What Is Upland?
Upland.Me is a virtual real estate metaverse that gives you a chance to get real ownership of NFT property parcels mapped to real addresses, and it’s partnered with a company called Tilia Pay. The company helps video game publishers to create in-world economies and monetize their engagement with other users. This partnership empowers players to essentially convert their holdings back into real-world value, overcoming the existing barrier between the real and the digital worlds.
Upland is a blockchain game where users can buy, sell, and trade virtual properties mapped to the real world. You become a “digital landowner,” which means you can build properties and earn UPX coins. The project uses blockchain to tie each Upland property piece to an NFT.
Upland’s goal is to create a market-based digital economy that makes frames between the real world and the digital world more flexible.
You can buy digital assets within the game with fiat or UPX cryptocurrency and trade those assets with other players. Keep in mind that sometimes you can’t cash your UPX tokens out– all you can do is reinvest it in other properties, which brings you more UPX.
Players can sell their virtual NFT property assets via Second Life’s payments network, called Tilia Pay, which uses PayPal as the main payment method. Thus, you can technically buy NFT representations of real estate in Upland’s virtual world and sell it for fiat, U.S. dollars, for example.
Upland has two in-game currencies:
- UPX — used for buying properties
- Spark — used for improving your buildings
UPX and Spark are not real cryptocurrencies, so they’re not tradable outside of the Upland game.
You can pay with UPX to buy in-game property — still, some properties can be bought with US dollars, depending on the seller’s status.
You can get Spark by boosting your status, winning challenges and taking part in treasure hunts, or you can simply buy it in the Upland Store. Use it to enhance buildings called Structure NFTs.
How to use Upland
Buy property: There are six types of properties you can buy in Upland. To buy the option you like click on the property to put in an offer or buy at the seller’s current price. If there is no price there, you can still offer your own price.
Sell property: Plyers need to research the market conditions and find out how much nearby properties cost. Players can also list their property on the secondary market in both UPX and USD.
Completed collections: Upland rewards users who collect all the properties within one collection. If you have a full collection, you can earn one-off bonuses and raise your property earnings.
Earning fiat, USD: Players can list their properties in U.S. dollars thanks to a partnership that Upland has with Tilia Pay. After you list your property, another player can buy your property and the player will get USD deposited into your account instead of UPX.
Treasure hunt: There are three types of treasure hunts within the metaverse: standard, limited and exclusive.
Spark & property management: The Upland team is happy to get user-generated content within the metaverse. The ability to construct different buildings on top of a user’s property gives the user more choice in what they want to create. Spark is the currency that encourages the development of any type of 3D object built on top of the user’s property.
Traveling: Players can travel by train, bus, air, and even hyperloop in Upland depending on their route.
UNFT swapping: Players can diversify their portfolio of Upland NFTs (UNFTs) to launch 1-for-1 trades between other players.
Vanilla mode: A speculation possibility, with which a player can decide on what properties might be included in collections before their release. These NFTs for the metaverse are minted to the blockchain before the release.
Play-to-Earn with Upland
The good news, players can earn some cash while playing Upland by using one of various active or passive earning strategies.
1. Buy and sell properties
You can collect properties to sell to other players to make a profit. Prices in each city depending on real-world market conditions and the square foot of the property (UP2). Everything is like in real life. The only way to get new, non-minted properties is to buy them with UPX. You can list properties on secondary marketplaces for USD or other currencies as soon as you achieve Uplander status.
2. Passive income from own properties and collections
You can earn UPX passively from properties you have. Plus, if you have collections, you can earn even more. As an example of a completed collection, let’s imagine you have three properties on the same street — it’s called the “King of the Street,” collection, which gives a 1.3X multiplier to your existing earnings.
3. High-traffic properties
You earn UPX every single time a player sends to your minted property. Properties with airports, bus stations, or trains are highly beneficial because other players need to use these methods of transportation to travel outside the cities they live in.
4. Collect the in-game NFTs
Spend UPX to buy such in-game NFTs as collectibles, Block Explorers, third-party promotional series and alike. You can trade these in-game NFTs on the marketplace. Upland partners with crypto businesses to release exclusive, promotional NFTs that you can earn in-game. You can also sell Block Explorers.
Upland has a special collection of Football NFTs, called NFLPA Legits. There are advertised rewards for trading Upland Legits on the marketplace, and Legits are interactive NFTs with 3D designs and IRL perks like a virtual autograph signing events.
5. Follow the NFT-to-USD program
Players who have Uplander status are added to the NFT-to-USD program, which is still in beta. It makes it possible for you to list properties for USD instead of UPX, so a player that buys your property sends you real cash. The program comes with some limitations.
6. Improve property with Spark
You need some Spark to create buildings on your property. These buildings may become metaverse businesses in the future. Developers claim they want to include functioning arcades, marketplaces, exchanges, and community governance on properties that will widen earning opportunities.
For example, building a townhouse will cost you 2600 Spark Hours (SpH). If you have 2 Spark, it will take you 1,300 hours to build your townhouse.
2600 SpH/2 Spark = 1300 hours
The more Spark you have, the quicker it is to create the NFT Structure.
7. Treasure Hunt
Treasure Hunt allows you to earn UPX and possibly Spark; this mode has three levels:
- Standard — absolutely free for everybody
- Limited — available to Visitors and other statuses
- Exclusive Only for Uplander and higher statuses
Once you start a Treasure Hunt, the Treasure is hidden in your area. To find it, you need to Send to look for minted properties for the Treasure. There are some arrow hints that guide you in the right direction, and once the Treasure is there, it appears as a red dot. When you’re close to it, you can have it.
Upland NFTs
There are NFTs in the game, and they are represented by properties. You can buy properties with UPX, and the owned properties may be bought with USD or UPX depending on what the seller wants for them. Structure NFTs are buildings on properties, with other NFTs to collect within the game.
The game generates an EOS blockchain account for players who gain Uplander status automatically, and keys are randomly generated from the player’s username and password. It allows users to store and own virtual assets. Assets can be listed for USD or UPX.
Upland created a series of Upland Legits, which is a set of NFT offerings it describes as giving a chance to brands, sports teams, artists, and others to claim a bright presence in the Upland metaverse. As an example, The NFL Players Association partnered with Upland to make identities for 2,000+ football players in the Upland metaverse.
Upland news is a way to get some new releases of promotional NFT. Stay updated by signing up for Upland’s newsletter via its website or joining the project in their Discord, where they have over 69.000 followers.
Futures updates and roadmap
Upland has quite an ambitious road map that promises the following features and upgrades:
- Car NFTs in Q1 2022
- Cars as transportation
- Racing
- More partnerships
- NFT Discovery
- Weekly login bonuses
- More cities and areas to explore
Closing Thoughts
Upland seems to be a fun game to play and earn some passive income, but you should be ready to put definite effort, though. It’s not a piece of cake to sell properties, as it requires research of the best area to earn a higher profit. You also should be patient cause acquiring the higher player statuses and properties and earning completed collections is asking for time.
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