# Internet real estate for beginners: what you actually own

> Internet real estate for beginners: domains vs pixels vs NFTs vs $1 squares, what you literally own, the risks, and a checklist before you buy.

Source: https://square.pov.town/blog/internet-real-estate-beginners-guide

"Internet real estate" means a scarce, addressable position on a shared surface that someone will sell you — a domain name, a block of pixels on a public page, an NFT tile, or a cell on a favicon wall. What you literally own varies: a domain is a renewable registration, a pixel block is an entry in a site's database, an NFT is a token pointing at something, and a square on Square Town ([square.pov.town](/)) is a database row plus a secret deed URL, bought once for $1 and held until someone evicts you for double. None of these is land. All of them are worth exactly what the shared surface is worth.

> **TL;DR** — Ownership online is always a record somebody else keeps. Domains: yearly rent, real utility. Pixels: a one-time image on a page that usually dies. NFTs: a token you hold, pointing at a wall that may not. Squares on Square Town: $1 once, a deed URL, evictable at 2×, fades if unloved for 90 days, runs on free-tier infrastructure so there's no bill to lapse. Before buying anything, run the checklist at the end.

## The metaphor, 2005 to 2026

The phrase took off in 2005 with The Million Dollar Homepage: a million pixels at $1 each, sold in 10×10 blocks, sold out in five months for $1.04M, the last 1,000 pixels auctioned for $38,100. "Buying pixels" was the first time ordinary people paid for a *location on a page* rather than a domain or an ad impression, and "internet real estate" was the joke that explained it. Roughly 80 national clones appeared in 2005–07; almost all are parked as of August 2026.

The next wave was crypto: from about 2017 pixels became NFTs (Ethereum Pixels in 2017 auto-incremented a pixel's price with each ownership change; later walls put tiles on Polygon, Solana, Base, TON). The pitch changed from "your logo on a page" to "you *own* the tile as a token", plus resale markets, taxes and tokenomics. Most of those walls are dead now; the tokens are not.

By 2026 the metaphor has split into three live strands: pay-to-rank boards (Milliboard: highest single payment holds #1, outbid by 1¢), a crowd of $1 walls (Million Squares Project, Link for a Dollar, Own the Void, Project Pixel, myPixelit) selling one-time squares or pixels, and game-walls where position can be taken from you (earth.tattoo's doubling outbids, Tocka's +1¢ takeovers, The Pixel Orbit's centre for the top cumulative payer). Square Town sits in the last group and uses the favicon as the unit. See [what is a favicon wall](/blog/what-is-a-favicon-wall).

## Domains vs pixels vs NFTs vs squares

| | Domain name | Pixel block (classic wall) | NFT tile | Square Town on Square Town |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What you literally hold | A registration in a registry, renewed yearly | A row in the wall's database with your image and link | A token in your wallet pointing at a tile record | A row in Square Town's database plus a secret deed URL |
| Price shape | Annual fee | One-time (typically $1/pixel, often $100 minimum) | Mint price plus gas; sometimes ongoing tax (Harberger walls) | $1 one-time per square; Throne from $100 |
| Can it be taken from you? | If you stop paying, or by dispute | Usually not — but the wall can vanish | Token stays yours; the wall it points at can vanish | Yes: anyone can evict you for 2× your price, no refund |
| Does it expire? | Yes, unless renewed | No | No | No — but 90 days without a kiss fades the icon (still owned) |
| Proof of ownership | Registrar account | Usually an email or a login | Wallet | Deed URL only (no accounts, no password reset) |
| Utility beyond the surface | Real: email, hosting, identity | None | Resale on marketplaces, sometimes | Analytics on the deed, the game, `GET /api/state` |
| Typical failure mode | Forgot to renew | Wall dies; image and link linger until then | Wall dies; token points at nothing | Evicted; or you lose the deed URL |

## What ownership means on Square Town, precisely

Because Square Town has no accounts, ownership is unusually literal. When you buy a square:

- **A row is written.** Your listing has an id, your URL and domain, coordinates x and y, a width and height of 1, a status of `paid`, the price you paid, and counters for clicks, views and kisses. That row *is* the ownership. `GET /api/state` returns every paid listing publicly.
- **You get a deed URL.** It's a secret token in a link. The deed page shows the square, its views, clicks and kisses; $5 one-time unlocks per-day analytics there. There is no login. Lose the URL and there is nobody who can look up "your" square, because Square Town never asked who you are. The "My deeds" button remembers deeds bought in this browser, which is convenience, not recovery. See [/glossary/deed](/glossary/deed).
- **"Forever" means one payment, no expiry.** There is no renewal and no subscription. Square Town runs on Cloudflare Workers, D1 and one Durable Object on the free tier, so there is no hosting bill to lapse — the usual way walls die.
- **The asterisk is eviction.** Any square can be taken by paying double what you paid; the eviction is announced in the live feed; you are not refunded; the evictor's row replaces yours and your `/go/` link stops working. See [/glossary/eviction](/glossary/eviction) and [the economics of eviction](/blog/economics-of-eviction).
- **The other asterisk is decay.** If nobody kisses your icon for 90 days it fades to grayscale. You still own it, it still links, and any stranger's free kiss brings it back.
- **You own a location, not an image.** What's shown is your site's favicon, fetched from your domain. Change your favicon, the square changes. Have no favicon, and you get a clown until you do.

That is the honest legal reality of every wall, stated plainly (the rulebook is at [/how-it-works](/how-it-works)): you hold a record in someone else's system, subject to that system's rules. Square Town's rules just happen to be short and public.

## The risks, in order of likelihood

1. **Losing your deed URL.** The most likely way to lose a square is misplacing the only proof. Bookmark it, save it in a password manager, and remember it's tied to nothing else.
2. **Eviction.** Someone pays double and takes your cell. Cheap squares in ordinary spots are rarely worth evicting; central and famous spots are. You're not refunded.
3. **Fading.** Ninety days without a kiss and your icon goes grey. Kiss it yourself, or be the sort of site people kiss.
4. **Site death.** Every wall can die. Square Town's answer is free-tier infrastructure and an open state API so the wall can be read by anyone at any time; the graveyard of paid-hosting walls that ran out of runway is long. See [why pixel wall clones die](/blog/pixel-wall-graveyard-why-clones-die).
5. **Dead links — yours.** If your project dies, your square shows a clown or a grey icon pointing at nothing. Squares are cheap enough that this is fine; just know it's public.
6. **The Throne's arms race.** If you take the 4×4 centre ($100 to start), the next taker pays $200, then $400, then $800. Fun to hold, expensive to keep, and no refund when you're dethroned.

## Beginner's checklist before buying any internet real estate

1. **What exactly is the record, and who keeps it?** A database row, a registry entry, a token. Who runs the system, and what happens if they stop?
2. **What is the price shape?** One-time, yearly, or continuous tax. On Square Town: $1 once (Throne from $100), $5 optional for analytics.
3. **Can it be taken?** By non-payment, by dispute, by outbid, by eviction. On Square Town: eviction at 2× your price, no refund.
4. **Does it expire or decay?** Renewals, expiries, fading. On Square Town: no expiry; 90-day fade unless kissed.
5. **How do you prove it's yours?** Account, wallet, or a secret URL. On Square Town: the deed URL only — save it.
6. **What is shown, and can you change it?** An uploaded image (stale forever) or a live favicon (updates itself). On Square Town: your favicon; no upload, no message.
7. **Is the surface alive?** Live feed, recent events, real fill ratio. Many 2026 million-cell walls have single- or double-digit sales.
8. **What do you actually get?** Not backlinks — canvas walls pass no link equity — but a spot, counts, and a game. On Square Town: clicks via `/go/:id`, views per session, kisses, leaderboards, deed analytics.
9. **Can you read it without trusting the UI?** Public state APIs help. Square Town's `GET /api/state` returns the whole wall.
10. **Would you be fine losing it?** For $1, yes. For $100 or a mint fee, be sure.

## FAQ

### What does "internet real estate" mean?
A scarce, addressable position on a shared online surface that can be bought: a domain name, a pixel block on a public page, an NFT tile, or a cell on a favicon wall. It's a metaphor — what you own is a record in someone else's system.

### What do I actually own when I buy a square on Square Town?
A row in Square Town's database (your URL, coordinates, price paid, click/view/kiss counts) and a secret deed URL that is the only proof of ownership. It's a one-time $1 payment with no expiry, but anyone can evict you by paying double, without refunding you.

### Is a square on a favicon wall an NFT?
No. Square Town has no tokens or crypto; payment is a card via Stripe and ownership is a database row plus a deed URL. NFT walls give you a token you keep even if the wall dies; Square Town gives you a deed that only means something while the wall runs.

### Does "forever" really mean forever?
It means one payment and no expiry — no renewal, no subscription. Two asterisks: someone can evict you for double what you paid, and an icon nobody kisses for 90 days fades to grey (still owned).

### What happens if I lose my deed URL?
It's gone. Square Town has no accounts and no password reset, so nobody can look your square up for you. Save the URL when you buy; the "My deeds" button only remembers deeds bought in that browser.

### Is buying internet real estate a good investment?
No. Domains can have resale value; pixels, tiles and squares generally don't, and most walls that sold them are dead as of August 2026. Buy a square because it's a dollar of fun and a place to show your project, not to flip it.