Introducing the Decentraland White Paper

Moving towards a decentralized future.

Ari Meilich
Decentraland

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Over a year into development, Decentraland is poised to revolutionize the way communities and publishers engage online. Led by an established team of developers and partners (previous projects include Proof of Existence, Streamium, Bitcore, and OpenZeppelin), we are proud to announce the publication of the Decentraland White Paper.

As with Decentraland, where the users are the owners, we also believe that harnessing the creative power of our community will result in capturing the full value of the platform. We look forward to incorporating feedback from our users, as well as future developers, creatives, and partners.

Why Decentraland

Virtual worlds have become dominant ecosystems in human life, facilitating billions of social interactions each day. Nearly every connected individual and industry — from publishers and developers to consumers and gamers — has leveraged virtual worlds to their benefit.

With the advent of immersive virtual reality, more tools, experiences, and services are being unlocked than ever before. This shift is just beginning. According to IDC, global revenue for the augmented-reality and virtual-reality market is projected to hit $162 billion in 2020, up from just $5.2 billion in 2016.

By providing the infrastructure to support a shared, immersive virtual reality world, Decentraland aims to be a key player in this growth.

Several virtual worlds (World of Warcraft, Second Life, EVE Online) have created successful internal economies. Today, the virtual goods economy is worth more than $52 billion annually, up from $15 billion in 2012. But because centralized organizations have controlled virtual platforms, users and content creators have been barred from owning and capturing the full value of their contributions.

In Decentraland, the users are the owners, enabling publishers and consumers to socialize and transact without intermediaries.

Through the use of an in-world cryptocurrency (MANA), users can buy land on a blockchain-based ledger, develop peer-to-peer applications, and trade digital assets without interference. Because no single agent has the power to control ownership, access, or currency economics, participants can realize the full value of their creations and consumption.

These advantages can empower the creation of the metaverse dreamed about in books like Snow Crash and Ready Player One.

Decentraland’s disruption potential positions it to become:

  1. An immersive virtual layer of social interaction for billions of people worldwide
  2. An open, direct channel for publishers, advertisers, and businesses
  3. The new platform of choice for creatives, digital goods, and online gaming

We invite you to explore Why We Are Building Decentraland as well as our Development Roadmap to understand our work thus far.

Next Steps

While much progress has been made, we continue to devote our time and energy to achieving the immense potential of Decentraland. Our upcoming token sale (August 17, 2017) and the allocation of its proceeds will finance the development of the first completely decentralized virtual world.

Join the Community

Reach out directly by following our Slack or Telegram channels. Subscribe to our newsletter for exclusive content and insider announcements.

Note: This article has been amended. We’ve transitioned the token sale start date to August 17th to ensure complete compliance with recent regulatory announcements. Learn more in our announcement.

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