Decentraland is a fully immersive virtual world, similar to games like Skyrim and Fallout. However, you take part in a three-dimensional world rather than playing on a two-dimensional screen. It appears to be the natural next step after developing fully developed AI-based video games in the real world, similar to Westworld.
What Is LAND?
The areas that you interact with in Decentraland are LAND, non-fungible digital assets that you buy from other players. When you own a piece of LAND, you can do whatever you want with it. You may make dynamic 3D scenes, applications, games, and gambling services. However, why end there? You can establish LAND-based services related to education, professional development, tourism, etc. even when it is not their main focus.
There is a cap on the number of LAND, and each plot is 33 feet by 33 feet, with no height restriction. Decentraland has developed LAND Estates, a feature that makes managing your LAND easier by connecting nearby areas. If you’re thinking of buying LAND (or just want to see the map),
Districts are grouped together on LAND in similar ways. In essence, districts are centres of activity for communities with similar interests. For instance, a District with cryptocurrency-specific businesses and apps might exist. Through Decentraland’s voting dApp, Agora, you can cast your vote on District-related matters. The influence of your vote in a given district is correlated with the amount of LAND you own there. Agora was developed by Decentraland to give you more influence over what occurs in your districts and to solicit feedback for the platform as a whole.
What Is MANA?
Decentraland’s cryptocurrency coin is called MANA. It’s an ERC20 token that you may use to pay for both in-world purchases of goods and services as well as LAND plots.
Decentraland burns the MANA you use to acquire LAND when you do. Each LAND parcel was initially sold by the Decentraland team for 1000 MANA. However, the prices of LAND now that there is a secondary market varies. The current going rate for LAND is 11,750 MANA, but more sought-after places have asking prices in the millions. In March 2018, the most expensive plot sold for 2,000,000 MANA, or $175,578. This was a significant sum of money for a hypothetical parcel of property, and it gave the seller a healthy profit.
Technology Architecture
The protocol of Decentraland comprises three layers:
Consensus layer: Utilizes an Ethereum smart contract to track land ownership and content.
The land content layer renders the material in the virtual world via a decentralised distribution method.
Peer-to-peer connections are made available for users to communicate with one another by the real-time layer.
The group is utilising A-Frame to construct the virtual reality platform. You can first make a model in SketchUp or Blender, then load it onto the platform to start building in the environment.
Team Decentraland & Progress
The project lead and Esteban Ordano are in charge of the Decentraland team (Tech Lead). Former software developer at Bitpay, Ordano also created Smart Contract Solutions, Inc. Stremium and Bitcore were likewise founded jointly by the two founders.
Contrary to popular belief, Decentraland has existed for quite some time. In June 2015, the team reached Stone Age, their first development milestone. A proof-of-work mechanism was used to distribute pixels to users on this straightforward, pixelated grid. They most recently staged a Terraform Event where they offered LAND for sale in the brand-new, 3D universe.
Along with district0x, Aragon, and imToken, the team has collaborated with them to offer some of their services.
With no significant, direct competitors, Decentraland is somewhat unusual in the blockchain industry. Both High Fidelity and Sansar offer platforms for creating and selling virtual reality experiences, but neither one is built on a blockchain. The nearest comparable initiative, MARK.SPACE, is well behind Decentraland in terms of both progress and notoriety.
Trading
Prior to the market eruption in late December or early January, the MANA price remained rather stable. Since then, the coin has performed admirably in comparison to the other altcoins, holding onto roughly 75% of its value in Bitcoin during the subsequent decline.
MANA had two additional peaks in May and July, at $0.18 and $0.14, respectively, before reaching its all-time high in January 2018 at $0.26. MANA has fallen steadily since July 2018, following the tendencies of the cryptocurrency markets.
As of now, MANA can only be used to buy LAND, thus it is difficult to forecast what factors will have an impact on the price. Increased demand for LAND may simply result in an increase in the quantity of MANA required to buy any, rather than an increase in the value of MANA itself. As you are able to use MANA to purchase additional items, the price should rise.
Where to Buy MANA
On the majority of significant exchanges, you can buy MANA using either Bitcoin or Ethereum. The two exchanges with the most trading activity are Binance and OKEx.
Check out our buying guides for Bitcoin and Ethereum if you don’t already own either of those two coins and are unsure where to begin.
Place to Keep MANA
Since MANA is an ERC20 token, you have a wide range of wallet choices. Utilizing a hardware wallet, such as the Trezor or Ledger Nano S, is advised. These safeguard your money and make it less likely for dangerous software to access it.
Another well-liked choice if you don’t want to spend the money on a hardware wallet is MyEtherWallet.
Conclusion
You can buy land on the virtual reality platform Decentraland. You can do whatever you want with the land you own, appealing to the creativity of businesspeople and gamers everywhere.
This initiative is distinctive in a largely untested market. Although the popularity of “alternative life” games is encouraging, it’s difficult to predict if this will translate to the 3D and blockchain industries. However, if Decentraland is as widely adopted as its proponents hope, then we might just be witnessing the emergence of a completely new ecosystem of companies and activities.
