Homebuyer spends $650,000 on house they can't live in
Hundreds of thousands of dollars have exchanged hands for a modern, futuristic home with all the luxuries a homeowner could ever desire - but there's one catch.
The new owner will never step foot inside the luxurious abode because it exists only in a digital realm, where it can be downloaded and viewed through either AR (augmented reality) or VR (virtual reality) goggles.
The home, a product of digital artist Krista Kim, was sold for $A650,000, or the equivalent of 288 ether, a type of cryptocurrency, realestate.com reported.
Ms Kim wanted to extend on the basic kinds of digital artwork already available for sale online, and set out to create a downloadable version of her own dream home.
The unique digital file containing the house, named the Mars House, is known as an NFT (Non-fungible token). It was the first NFT digital house in the world.
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Such files are what Ms Kim believes will soon become a major component of many people's everyday lives.
"This is where we are headed, curating our AR environments with digital 3D NFTs that we love. I want to sit in Mars House with friends in AR and drink Champagne," she wrote to Instagram.
"I want to have my zoom meetings in Mars House. I will eventually be able to transpose Mars House over my physical environment whenever I fancy. I created Mars House because it is my dream house. I hope the new owner will love it like I do. This is the future of ART."
The house can be sold to other buyers in the future by trading the digital file.
It's among a host of other pricey items available as NFTs including the first tweet from Twitter boss and founder Jack Dorsey which sold for about $US2.9 million.
Gucci also has a pair of digital sneakers that buyers can design for about $US12.
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