Upland

Upland is the developer of an online game that offers nonfungible token-based virtual real estate trading, built on blockchain. The game allows players to buy, sell, trade, and develop virtual properties based on real-world addresses, and the company uses blockchain technology to ensure true ownership of the digital addresses for players. Players in the game collect an in-game currency as a reward for ownership and the completion of collections that group together a predefined amount of properties.

Upland was founded in 2018 by serial entrepreneurs Dirk Lueth, Idan Zuckerman, and Mani Honigstein, and is based in Mountain View, California.

Upland is similar to the board game Monopoly, in that users buy virtual properties mapped to real addresses, and each property in the metaverse is a unique NFT that can be sold or traded to other players. The game platform allows users to develop on the properties by staking Spark, the in-game resource token. Further, the developments are expected to be able to house in-game businesses that earn players a real income. All in-game earnings can be converted into real US dollars. The in-game currency can be earned by owning, flipping, or developing businesses on a property.

Example of Upland gameplay.

Players can buy, sell, and trade properties in digital representations of San Francisco, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Fresno, Oakland, Bakersfield, Staten Island, Chicago, and Cleveland, with Upland working to continue to add more cities. The company uses the EOS blockchain to ensure ownership of all assets and to follow the principles of a free and open market economy. Once a property is purchased, the owner earns an annual UPX (the in-game token) yield of around 17 percent.

Upland also offers what the company calls Legits. These are NFT collectibles of NFL Football Players, minted in associated with the NFLPA, which players can collect. The collection also includes virtual stadiums for tailgating, and other exclusive events. When players complete collections, they can earn UPX and boost their Fan Scores, including being rewarded for trading the player NFTs in Upland's marketplace.

The company is also working to offer a cross-chain NFT portal to allow users to bring NFTs from other blockchains into Upland's metaverse, and to introduce "meta" cars through a partnership with Cryptomotors and the above mentioned in-game businesses. Furthermore, the company is aiming for mass adoption; due to that, the average cost to purchase a digital property is kept rather low, although key landmarks in the virtual world have sold for around USD $25,000, and some moguls have been created through the game. Cities like San Francisco and Manhattan have been sold out of virtual land since the beginning of 2021.

The company has announced it is taking action on blockchain sustainability and has partnered with EOS Authority and ClimateCare to offset a year's worth of carbon emissions for the entire EOS Mainnet—approximately 281 tonnes of carbon dioxide offset. Further, EOS is a more energy efficient blockchain when compared to Bitcoin and Ethereum.