A Complete Beginners Guide to Decentraland

Decentraland is a decentralized virtual world where you can buy, sell, and build digital real estate, artwork, and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). You can accomplish all of this by playing games and engaging in various activities in the virtual world!

Finally, Decentraland, in its own words, is a social experience in which you interact with other community members. The platform is community-owned and is built on the Ethereum blockchain.

The Decentraland Foundation, founded by Ariel Meilich and Esteban Ordano in 2015, is the organization that developed Decentraland. In January 2020, the public was granted access to the virtual world. It has since become one of the most sought-after metaverses in the crypto universe.

Decentraland: A Decentralized World

To play in Decentraland, you don’t need much; as a guest user, you can simply explore the world by opening its website in a browser. Then, make an avatar, name it, confirm your legal age, accept the terms and conditions, and you’re ready to go!

However, the platform does not currently support mobile devices. 

You should also have a crypto wallet to properly store your cryptocurrencies and other digital assets in order to fully experience all of the benefits of Decentraland. If you don’t have a wallet, you’ll only be allowed to walk around and customize your avatar; you won’t be able to participate in activities.

Founders of Decentraland

Esteban Ordano and Ariel Meilich founded Decentraland, which debuted in its current form in 2017. Because Decentraland is conceptualized in terms of social development and advancement, Stone Age was the name given to the first version of Decentraland’s metaverse.The first stage was released in 2015, and it consisted of pixels in an infinite 2D grid that represented ownership over the digital world.

The next stage, named the ‘Bronze Age’, was created at the end of 2016. The team expanded Decentraland into a 3D world with divided plots. The team created a P2P network and named the next stage Iron Age to create a fast paced environment where users can create apps, interactive content, and communicate with other users. The final stage is supported by Ethereum, which acts as a supercomputer to support the Decentraland metaverse ecosystem.

Possibilities and Customization on Decentraland

You can develop 3D environments and avatars and showcase various digital assets that you can monetize on Decentraland—the possibilities are unlimited! You can roam around wherever you wish once you’re in the virtual environment or utilize the map to teleport to a specific location.

All from the comfort of your own home, go to a virtual club, see NFT art displays, compete in a racing game, or catch up with virtual mates. All of this will be done as avatars or digital representations of yourself. Your avatar assists people in recognizing you and assists you in keeping track of all of your friends.

You can now customize your avatar in various ways to make it as unique as you are. Choose from a variety of facial features such as eyes, smiles, or facial hair, as well as the ideal outfit, skin tone, and hairstyles. You can also personalize your avatar by giving it a unique name. You can explore the virtual world once you’ve created the ideal avatar.

Games on Decentraland

You can also play a variety of games in the metaverse. Some feature a play-to-earn economy where you may earn money by playing games. Ethermon, for example, is a play-to-earn monster-catching role-playing game. You can buy Ethermon NFTs and compete with other players here.

Meanwhile, a collectible dragon egg NFT can be purchased in WonderQuest. Once the dragon has been hatched, you can use it to engage with it in the virtual gaming world, which includes several quests and musical performances.

You can play Tominoya Casino, a virtual casino created by Decentral Games, or Battle Racers, a racing game. Atari, the video gaming legend, also has a metaverse estate. Many of the developer’s classic games are available here.

You can also utilize Decentraland’s Software Development Kit to create games on your LAND if you’re a developer.

Economy of Decentraland

Its users administer Decentraland through the Decentraland DAO, a decentralized autonomous organization. MANA and LAND are the metaverse’s native tokens.

MANA

MANA is the cryptocurrency of Decentraland, and it has a limited supply. Because it is an ERC-20 token (fungible token), it can be purchased and traded on crypto exchanges such as Binance and Huobi Global and “stacked” on DEXs such as Uniswap and Sushiswap. It can be used to pay for avatars, LAND, accessories, collectables, gaming, and other things in the metaverse.

Meanwhile, you can lock your MANA into a WMANA contract, resulting in wrapped MANA. This wrapped MANA will be “locked,” which means it cannot be spent or transferred.

LAND

The metaverse describes the land as a “non-fungible, transferable, scarce digital asset stored in an Ethereum smart contract.” Decentraland is made up of 90,601 LAND parcels measuring 16 x 16 metres in size. Each parcel is an NFT that can be identified by its virtual world location/coordinates. It also includes information about the owner. Furthermore, an Estate is made up of two or more adjacent parcels.

Additionally, the colour of each parcel varies. The light grey lines, for example, are roads and cannot be purchased. Similarly, the nine green areas are Decentraland community-owned plazas, whereas the grey lands are those that are owned but not for sale. The light blue coloured lands, on the other hand, are for sale. Land near the Genesis Plaza (the plaza at the centre) or popular districts are more expensive.

You can purchase parcels directly from Decentraland’s Marketplace. These come at a hefty price. In June, for example, 259 parcels were sold for a total of $913,228. This is the most expensive LAND offered for sale in Decentraland.

Technology Architecture

The protocol of Decentraland is divided into three layers:

• Consensus layer: An Ethereum smart contract is used to track land ownership and land content.
• Land content layer: To render content in the virtual world, a decentralized distribution system is used.
• Real-time layer: Allows users to interact with one another via peer-to-peer connections.

Decentraland ILO (First Land Auction)

Decentraland held its first Land Auction in 2017.

This is probably the most important aspect of Decentraland History to fully comprehend, especially if you are an investor.

Every land parcel (except genesis plazas, roads, and districts) was listed for sale with a minimum bid of 1,000 MANA.

So, if you had 10,000 MANA, you could enter the land auction and bid on ten different lands. If someone else came along and wanted that land, they could bid $1,250 and potentially own it if they weren’t outbid by the end of the event.

All MANA spent on land was burned at the end of the terraform event, removing them from circulation.  This amounted to a mind-boggling 125M MANA ($10 – $12M at the time).

34,358 lands were sold, the majority for 1-2,000 MANA, but many were sold for much more, particularly near the plaza’s centre, where some sold for nearly 600,000 MANA!

The auction ended after two weeks, and the first owners of Decentraland land were established.

Later, Decentraland held another Land Auction to sell the remaining 9,331 parcels. All 9,331 remaining parcels were purchased, totalling 109,521,854 MANA burned, or approximately $6.6 million USD.

Trading in Private Chat and Marketplace 

When the first auction concluded, over 2,000 individual wallets owned land.

Unsold lands totalled 9,331 and to be sold at a later date.

What followed was a thriving market for buying and selling land. People were buying and selling these lands privately because Decentraland’s marketplace had not yet been launched. It was thrilling, exciting, and extremely risky.

Decentraland eventually released their own marketplace, making it possible to track Land trades.

People were selling $10 of thousands of digital land every day, with some sales reaching $215,000 USD.

How do you get started in Decentraland?

• Decentraland Marketplace: The Decentraland Marketplace is the company’s internal ecosystem for transferring LAND and Estate parcels, as well as wearables and unique names. The Marketplace facilitates listing and P2P transactions between users who set their own prices and negotiate their own deals. There is an Atlas view, which looks like a surveyor’s map and shows which LAND parcels and Estates are for sale and other LAND and who owns it if any. You can purchase LAND outright or place a bid on any LAND you see. A more traditional Marketplace view is available, where you can view various listings, including non-LAND assets such as wearables and unique names.

• Decentraland Agora Voting: It is a medium of voting. The community is polled on questions, and users vote here with MANA.

• Decentraland SDK: If you want to begin custom building on land parcels, you can do so with Decentralands SDK.

• Decentraland Builder: A cool drag-and-drop builder that allows you to simply drag-and-drop epic builds. Decentraland has released an SDK as well as an in-app GUI called Builder that runs the SDK behind the scenes. The Builder functions as a visual editor, allowing users to create ‘scenes’, which are graphical objects that can be loaded into Decentraland. Scenes can be loaded on LAND that you own or LAND that has permitted you to load them on.

• Decentraland Avatars: Create your avatar as you must have one before you can travel the world! In Decentraland, avatars are visual representations of users. Because avatars are outside the scope of third-party development, they can only be customized in-app. One peculiarity is that each avatar has a distinct name. By using a Decentraland wallet and paying 100 MANA, you can claim your avatar name before it is taken. You can, however, create it without claiming a name or claim it later. When you create an avatar with the Decentraland wallet, you will receive a passport, which will serve as your digital identity in the Decentraland ecosystem.

Decentraland DAO

Decentraland differs from other metaverses in that a centralized body does not govern it. Instead, it is controlled by metaverse users who own MANA and LAND through the Decentraland DAO. This means that the players have complete authority over everything from land to assets to governance.

Token holders have the ability to create and vote on metaverse development proposals. They can also create polls, vote on policy updates, token economics, and LAND auctions, among other things. You have the following voting power depending on the token you hold:

• MANA wrapped – one voting power
• LAND – Voting power of 2000 units
• Estate – Voting power of 2000 units

Investing in MANA

MANA appears to have a bright future with the current developments in the Decentraland ecosystem. However, given the volatility of cryptocurrencies, investors must exercise caution and conduct extensive research before making the big leap.

Making money with Decentraland

There are numerous ways to make money once you join Decentraland. Real estate, like in the real world, is gaining traction in the virtual world. Because LAND is a limited resource, many people believe its value will rise over time.

When you purchase LAND, you can use it to host applications such as games or gambling, advertising, or gaming communities, among other things. You can charge entry fees for any application you create. You can also rent or sell the LAND to developers and content creators who want to build on it. You can also display and sell products such as digital collectibles.

Playing a variety of casino games or play-to-earn games is another option to make a lot of money. For example, you can earn $DG tokens in Decentral Games’ virtual casino in a variety of ways, including affiliate bonuses and governance rewards.

In addition, the metaverse is generating real-world job opportunities. For example, Tominoya Casino has hired at least 20 part-time greeters as well as a manager.

How is Decentraland Network Secured?

Decentraland creates scenes in the ledger known as metaverse2 using TypeScript coding. The protocol secures the system on which the VR ecosystem is hosted and was designed to support increasing users. The use of Ethereum adds an additional layer of security.

The first layer of the system secures users’ ownership of LAND by tracking and recording LAND purchases and ownership of VR parcels on the Decentraland VR platform.

In exchange for a bounty, users and community members can test the network for bugs and critical risk points and report any suspicious malfunctions to the team.

How to choose Decentraland Wallet

MANA is an ERC-20 token, which means it can be stored in any wallet that supports Ethereum-based tokens. The type of MANA wallet you select will most likely be determined by what you intend to use it for and how much money you need to store.

Hardware wallets, also known as cold wallets, such as the Ledger or Trezor, offer the most secure option, with offline storage and backup. However, hardware wallets have a higher learning curve and are more expensive. As a result, more experienced users may be better suited to storing larger amounts of MANA.

Software wallets are another option that is both free and simple to use. They can be custodial or non-custodial and can be downloaded as smartphone or desktop apps. The service provider manages and backs up your private keys when you use custodial wallets. Non-custodial wallets store private keys on your device using secure elements. While they are more convenient, they are regarded as less secure than hardware wallets and may be better suited to smaller amounts of MANA or more novice users.

Decentraland Mining

The system was developed initially on the basis of a Proof-of-Concept, which facilitates the tracking system for LAND ownership in the Decentraland universe. Wearables, which are non-fungible assets that people can buy and sell on the NFT market, can be mined in Decentraland.

Decentraland was built on Ethereum, which is currently a Proof-of-Work blockchain that is being converted to Proof-of-Stake. Decentraland took the first step toward a layer 2 solution for payments and transactions in 2021 by allowing users to transfer their MANA tokens from the Ethereum blockchain to Polygon, secured by Proof-of-Stake network validators.

Future of Decentraland

In the midst of a pandemic that confined millions of people to their homes, Decentraland provided a way for individuals to meet friends, visit galleries, buy art, party at clubs, and more—all without leaving their houses. The metaverse’s future also depends on increasing the number of users who visit and interact with the platform.

The metaverse has developed greatly since its launch, with new features being introduced on a regular basis. Furthermore, plenty of additional features are now in the process or will be soon. The metaverse will have some difficult tasks to do in the following months. Its success will be determined by how well it rises to the challenge, how much it improves its features, and how it responds to existing concerns.

Decentraland Updated Roadmap

The updated roadmap for Decentraland gives us a glimpse of what lies ahead for its players. Player name colours, street names, NFT badges, and improved lighting in world explorer are just a few of the improvements that will be available soon. Community ambassadors, who will provide new users with a personalized tour, are also on the way.

Other upcoming features include groups or a DAO-based Guild, in-world trading, and an in-world scoreboard screen. Creator contests, a VR world explorer, and simple multiplayer functionality, among other things, are in the works.

Conclusion

Decentraland has grown by leaps and bounds since it first became available to the public over a year ago. It has recently become the go-to location for purchasing virtual lands and other NFTs. If Decentraland leads the market, the price of MANA will rise as well, resulting in a higher ROI for investors.

It is critical to understand that Decentraland is more than just a video game. Instead, it exemplifies the many benefits of decentralization. If you can purchase virtual real estate and set up shop on the metaverse, there may not be a better way to reap the benefits of decentralization.

Decentraland, as one of the most popular metaverses currently available, appears to have a promising future. Furthermore, Decentraland is a great place to start for those new to the metaverse, especially given its ease of use. It may even be a profitable investment in the long run.

Join the community

The Decentraland Discord is where the community gathers to discuss important issues. It’s also where people ask questions, advertise their lands for sale, and generally network with one another.