# Offline and online

By [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com) · 2021-10-15

art-mural, augmented-reality, bitcoin-etf, crypto, cryptobabypunk, decentraland, development, digital-fashion, real-estate, real-estate-development, reit, snapchat, tech, urbanism

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https://twitter.com/donnelly\_b/status/1449087312009256966?s=20

I was out for dinner this week with a group of real estate developers. And as you might expect, we spent the majority of the time talking about real estate and complaining about how long things take. But a good chunk of time was also spent pontificating about the world of crypto. That's what happens these days. In fact, one of my friends joked that my/this blog used to be a real estate and cities blog, but now it's a crypto blog. It's a joke, but I guess it's becoming partially true.

For as long as I can remember, I have always been interested in what's new and what's next. And I think this is next. So I'm reading, playing, thinking, and writing about it. And the more I do these things, the more my conviction grows. But what really did it for me was the hands-on playing around part. I'm not interested in owning a crypto ETF (the US is about to get its [first bitcoin ETF](https://www.ft.com/content/d7601039-e98e-47c8-97af-79f96c2c3d94) based on futures contracts). I want to own the cryptocurrencies directly so I can see what they can do and how everything works. (Though I will say that this space is still not very user friendly.)

One of the things that comes to mind as I continue to play is the future interrelationship between our offline and online worlds. Because already we are living in a world where people now buy and collect rent on virtual real estate in places like [Decentraland](https://market.decentraland.org/lands) (REITs are even starting to emerge). Where parties happen online instead of offline (but still attract big name DJs). Where people buy [digital fashion](https://brandondonnelly.com/2021/06/22/digital-only-clothing-is-seemingly-taking-off-is-real-estate-next/) instead of physical fashion, and pay just as much for it and sometimes even more. And where augmented reality is changing how we experience our cities in real life. A few weeks ago, I came across a park in Paris that had partnered with [Snapchat to deliver an AR experience](https://lensstudio.snapchat.com/), to give just one example.

These are meaningful shifts that are gaining traction (and this post is by no means an exhaustive list). And while I remain steadfast in my belief that cities are profoundly resilient and real-world experiences are irreplaceable, I do believe that our emerging digital worlds are going to have an impact on how we design and build our cities going forward. From [art murals of NFTs](https://twitter.com/donnelly_b/status/1449087312009256966?s=20) to entire new virtual worlds, this is an exciting time for cities and technology.

Enjoy the weekend.

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*Originally published on [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com/offline-and-online)*