Palo Alto, California, Nov. 10, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- (via Blockchain Wire) Upland (https://upland.me/), the blockchain-based metaverse that sits on top of the real world, today announced the launch of its integration of Tilia Pay, a virtual economies payment tool from Linden Lab (creators of Second Life), now live in beta. Tilia Pay will enable Upland players to sell virtual properties, based on real-world addresses and represented by non-fungible tokens (NFTs), for US dollars. This makes Upland the first blockchain game to allow players to extract the monetary value of virtual goods back into real money in the real world.
For Tilia it is the first third-party and blockchain partnership enabling Upland to leverage Tilia Inc.’s registered money services business and money transmitter licenses for the United States. The partnership manifests Upland's position as the innovation leader in the blockchain gaming space where in the future millions of players will “truly” own and sell digital goods for real money.
Upland is the first-of-its-kind, next-gen blockchain metaverse mapped to the real world that merges social interactions and gaming with monetization opportunities. To date, Upland players were able to transact via the in-game cryptocurrency UPX. Now with the introduction of Tilia Pay players can start earning real money by flipping properties and in the future by selling all sorts of NFTs via operating their own virtual businesses (e.g. art galleries, nurseries, car dealerships, etc.) in Upland.
How It Works:
- Players can put their property up for sale on the marketplace in USD
- A USD account is created in the background to store sales proceeds via Tilia. This requires KYC (Know Your Customer) verification, similar to the process of an online bank or Paypal
- Once a property is sold, Uplanders can withdraw the USD proceeds directly to their personal Paypal account
Unlike the broad majority of blockchain games, Upland has been providing from its get-go a simple and smooth user experience across the web, iOS and Android to attract a mainstream audience. Now the company goes one step further because the aforementioned money withdrawal actions do not require any blockchain knowledge either. Mainstream players will welcome the real money extraction as a new and unique feature in a game they haven’t seen before.
Because Upland can be played independent of a player’s physical location, it is rapidly building a global community of fans. The virtual properties that are currently available for sale within the game are based on the real-world addresses of New York City, San Francisco and Fresno. Players travel between these cities by virtual plane or train. There is always something to do in the earth’s metaverse and an opportunity to earn UPX by participating in live events, treasure and scavenger hunts, completing signature property collections and by winning one of the many challenges offered by the game operators and Uplands community.
“Creating virtual value and bringing it back as real money into the real world has always been an ultimate goal for us to get mainstream players into the Upland metaverse but we needed a robust payment partner that shared our vision and could scale,” said Dirk Lueth, Co-Founder of Upland. “Tilia Pay has the best track record for monetizing virtual economies, having already powered Second Life’s multi-million dollar company. Working together is the perfect match and we are excited to open so many new doors of opportunities for our players.”
“Although we created Tilia Pay for Second Life, its success highlights a world of opportunity for our payments system across virtual economies,” said Ebbe Altberg, CEO of Linden Lab. “Since we first announced this partnership, we have been excited to work with Upland, a leading blockchain game, pushing the boundaries of what’s possible with virtual worlds. We’re looking forward to more success and growth stories from the Upland community.”
Upland recently launched the full opening of its New York City metaverse with auctions of iconic presidential property such as Federal Hall where George Washington was sworn in, Obama’s House where he lived while at Colombia University and the auction of the real-world address of Trump Tower in Manhattan - which also represents a landmark in Upland - auctioned on Election Day for UPX 2.6 million.
Upland with Tilia Pay is now available in beta with selected players on mobile web and desktop browsers.
For more information and to download the game, please visit https://upland.me.
ABOUT UPLAND
Upland (https://upland.me/) is a metaverse that combines real and virtual worlds, allowing users to buy, sell and trade virtual properties that are mapped to actual addresses. Upland follows the principles of an open market economy, using blockchain technology to ensure true ownership of digital assets. Upland is available on iOS, Android and desktop devices.
ABOUT LINDEN LAB
Linden Lab develops platforms that empower people to create, share, and benefit from virtual experiences. Founded in 1999, the company first launched Second Life, the groundbreaking virtual world enjoyed by millions around the globe, in 2003, which has since gone on to boast nearly two billion user creations and a vibrant $500 million (USD) economy. For more about Linden Lab, its products, and career opportunities, visit its website.
ABOUT TILIA
Tilia Inc. is a registered money services business and licensed money transmitter in the U.S. Tilia’s product Tilia Pay powers virtual economies and provides secure transactions at large scale. Tilia is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Linden Research, Inc. For more information, visit https://www.tiliapay.com/.