. Halladay’s broad skills and interests have led him to a range of career experiences, including sales, customer support, IT, software development, education, and his entrepreneurial endeavors. Along the way, he has acquired a network of knowledgeable mentors and a well-rounded view of business and entrepreneurship.
Now in a position to provide the same insight to others, Halladay embraces the opportunity to inspire and encourage aspiring entrepreneurs. In gratitude for his professional success, he strives to pay it forward through both mentorship and philanthropy. Alongside his wife, Halladay gives monthly to local organizations that are close to his heart.
In addition, Halladay always makes time for family and faith. With his wife and three sons, he starts each day with a family meeting, reading scripture and discussing what they’re grateful for and what they plan to accomplish that day.
What Is Real Estate in the Metaverse?
Described as the future of the Internet, the metaverse is essentially a network of virtual worlds. This immersive digital environment will support both social and commercial activities. People will virtually interact, play games, buy and sell, consume content, and enjoy experiences like digital concerts.
As these virtual worlds emerge, forward-thinking entrepreneurs like Justin Halladay are acquiring virtual land, which is likely to increase in price with the expansion of the metaverse. In fact, metaverse real estate sales topped $500 million in 2021 and are on track to reach nearly $1 billion in 2022. Currently, over a dozen platforms are selling real estate in the metaverse. Most of these platforms cap the number of parcels available, increasing the value of virtual real estate through scarcity.
Unlike physical real estate, the value of virtual real estate typically depends less on location and more on what owners choose to do with their metaverse property. Some investors plan to rent out their property to companies who want to display advertisements, build virtual storefronts, or create digital experiences.
For instance, Miller Lite opened a virtual bar in the platform Decentraland during halftime of the latest Super Bowl. Over 20,000 avatars visited throughout the day, interacting with Miller Lite for an average time of 23 minutes — nearly unheard of from a marketing perspective. The auction house Sotheby’s has a building in Decentraland where avatars can walk around and browse the items up for auction. In the game Roblox, Nike owns Nikeland, a place where avatars can hang out, play, and dress their avatars in Nike gear. Nearly seven million people had visited Nikeland by the start of 2022. When brands like Miller Lite, Nike, and Sotheby’s want to capitalize on these virtual interactions, they must either own or rent real estate in the metaverse.
Other early investors plan to build games, museums, and other popular attractions of their own. Halladay explains, “You can build stadiums. You can build games. You can build condos. There’s a project out there right now, called White Sands, which is building these luxury villas.”
Locations and events in the metaverse don’t have the limited capacity we experience in the physical world, creating exciting possibilities for revenue. For example, a real-world concert venue may be limited to 10,000 people, while a metaverse concert can accommodate millions of dancing avatars, connecting from all over the world.
The value of metaverse real estate is mostly about what owners build, but some locations may be especially desirable. Investors are paying a premium for parcels near Snoop Dogg’s planned virtual world, as well as parcels near the Atari Games development. One platform, Sandbox, has developed 100 Fantasy Islands, each with their own villas and a market of jet skis and boats. At a price of $15,000 per island, 90 islands sold on the first day, and some were resold for over $100,000.
The metaverse is still in its early stages, and possibilities for the future remain unimaginable and nearly endless. Metaverse landowners are limited only by the rapidly advancing technical capabilities of the platforms and their own creativity.
Justin Halladay’s Dreams for the Metaverse
Justin Halladay’s metaverse real estate is specifically located in NFT Worlds, a network of interconnected worlds filled with games, experiences, concerts, community hangouts, and more. It’s the first play-to-earn gaming metaverse of its kind, where in-game portals allow players to easily travel between their favorite worlds. The platform is currently home to 10,000 completely 3-D worlds.
NFT Worlds parcels are about ten times larger than the parcels for sale in platforms like Sandbox, and the platform is powered by Minecraft. This allows for cross-platform support, simple and familiar world building tools, and access to existing infrastructure and support. The platform is decentralized, meaning players don’t have to worry about losing functionality and access to their NFTs and content if a centralized server goes down.
Justin Halladay’s team is building five play-to-earn games, in which players can earn currency. “One of them is called the Crypto Casino,” Halladay says. “We’re building a casino that you’ll be able to engage with in Minecraft. If you like going to the casino, you’ll be able to play the slots and blackjack and roulette to win tokens.”
Tokens are crypto coins that can also be used for exclusive experiences and content, custom character NFTs, and other content and perks. Halladay explains, “People will be able to play our games and generate crypto coins as they reach certain levels. I’m excited about that one.”
Final Thoughts
Today’s developing metaverse is the equivalent of social media in 2007, when a young Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook was still exclusively for Harvard students. Experts predict we’ll see massive adoption and uptake over the next couple of years, but it’s still difficult to predict exactly what the metaverse will look like.
What we do know is that the metaverse brings limitless possibilities to networking, gaming, shopping, immersive experiences, education, and more. Of course, people who want to provide or create these opportunities will need real estate, and that’s where entrepreneurs like Justin Halladay come in.
Justin Halladay’s lifelong interest in technology stems from its potential to solve real-world problems and inspire incredible innovation. This fascination with technology keeps Halladay poised on the edge of the latest tech advancements, and his projects with NFTs, gaming, and the metaverse are no exception.