Decentraland — the metaverse you want to stay in
Decentraland has taken the world by storm. People can’t stop raving about it! But what exactly is Decentraland and why has it become so famous all of a sudden?
What is Decentraland?
Decentraland is a virtual reality platform powered by the Ethereum blockchain. It allows users to create, experience, and monetize their content and applications. Users can create a diverse array of artifacts and interactive objects, including scenes, artworks, challenges, and more. All the items, including the land in Decentraland, are available in the form of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) which are traded on the internal marketplace.
The platform uses MANA and LAND coins. Non-fungible LAND tokens are plots of the land and MANA are used for accounting and management.
The Decentraland metaverse is run by the Decentralized Autonomous Organization AKA DAO.
The History & Evolution of Decentraland
Before they created the revolutionary Decentraland in 2015, Esteban Ordano and Ari Meilich were working as a programmer at Bitpay and an analyst at Charles River Ventures, respectively.
Initially, they released the virtual world in a two-dimensional pixel form but then they upgraded it to 3D graphics.
In 2017, Decentraland gained 86,206 ETH ($24 million at that moment) in an ICO. As far as its monetary structure is concerned, the organization is responsible for maintaining the project website and it also owns the intellectual property rights. The developers, on the other hand, own 20% of the funds raised.
The development plan for Decentraland was devised in 2017, and its final version was presented in February 2020.
What can you do in Decentraland?
Belonging to the GameFi sector, Decentraland effortlessly offers people lucrative gaming and financial opportunities. Players can explore the area, communicate among themselves, and participate in interactive scenes as well as create virtual items in the form of NFTs.
Decentraland also boasts a wide array of events including exhibitions, training, and seminars in which you can advertise products and services.
Decentraland’s white paper highlights all the different ways of the evolution and expansion of Metaverse and gameplay opportunities, respectively. It offers two creation tools for the users to use in the virtual world:
● The Builder: It is a browser-based editor that enables the user to create and edit the contents of the metaverse by dragging and dropping objects.
● Decentraland SDK: It is a set of development tools designed to implement interactive scenes and custom elements in order to fill the world with social games and applications.
Moreover, the libraries expand the interactive content abilities by allowing the owners of the territories to develop mini-games and make a profit from them.
Then there’s the Decentraland Marketplace where you can freely trade virtual items and land.
Important features of the Decentraland metaverse
The virtual world of Decentraland occupies an impressive area of 300 by 300 plots. All lands correspond to non-fungible LAND tokens. Moreover, its virtual world houses 92,598 users with each one of them occupying 256 square meters.
The x and y coordinates determine the position of the area while the owners decide what they want in their respective territory.
An interesting fact is that the metaverse is divided into thematic areas which unite like-minded people in a district that corresponds to their interests. At the time of writing, there were 39 active districts.
These thematic districts boast unique features. Let’s look at some of the most popular territorial districts:
● Aetheria: With more than 8000 participants, Aetheria is the largest district and it includes cyberpunk-designed property and items.
● Vegas City. This district houses over 6000 participants who are connected through their common interest in gambling. It includes casinos, nightclubs, and shops.
● Dragon City. This district harmoniously fuses western and eastern cultures. You will find properties of different architectural styles in this district.
● Fashion Street. The district is teeming with popular brand shops. Visitors here love to shop! They see something, they like it, and they get it!
Every district in Decentraland has its own governance that establishes internal rules and determines the direction of development. Some have restrictions and sanctions when it comes to building on a territory.
The architectural style and profit are controlled by the district owners and the budget is distributed via the DAO.
How does Decentraland work?
One thing’s for sure; Decentraland is a multi-level structure!
It stands on three layers; namely consensus, content, and real-time.
The consensus layer keeps track of virtual property rights. Decentraland uses smart Ethereum contracts to issue non-fungible tokens, including LAND. This layer contains information about the owners of virtual areas and their assets while the coordinates of territories are stored in the blockchain. Users have access to the file containing the contents of an area through a link.
The content layer is a decentralized data storage system that uses software like BitTorrent. The users host files necessary to display the game space and its objects. Plus, the storage has all information needed for the scripts to work, including static elements, textures, audio recordings, and element descriptions.
Last but not least, the Real-time layer allows the users to interact with the virtual world and each other. The tool provides real-time data loading from the storage and connection of avatars.
How do Decentraland tokenomics work?
Decentraland uses MANA and LAND coins while the gaming items are represented by NFTs.
What is MANA?
MANA is an ERC-20 utility token used to buy land, gaming items, and services and construct buildings and manage the platform.
MANA’s initial emission amounted to 2.8 billion coins which dropped to 2.19 billion due to token burn.
Moving on to LAND
LAND is a non-fungible ERC-721 token represented as an area of land in the metaverse. If the user has a group of areas, he/she can take an Estate token (property) and create a crypto asset from two or more areas.
During the creation of the metaverse, MANA was used to buy LAND tokens. The lands were sold at auctions in December 2017 and 2018. At the same time, MANA tokens were burnt.
Who runs Decentraland?
The platform is run by the DAO which distinguishes it from alternative projects. The founders of Decentraland proposed a collective management model after its launch but it became fully community-controlled in 2020.
The results of voting decide the changes in its working and smart contracts used for the purpose. The voting process is initiated by MANA and LAND owners who also take part in the voting.
The MANA holders can also run the DAO but they need to convert the assets into wrapped tokens first (wMANA). Each coin is entitled to one vote.
How was Decentraland developed?
Despite being in the industry for over six years, users of Decentraland are still wary of the shortcomings of the software and the poor display quality
In October 2021, the developers added Polygon support to it which allows users to use the network to release and move their assets. According to Decentraland’s Roadmap, the project team is planning to improve developer tools and add new features.
Many companies have bought virtual areas in Decentraland to advertise and sell products. For example, the Sotheby’s art gallery and Samsung store were opened there. In Decentraland, people can even hold weddings and organize raves (though they are not as fun). Surprisingly, Barbados has already opened its virtual embassy there.
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