With time and defense constraints configured on purchase, the grid would be malleable enough to accept new growth but if a person or group wanted to "guard" their space they could. There'd have to be measures where someone couldn't lock up too much area unfairly, and I think this might end up with some neat results over time.
A sort of community could build around creating and maintaining certain portions of the grid, just like any other property. There might even be conquests of areas. Maybe even allow the opportunity to "warp" to other grids, creating a zone (restricted in size maybe so people don't hop off into black holes, never to be seen again) that people can call all their own. This could be tracked in it's own user history so people don't manage to lose their coordinates, and would also serve as a handy moderation assist.
This took inspiration from reddit's "place" experiment, there's just so much that could be done with that medium of interaction. Let me know what you think, and please comment any of your suggestions to improve this!
