Since February 20th, it has been possible to dive into the virtual world of Decentraland (MANA), the metaverse project based on the Ethereum blockchain.
The Virtual Reality platform has opened to the public after almost 5 years of development, allowing access from computer, smartphone or VR viewer. The team raised $24 million during an ICO in 2017 and received additional funding from several VCs such as Boost VC, Algalon Capital, Hashed (Accelerator).
A treasure hunt was organized as part of the launch of the Decentraland platform, which, considering the market niche, was quite successful: 12,000 users participated and half of them received prizes consisting of tokens (MANA, ANJ, MATIC), wearables, collectables and two HTC Exodus Binance Edition phones.
The Treasure Hunt has ended! 66k rewards were given to over 6k users, incl. 700k+ MANA, 590k ANJ, 82k+ MATIC, 10k+ wearables, 2k+ Cryptokitties, 33 Axies, 25 LAND and two HTC Exodus 1 phones. Congrats and thanks to the 12k+ active users who joined the fun! pic.twitter.com/XlDMMgebXb
— Decentraland (@decentraland) February 26, 2020
Purchases on the platform have skyrocketed in the weeks before the launch, reaching the value of $1 million.
Running the game from PC with the MetaMask wallet the gameplay is fluid and the controls are intuitive, and even though Decentraland doesn’t have graphics at the level of VR games, it’s still enjoyable to play. To achieve a smooth user experience, Decentraland uses a Matic Network-based sidechain for all transactions, which thanks to its throughput ensures instant interactions with the blockchain.
After choosing their avatar, users can explore the virtual world and purchase virtual land and properties (LAND) using the MANA token. Decentraland plots of land correspond to the LAND non-fungible tokens (NFT) which can be exchanged in the marketplace. LAND tokens have a limited number and it is necessary to use MANA tokens to buy them, which are then burned.
Neighbouring LAND tiles make up Districts, communities built around a shared theme, and district members can vote on district issues through Agora, Decentraland’s voting dApp.
On purchased plots of land, users can build any facilities and services, such as opening casinos and cashing bets, creating education or entertainment services. As a result, landowners hope that their investment will mature over time so they can sell it for a profit. Due to their unique and scarce nature, LAND tokens have their own economy and open up for different uses.
The advantage of Decentraland (MANA) is that the purchased properties really belong to the players, who can claim their digital land at any time. There is no software house or entity that can censor or confiscate the properties, as everything is regulated in a decentralized way on Ethereum.
Decentraland’s DAO
The past few weeks Decentraland has also announced the Decentraland DAO.
“Decentraland is the first fully decentralized virtual world. It was always part of the original vision to hand over control to the people who create and play in this virtual space. In short, you”.
The DAO, based on the Aragon protocol, manages all the smart contracts that makeup Decentraland: LAND Contract, Estate Contract, wearables and the marketplace.
It allows voting on Decentraland events such as policy updates, LAND auctions, NFT contract whitelists, etc…, and is supported by the Security Advisory Board (SAB), the smart contract security guarantor that allows intervening quickly to fix bugs and support the community in voting.
