TL;DR
Introduction
If youâve ever played Second Life and traded cryptocurrency, then you might be interested in Decentraland. From its beginnings in 2016, the platform has developed from a basic 2D experiment into a large 3D world.
How does Decentraland work?
Decentraland is an online space combining virtual reality with blockchain technology. Unlike most online games, players have direct control over the rules of the online world. The DAO allows token holders to vote directly on in-game and organizational policies. This mechanism affects everything, from the types of items allowed to investments for the DAOâs treasury.
Besides trading items and property, players can fill their personal space with games, activities, and artwork for others to interact with. Thereâs also the option of monetizing your LAND. Itâs totally up to each player to decide what to do with their plot.
Your fate, your success, and eventually your journey depends on you, your efforts, your imagination.
What are LAND and MANA?
As mentioned, MANA is Decentralandâs native cryptocurrency. It not only functions as a digital currency but also provides each MANA holder with voting power in the Decentraland DAO.
To take part in the DAOâs governance, users convert their MANA into wrapped MANA (wMANA) and lock it in the DAO. Each wMANA represents one vote in governance proposals. You can get MANA on exchanges or by selling collectible items on the Decentraland Marketplace. The DAO also has its own MANA treasury to fund its decisions and operations.
LAND is a non-fungible token that represents the plots of land owned by players in the community. Similar to MANA, it also provides voting power as part of Decentralandâs governance protocol.Â
However, LAND doesnât need to be locked up in the DAO and provides two thousand votes per LAND token. Players with numerous plots can tie them together into a single Estate token, with voting power equal to the plots contained.
What is the Decentraland DAO?
One of the interesting aspects of Decentraland is its focus on decentralization. As weâve discussed, the community of players controls the land, digital assets, and developments of Decentraland.Â
Decentraland use cases
As with most games containing blockchain economies, there is the chance to make yourself some money. Speculation is common, with some pieces of in-demand LAND going for vast sums of money.
How to store MANA and LAND
Closing thoughts
Decentraland is pretty unique when it comes to blockchain virtual-reality platforms. Itâs totally free to explore, so you can easily make up your own mind by logging in to the world. Its development team has taken it from a small project to what it is now over five years, making it reasonably mature compared to other crypto projects.