What is The Decentraland Game in Crypto?

Decentraland is one of the popular cryptocurrency games nowadays. It combines virtual reality and the internet with augmented reality. 

This blog post will explain more about Decentraland, its history, tokenomics and what you can do in the game.

Introduction to Decentraland

Decentraland is a new crypto asset that investors can use to buy, trade and build on virtual land within a decentralized ecosystem. 

This crypto project is part of the Ethereum blockchain as an ERC-20. Therefore, it can utilize smart contracts for its features. It is also the smart contract that allows Decentraland to produce digital parcels of land known as “Lands”. These “lands” can be kept as non-fungible tokens (NFTs). 

Decentraland’s native token in MANA. Users can purchase virtual land with MANA. Buying a parcel of digital land also means that you buy a smart contract that gives you ownership over that specific piece of virtual land. 

This process gives you full control over that “land” that you own. This is what gives Decentraland its Metaverse vibes because players are free to own their lands in a virtual world.

History of Decentraland

In 2017, Ari Meilich and Esteban Ordano invented Decentraland from their collective vision of a user-owned virtual space. Both of them are Argentine blockchain professionals who began the crypto project as a proof of concept wherein digital real estate is assigned to the users. It started out as a two-dimensional (2-D) that further evolved into a 3-d domain. 

They developed the game together. However, both of them stepped down from their leadership positions because Decentraland is a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). 

Since Decentraland is built on the Ethereum blockchain, all records pertaining to the game are secure and immutable. The decentralized protocol of the game is known as Decentraland Network. 

Decentraland was released in 2020, at a time when the world faced a pandemic. Since people had very limited social interaction, the game’s launch somehow just had the right timing. 

Mechanism of Decentraland

Notably, Decentraland has three native currencies. These are LAND, Estate, and MANA. LAND and Estate are both ERC-721 tokens, and this makes them unique. Both of them don’t act as currencies but instead, function as non-fungible tokens. Hence, they can be used to make avatars, digital land, and avatar wearables. 

On the contrary, MANA is an ERC-20 fungible token that is Decentraland’s official cryptocurrency. MANA holders can build their own applications, services, and decentralized games that they can later monetize. 

Furthermore, players can utilize the Decentraland map to join various community events that may include casino nights or movies. There are many districts to choose from and you can participate in activities that best suit your interests. 

Along with the districts, the developers also built a Decentraland marketplace where players can execute transactions using MANA. They can exchange land parcels and in-game items.

Every square on the Decentraland map stands for a specific piece of LAND. Thus, one district is made up of groups of LAND parcels. Accordingly, these LANDS share some common characteristics.

For example, there is Vegas City, District X (previously known as Red Light District), Dragon City, Fashion Street and other areas. One can enjoy their exploration in the Decentraland as it caters to diverse interests.

First Version of Decentraland

When Esteban Ordano and Ari Meilich started working on Decentraland, the first version was named Stone Age. They released it in 2015 and it was made up of pixels that symbolized ownership over a digital 2D world. 

The second stage was in 2016, and they called it the Bronze Age. This time, Ordano and Meilich included a 3D world in the divided areas of Decentraland. Significantly, they created a P2P network for the third stage so that users can have a fast-paced environment where they can build apps, produce content, and interact with other players. This third stage dubbed as Iron Age acted as the supercomputer that eventually supported Decentraland’s protocol.

Decentraland Tokenomics

The initial coin offering (ICO) of Decentraland in 2017 yielded $26 million. The first parcels of land that were sold cost $20 and the MANA tokens had a value of only 2 cents. Also, the first map named Genesis had 90,601 parcels of land. 

When the popularity of NFTs skyrocketed in 2021, the virtual lands sold from $6,000 to $10,000. 

MANA’s total supply is at 2.19 billion tokens. Its initial launch had an allocation of 2.8 billion tokens but a portion of it has been burned due to LAND auctions. The developers originally planned the token to have a steadily decreasing inflation rate. 

Nevertheless, that system is currently disabled because transactions in the Decentraland marketplace will activate the token burning mechanisms. Hence, this process will further reduce the token supply. 

Of the 2.19 billion MANA, 70% of it is already in circulation. As of January 2023, its market cap is $1,284,087,768.

Check out Coinpedia’s price prediction for MANA.

Summary

Decentraland is one-of-a-kind because it is the first decentralized Virtual Reality (VR) and metaverse platform that encourages communication and interactions among its users. Its primary function is for gaming and its concept of “alternative life” entices a lot of investors to buy the MANA token. 

Since Decentraland integrates metaverse in its protocol, there is a huge possibility that it will continue its progress and become a worthy long-term investment. 

Nonetheless, investors should still expect volatility in the prices of MANA tokens and choose only reputable cryptocurrency exchanges to buy and sell these kinds of digital assets.