A bidding event is set to take place over a 72-hour period for those who want to snap up virtual property "in a fresh and undiscovered Shib world."
New details have emerged about Shiba Inu's metaverse — and the project's virtual world is going to consist of 100,000 plots of land.
A total of 36,431 plots are going to be available to buy in the "introductory phase" of SHIB: The Metaverse — spread across four different districts.
Plots have been split into four tiers — while the cheapest, Silver Fur, will cost 0.2 ETH, premium Diamond Teeth lands will set investors back 1 ETH.
This revelation also sparks an inevitable question: why is a Shiba Inu metaverse using ETH to facilitate purchases rather than SHIB? The project explained:
"As we will use the collected funds to pay for the metaverse development, the team has decided to use a neutral coin that can be sold into stablecoins in order to pay all the sources. Using our ecosystem tokens is a risk, as we would need to dump our own tokens price cashing them."
Over time, it's hoped that those who own virtual plots of land will be able to generate passive income — and have a personal space where they can "build and manage their own projects."
Collectors who own Shiboshi NFTs are also going to get preferential access to virtual land — and a snapshot was taken in February that selects 2,000 addresses at random. They'll be able to make bids and purchases during an early bird event.
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How Bidding Works
A bidding event is set to take place over a 72-hour period for those who want to snap up virtual property "in a fresh and undiscovered Shib world," with a blog post explaining:
"Those who want to lay claim to a plot facing the sun or live near the crème-de-la-crème on the best villas, will have the opportunity to bid for their plots before a timer runs out!"
To be eligible, bidders will need to lock up assets such as the $LEASH token or their Shiboshi NFTs — giving them access to an interactive map where they can place bids on their desired plots of land.
Bids will be placed using Ether, and funds will be returned to those who are outbid by a rival. To be given the right to mint a plot, the winner will need to have the highest bid at the conclusion of the auction.
Further plots of land are going to be sold in subsequent stages — enabling $LEASH and Shiboshi owners to make purchases at a fixed price and on a first-come-first-served basis, rather than going through an auction process. This seven-day "holder event" is going to immediately follow the 72-hour bidding war.
Last but not least, a public sale will take place where remaining investors can snap up all remaining plots "without needing to lock any of their ecosystem assets."
Shib: The Metaverse has also revealed that it is in the final stages of welcoming an "AAA game developer studio" who will be responsible for artistic direction and virtual reality development within the ecosystem. Signing off by nicking the slogan for a well-known mobile network, the project wrote:
"The future is bright, the future is SHIB."
Not everyone is impressed with the new offering — least of all Dogecoin creator Billy Markus. On Thursday, he tweeted:
"How is making a random metaverse and selling fake land with Ethereum adding utility to the project? I mean whatever, if people want to give the devs even more money go ahead, but if I was a SHIB holder I would be annoyed."