Carefully! Lots of text.

Decentraland is a virtual world and community based on blockchain technology. Here, users create and own land, works of art, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and participate in the platform's decentralized autonomous organization (DAO).

Thanks to the DAO, the Decentraland community has the right to participate in the governance of the project. MANA, Decentraland's native cryptocurrency, and all in-game assets reside on the Ethereum blockchain.

Introduction

If you've ever played Second Life and traded cryptocurrency, then Decentraland will likely interest you. Since its introduction in 2016, the platform has evolved from a simple 2D experiment into an expansive 3D world.

Decentraland developers Estaban Ordano and Ari Meilich have created a virtual space with digital properties, items and other customizable assets. All of this can be purchased using MANA, Decentraland's (ERC-20) token.

Decentraland users can buy MANA on several exchanges using cryptocurrency or fiat. Non-fungible ERC-721 tokens represent Decentraland's unique assets, including LAND property and other collectibles.

How does Decentraland work?

Decentraland is an online space that combines virtual reality and blockchain technology. Unlike most online games, players have direct control over the rules of the online world. The DAO allows token holders to directly vote on in-game and organizational policies. This mechanism covers everything from the types of items allowed to investments in the DAO treasury.

Non-fungible tokens represent collectible items, including clothing and the game's virtual property, LAND. Users store tokens in their cryptocurrency wallets and sell them to other users on the Decentraland Marketplace. For example, if you want to buy a new mask, you will need MANA, Decentraland's native cryptocurrency.

In addition to trading items and real estate, players can fill their personal space with games, activities, and artwork that others can interact with. It is also possible to monetize LAND. Each player decides for himself what to do with his land.

Your destiny, success and path in the game depend only on you, your efforts and your imagination.

Decentraland has many uses. These include, for example, advertising and content curation. However, for new players who want to use NFTs, the barrier to entry is quite high. Ethereum gas fees make purchasing some items almost twice as expensive. Land prices also run into the thousands of dollars, making property ownership too expensive for some players.

What are LAND and MANA?

As we already said, MANA is Decentraland’s native cryptocurrency. However, it does more than just function as a digital currency. MANA also gives each of its owners voting rights in the Decentraland DAO.

To participate in the governance of the DAO, users convert their MANA tokens into wrapped MANA tokens (wMANA) and commit them to the DAO. Each wMANA token represents one vote in governance proposals. You can purchase MANA on exchanges or by selling collectibles on the Decentraland Marketplace. The DAO also has its own MANA treasury to fund its own decisions and operations.

LAND is a non-fungible token that represents plots of land that are owned by community players. Like MANA, it is part of the Decentraland governance protocol and provides voting rights.

However, LAND does not need to be committed to the DAO. In addition, each LAND token provides two thousand votes. Players who own multiple plots of land can link them together into one Estate token with voting rights equal to the value of the plots associated in it.

What is Decentraland DAO?

One of the interesting aspects of Decentraland is its focus on decentralization. As we have already said, the player community controls the land, digital assets and developments of Decentraland.

As a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO), the project uses open source code to regulate its rules. Anyone who has staked their MANA tokens or owns LAND tokens can make their own proposals or vote on other users' proposals.

Decentraland's DAO runs on Aragon's software solution using an agent that can interact with Ethereum smart contracts.

Examples of using Decentraland

From the very beginning of Decentraland's development, its potential for new use cases in blockchain-based communities was taken into account. Their whitepaper describes five main use cases:

Applications: Users can create applications and 3D scenes using the Decentraland programming language and enhance the experience.

Content Curation: Decentraland has introduced neighborhoods that attract like-minded people with similar interests, thus facilitating the organic growth of communities.

Advertising: Filling areas with players has led to advertising brands purchasing space and setting up billboards.

Digital Collectibles: NFT items are collected, created and sold on the Decentraland Marketplace, giving users ownership rights.

Social component: communities on social networks and offline groups have a more interactive way to communicate with friends.

Like most blockchain economy games, you can make money in Decentraland. Speculation is rife here, with some sought-after plots of land selling for huge sums of money.

How to store MANA and LAND tokens

To fully interact with Decentraland, you will need a crypto wallet integrated into the browser. Currently, the developers recommend MetaMask for storing MANA (ERC-20) and LAND (ERC-721) tokens.

Summary

In terms of virtual reality blockchain platforms, Decentraland is a unique phenomenon. Getting into the world of Decentraland is absolutely free, so you can easily see everything with your own eyes and make a decision. In just five years, the development team turned a small project into a fairly mature platform compared to other crypto projects.