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Thoughts on Sparklet

 Here is a no frills, no formatting brain dump on the spark/sparklet announcement. I want to start this post by saying I am FOR the end goal of making Spark more accessible and liquid.   I am also FOR the end goal of making Spark and thus Upland more visible to the broader crypto market.   I think those are both good and healthy things. From a governance standpoint I will admit I am bummed that Upland framed this as a yes or no for this particular plan. The planning might have gone too far before getting input.   As such many in the community have a split opinion because they like the targets, they just have issues with the trajectory.   Hopefully the reddit feedback is taken to heart and potentially the voting can be parsed out to be a little more granular. I will say I have taken the time to read the whitepaper, watch the video that was posted with it, and listen to the UPX podcast.   While listening to the podcast is really where my concerns rose. I have been on several crypto t
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Shafter: The Purple with Potential

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My investment strategy rarely involves purchasing secondary market properties for 80,000 UPX. An ideal investment for me is a fresh mint on a new neighborhood with collection potential. In most cases I stray from the secondary market if I can. I made an exception for the floor properties in Shafter...    Low markup for the city The markup in Shafter is proof the properties are undervalued. If you look at Temescal (An Oakland purple collection) you will see that the floor price is lower than Shafter, but the markup on floor price properties is often in the 1000s of per cent. Shafter floor price markup is between 300 and 600% at the time of writing, not to mention the collection gives you 1,000 more bonus UPX and +0.10 more of a collection multiplier.  Neighborhood size Shafter is the perfect size for some ambitious new Fiat in CE to make a purple node. This is entirely speculation, but if there was going to be a collection node or at least an attempt to take a large portion of a collec
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Upland NFT Mining

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What is Upland NFT Mining? Upland Comics & Collectibles  is excited to partner with CryptomonKeys and MetaForce Comics to bring NFT mining to Upland.  But what exactly does that mean?  Is this a game mechanic produced by the Upland team?  No, this is not provided by Upland, but you do need to be in the Upland game to participate.  Upland has not at any time promised NFT giveaways or direct peer to peer gifting in app and it doesn't appear anywhere on their roadmap.  As they have an exciting and ever growing set of future mechanics available though, it very well may be a possibility.  But, until such time that they do, Upland Comics has decided to go for it themselves. The idea initially has been tested by the Cryptomon K eys team in Alien Worlds .  Though Alien Worlds does have a plan to provide in game NFT distribution by individual land owners, that function isn't just ready.  So Cryptomon K eys has been doing it manually, check out their monKeymining page for more det
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Fresno: The unlikely capital of business transactions (And what to look for in a flip as a beginner)

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  Fresno is a great city for beginners. All of those FSA properties are ready to be eaten up at prices that are below 1,000 UPX. Why would I reference the 1,000 UPX mark you ask? From my experience Fresno properties don’t sell for under 1,000 UPX and typically sell for around 1,050 UPX. These FSA properties are an amazing introduction to flipping in Upland because, despite small margins after fees, these properties sell relatively quickly at the 1,050 mark due to the fact that people love to use them as transactions for various things. For example the Upland SF REIT will buy Fresno properties around the 1,000 UPX mark when we are selling shares because it allows us to sell without marking up the buyer in fees. Flipping FSAs in Fresno is grunt work, but it’s grunt work that can bring you from visitor to uplander status relatively quickly or just provide some extra UPX for more enjoyable properties, while also helping out the metaverse economy.  With these transactions Fresno has turned
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Neighborhood Spotlight - Merced Manor

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  After my tour of upx.world it was time for me to go back to the shop and relax a little.  I made my way over to Junipero Serra, said hi to the team at Blockchain Heroes, and then went to Upland Comics to relax.  On my way over I got a chance to chat with TDavis and congratulate him on the big news about Little Italy.  He said he was in town and would swing by the comic shop to chat with me.  We were talking all about Little Italy then he started asking me a little bit about Merced Manor.  He was gracious enough to agree to writing up a spot on MM for me.  So, we flipped the script and firmly planted my butt in the chair of the interviewee.  So, here goes nothing, TDavis take it away! Ok, so I'm sure you've had questions about your Explorer name, but I think I've figured it out. You're very direct and matter-of-fact, almost to a fault, but you pride yourself on "telling it how it is" and not sugar-coating things. The name Recourie
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Business Spotlight - Upland Hub

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  After getting the tables turned and talking all things Merced Manor with TDavis I am back in the interviewer role.  After the coast to coast Christmas party I found myself in NYC and took the opportunity to reach out to UplandDood and talk about what he has going on with Upland Hub. So, UplandDood, tell me a little bit about your block explorer name.  How did you come up with it? The first time I notice the Upland game app was through the Wombat wallet. I have plenty of time on my hand due to the Pandemic but I did not download the game to play.  Later on, I saw the Upland ad on the Brave browser. Somehow I got curious this time around and look into it a little more. I found out that it is a Monopoly-like game using real world addresses. I signed up immediately. I want to be the Dood in Upland and hence UplandDood. My life now revolves around Upland.  Tell me more about Upland Hub, what's your vision? Connecting Upland to the real world and vice versa. A platform for business tra
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Merced Manor - The Future of Upland

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  Merced Manor is the sleeping giant that Upland has mostly dismissed.  While many of the more publicized neighborhoods exist in the eastern and northern portion of San Francisco, Merced Manor has been quietly preparing for the launch of property development on the west side.  With plans in place and partnerships solidifying, Merced Manor is ready to become the hub of western San Francisco.   While the current teleport system is convenient, we have been told time and again that there will be real travel mechanics in Upland in the not so distant future.  Real travel times will be associated with walking, driving, light rail, and other forms of urban travel.  Merced Manor is placed perfectly with Route 1, a major north-south conduit running up from Daly City and to the Golden Gate bridge passing through it.  Both Ocean Ave and Junipero Serra being major local conduits running both up and down, as well as across the city will also ensure ease of local traffic getting to the area.  Lastly
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Business Spotlight - UPX World

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  After a quick trip back on the train from Fresno I found myself in good old San Francisco again.  Having gotten a call from Hacker to come check out the newly improved and updated UPX World I decided to head on over and see all the good stuff they have going on over there. So first off, Hacker....how did you decide on that name? Well I am a computer enthusiast and always been interested in networks, programming and security. I didn't know what Upland was before I started playing so I just took the first explorer name that came to mind which was HACKER. OK, guess it works out then.  A little unconventional, but you are rolling with it.  So tell me more about UPX World, what can you find there? Everything around Upland like statistics, information about neighborhoods, leaderboards, dashboard of all properties in Upland, Live Blockchain feed and much more. Data is power, that's really cool.  It's nice to have that available to the public.  So how did you come to choose this
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Highlights of Spud and the Minting Challenge

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I saw a lot of people confused by the recent minting challenge, so I decided to pick out some highlights from the recent Upland Medium article . All points are from the Medium article unless otherwise noted.  Note: We still don't know all of the details. I'll update as more is released.  Spud Property development will be driven by Spark (which is a token). However, the sandbox (which will allow players to play with the property development interface) will use a temporary resource we’re calling “Spud”. During the sandbox competitions, Spud will be used to build properties. All players of Uplander status and above will receive Spud when it is distributed. Spud will have no direct utility beyond these sandbox competitions.
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Neighborhood Spotlight - Little Italy Fresno

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  After being in San Francisco for a few weeks and getting the chance to talk about the The Daily Uplander  I hopped the train down to Fresno to catch up with my man Bdag.  A fellow broadcaster and all around solid fellow.  After having flashbacks to my exciting talks with TDavis about Little Italy NYC I didn't know what to expect in good old Fresno.  So why don't you find out together with me, let's jump right in. So, Bdag, thanks so much for having me.  Tell me a little about your block explorer name. It's just a contractive diminutive of my first and last names. My first name is pretty common and my last name is more complex but I've simplified it to Dag which has been my nickname since late college, and has helped distinguish me from others who share my given name.   Holy Cow!  Listen to the vocabulary on this guy!  No wonder he is a broadcaster, he's almost as well using letter lines me too also!   Alright there showoff, tell me a little more about your fav
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Business Spotlight - The Daily Uplander

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  After a tour of the stunning views from the  Potrero Hill  neighborhood I got the chance to sit down with MXZTPLK for a talk about The Daily Uplander.  The is one of the premier data sources for Upland and I couldn't wait to here more about what makes the data world go 'round. So, MXZTPLK, everyone has got to know....how did you get your block explorer name? It's based on a Superman character called MXYZPTLK. Oh wow, that's fascinating.  Lemme just pull up a quick Wiki on that....oh cool, a little trickster I see.  You know you have been known to pull a few tricky moves in Upland as well.  I think that name suits you well.  So how would you describe The Daily Uplander to our readers? Tools and Data for Uplanders You are too modest, it really is a remarkable site with lots on there.  I dare say I do use it daily.  So how did you come to settle on this business to help other Uplanders? Once I learned that there was an API with property data, and a few people had been p
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Neighborhood Spotlight - Potrero Hill

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 After sleeping off my last article about the Would You Believe? gastropub I am ready to settle into a nice relaxing talk about good old Potrero Hill.  I got a chance to catch up with Potrero Hills biggest fan and wanted to get a little insight into the neighborhood on the east side of San Francisco with some gorgeous views of the bay.  So, AmineU, that's a really interesting block explorer name, tell us what is it about? All about mining/earning crypto and involvement in blockchain Ah, I see, mining.  Very cool, so you obviously came with a blockchain background.  So how did you come to choose Potrero Hill to focus your efforts in Upland?  Its has very diverse structures, mixed real estate, accessible routes and not far from the water. So how do you think the neighborhood will develop once spark is available and construction has kicked off? Mixed use to start. What do you think will be the best type of businesses for the area?  Galleries, cafes are some. Yeah, that seems to be a f
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