Facebook’s announcement that it was rebranding under the name Meta sparked a frenzy in the crypto world. Platforms such as Decentraland – a virtual universe sporting its own economy, land & business opportunities, spiked in value. The virtual world’s currency, Mana, rose to $4.70 (currently $2.81), an increase of 640%.
Facebook/Meta wants to lead the world into the metaverse. However, although Facebook has many interests in VR products & tools, it does not, as yet, have the foundation for a metaverse social networking experience. On the back of this fact, projects such as Decentraland, who do have the assets, soared in value.
Decentraland
In this virtual world, players can buy plots of land, which they can develop & monetise. The experience is built on the decentralised Ethereum blockchain & uses the MANA token to facilitate transactions. Basically, users need to burn Mana to acquire in-world assets or participate in the virtual economy.
Co-founded by Ariel Meilich & Esteban Ordano in 2017, it took 2 years after the initial coin offering for the game to launch a beta version to the public.
Decentraland’s real estate is divided into 90,601 plots, represented by NFTs. The plots are 16m by 16m & have associated mapping coordinates. There are various grouped areas of LAND in the Decentraland Metaverse, each displaying a distinctive character.
The virtual world has a decentralized governance structure, which means that users control & run the ecosystem. Players can make proposals on how they think the system should be run & they can vote for updates & proposed changes.
Users can develop their LAND creatively & earn tokens by offering experiences, products, games or any other legal service to the community. LAND owners can also generate an income by renting out their plots (the highest price paid for LAND to date was $900 000). In addition to these options, users can also “hold” MANA & enjoy its rising value.
The game tracks users’ assets via a Smart Contract on the Ethereum blockchain.
Interacting With The Metaverse
The native currency, MANA, is a cryptocurrency, so to interact with the Metaverse users need to have a crypto wallet that supports Ethereum. Metamask is the most popular crypto wallet, but most wallets support Ethereum. (Wallet choices include a Hardware, Software or online wallet, with Hardware wallets, such as Ledger) being the most secure & online wallets the least safe).
To use MANA, users need to swap either Ethereum or Polygon for the currency, then they can connect their wallet to the Decentraland site & join in the fun. Players are prompted to select a name before entering the Metaverse, but a name costs MANA & it’s not essential, especially for new users. If a name isn’t chosen a player can play free of charge.
As for in-world assets, users can buy wearables, such as fancy clothing, jewelry & accessories, LAND & names. Names are sold as a type of domain name & identify the user in the virtual world.
Decentraland offers a 3D builder to users so that they can add buildings, furnishings & natural assets, like trees & landscaping to their plots. On entering the world, players are prompted to choose an avatar & the system provides an array of body types & basic clothing so that users can build a unique representation of themselves.
To navigate around the virtual world players are presented with a map that marks out various districts, games & experiences on offer. Users can either “jump in” to a specific experience or they can simply “walk” around & discover things for themselves. The entire experience is also a social one in that users can communicate with any other player “on set” via an in-game chat mechanism.
Image credit: Decentraland
