Upland is a virtual property trading game that bridges boundaries between the real and virtual worlds. It lets you buy, sell and trade virtual plots of land, based on real-world addresses. The game has officially launched in the city of San Francisco and through the map interface users can browse, find and purchase properties. Upland uses U.S Government data which represents the property boundaries in-game. You can view this data here.

The properties collected are not linked to the real world but replicate real-world locations. Players can accumulate digital properties {non-fungible tokens}(NFT’s) and own them. All assets are recorded on the blockchain and rewards players with UPX, Upland’s in-game cryptocurrency that’s transacted with on the platform and used as a value of exchange. The game is based on the EOS blockchain.

Aside from buying, selling and earning dividends from your virtual land, you can also participate in treasure hunts that were launched earlier this year. There are some exciting features set to launch in the 2nd half of this year like property developments, releasing a new city i.e. New York, upgrading treasure hunt mechanics, and launching the Alcatraz jail where players who violate Upland’s terms of service are suspended for a short period of time.

a brief overview of Upland gameplay

To know more about the game structure, features, and economics, you can read the whitepaper and have a look at their roadmap(recommended). If you’d like to start playing Upland, you can refer to this article.

Finlab(EOSVC) and several other angel investors have combined to raise around $2 million in their seed round. The game is currently in open beta at the time of writing this article and is set to release to the public later this year.

There are a number of factors why Upland has the potential to achieve mainstream adoption. They are as follows:

Easy user registration/onboarding:-

It’s no surprise that blockchains have a huge part to play in web 3.0. The benefits of decentralization, immutability, and transparency will change the way the world functions but, in order to reach the masses, the barrier to entry needs to be lowered because understanding private key management, complex jargon, and other technicalities aren’t for the average person to comprehend.

In Upland, all complex technicalities are handled and all you have to do is create an account using your email address.

How upland handles user accounts in the backend. Source: Upland Whitepaper

They solve these issues by using a proprietary wallet that’s coded into its client which communicates with the EOS blockchain and signs transactions on behalf of the users. The purpose of this is to allow non-tech savvy individuals to play the game while enjoying the benefits of blockchain technology. The private keys associated with the user’s accounts are encrypted on the client-side and can only be decrypted with the player’s credentials.

In the future, tech-savvy players will be able to have more control of their accounts by using their private keys with wallets such as scatter to log in. Providing such flexibility for user’s accounts is a boon.

Upland makes it super simple for users by handling their accounts and onboarding non-crypto users to join and play the game.

Stable In-game economy

The upland team has taken mature steps to ensure the stability of the economy during the game’s initial years. The in-game cryptocurrency (UPX) is a utility token that’s only meant to be used within the game. Players are neither able to sell the UPX token nor, trade it on an exchange.

Since these ecosystems are so nascent and new with no substantial volume or market cap, it becomes easy for large token holders/whales to manipulate the market according to their whims and fancies.

Currently, there is no way to cash out of the game(at the time of writing this article). The roadmap states that sometime in 2020 players would be able to sell their properties/NFT’s to fiat and further down the line possibly enable trading of the UPX token.

Compliant with U.S Regulators

Upland has maintained very good relations with U.S regulators. They have so far operated openly and publicly without being shut down or being called out for any malicious activity. Any updates, additions, and upgrades are being done in a compliant way.

True ownership of assets:-

The future is where blockchains create decentralized and innovative economies for games that give users complete control of their in-game assets. Its a selling point that’s better aligned with players and game developers.

When players purchase properties they are secured on a smart contract on the EOSIO blockchain and each property is a non-fungible token (NFT) which differentiates between each property in-game.

Having such unique features makes it important for an economy to function. It provides a sense of security, status and ownership pride. It can have similar behavioral patterns to owning real-world properties, i.e. maintenance and beautification.

The Play-to-Own model increases customer lifetime value, engagement, and retention. It opens up new business models and revenue opportunities that could never be achieved before.

Numer of users over the past 30 days; Source: Dappradar

Though Upland has been in beta for a year, there have been a reasonably good number of users playing the game providing feedback with regards to game mechanics, economics and other aspects which are resulting in the game being able to scale and grow quicker.

What are your thoughts on Upland? Do you think it has the potential to be that ‘Killer DAPP’ everybody in the crypto space is talking about? Leave a comment.

Have you played Upland yet? Use our referral link and get a bonus on your first purchase.