We have recently posted a few articles about Web3 and NFTs that had clients calling us and wondering if we are leaving real estate. The answer is absolutely not! Web3 is the next version of the internet that is being adopted. There is very little happening in real estate today related to Web3, but it is coming, and we are jumping in feet first to learn. Every day my knowledge of the space grows. As consultants specializing in real estate, our expertise is helping clients navigate their way into the future. To do this, WAV Group needs to develop on that expertise. In addition, we have made a significant investment in one of the top companies helping artists to sell their NFTs.

We will be making announcements over the next few weeks as we launch some of our first projects. At this point, the only connection to the real estate industry is that we are launching a metaverse that will create a digital experience tied to a luxury development in Costa Rica; where the sale of property in the metaverse and the sale of the land in real life will all happen on the blockchain through NFT sales.

As we have stated here and in prior posts, very little is happening in the Web3 space in the real estate industry today, but brands and companies outside of our industry are investing and learning. We believe that our clients need to learn this space – something is going to happen, we are just not exactly sure what or how.

Last year, we saw a bunch acquisitions of crypto companies by modern finance companies. Examples are Galaxy Digital’s purchase of BitGo for $1.2 Billion, Kraken purchased Staked, Siam Commercial Bank’s purchase of Bitkub for $537 million, PayPal buying Curv and Robinhood buying Cove Markets. A lot of this activity is around two themes: crypto payment and decentralized finance.

Crypto payment is the ability to use crypto currencies like Bitcoin or Ethereum (Eth) to buy products in stores. Much in the same way that there is a backbone for credit card payments, there will undoubtedly be a system for using crypto. This is obvious and is going to happen. The benefit is that crypto will stay in crypto and the fees for converting crypto to fiat currency will be avoided. At a base level, this tells me that all of you should have personal crypto wallets now. You can buy one Eth for about USD$3,500 today. That should be plenty for you to play with. The easiest way is to download the crypto.com app on your phone and connect it to a credit card or to your bank so you can convert USD to ETH. Reach out to me if you need help getting started.

Decentralized finance is another obvious development that is happening. People with lots of crypto are looking to diversify their strategy. We all know people who have made incredible returns buying and selling crypto currency. Congratulations on the success of currency traders! But like fiat currency traders, the gains are not great relative to making investments in the stock market or businesses. Crypto traders have realized that they can compound their investments and stabilize volatility when they purchase NFTs and put their crypto to ‘work’. Right now, the leading crypto currencies are in a dip, but the NFTs are continuing to appreciate in value to offset the currency value loss. I am sure that people with crypto would finance home purchases just to put their money to work. The best part is that the decentralized loan can be fractionalized across a bunch of investors.

We are workshopping the usefulness of using Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) to manage how organizations operate. In the metaverse, governments and laws do not have control. The DAO makes those decisions. This is obvious for homeowner associations – but might be interesting for technology companies and brokerages, too. For tech companies, they can launch an NFT to users (to give them a financial incentive in the company) and create a DAO for voting on future product development. Brokers may offer NFTs to their agents and operate a DAO for how the brokerage operates to drive retention. #CrazyIdeas

In last week’s blog post we talked about NFT investor, @FVCKRENDER who owns a few million dollars in NFTs, and how he is wanting to trade them for real property. This is an example of how interesting this has become. He wants to trade his collection of NFTs for a home in Vancouver. If I were Phil Soper, I would buy this guy a house and take the NFT’s. The media value alone would be worth it.

Stay tuned for some exciting business announcements ahead. We will be issuing a press release of our new WAV Group partner who will lead our Web3 consulting projects, be available as a educator, and drive our Web3 business development in the metaverse.

Don’t worry – WAV Group is not changing, we are growing! Web3 will be a new center of excellence led by our new partner. Our core centers of excellence in Strategic Planning (Marilyn), Public Relations and Communications (Kevin and Myra), Technology Services (David), Mergers and Acquisitions (George), Research (Marilyn), Recruiting (Marilyn), Venture Capital and Advisory Services (Victor).

The biggest trend in NFTs right now is collaborations. We are looking for opportunities for our real estate brand clients to collaborate. If you are interested, let me know. I’m happy to hop on a call to discuss this exciting and constantly-developing new world we’re entering in to.