Decentraland Mania
Happy Sunday! Given Facebook (sorry, I meant Meta) doubling down on the Metaverse, it’s important to know the alternative options. Today’s profile dives into Decentraland -- an open, distributed Metaverse!
The Profile Basics
Startup Name:
Decentraland
Industry:
Web3 / Metaverse
Funding Stage:
Seed - Consumer
Break It Down for Me
The Problem:
The lack of a truly decentralized, virtual space
The Solution:
An open, virtual world that is owned and distributed to the community on the Ethereum blockchain where users can live, work, and play
Core Users:
Creators, designers, artists, gamers, and/or adventurous users
Walk Me Through It:
Let’s explore! First, enter the Decentraland portal via browser as a guest or by connecting your wallet at login; Choose and design your avatar; Then the world is your oyster.
Essentially, this is a giant virtual sandbox for users to build and interact as they see fit.
Once you’re in Decentraland, the adventure is yours to choose. And there’s no shortage of possibilities: music festivals, art galleries, mini games, cross-metaverse competitions, or anything which the LAND owners permit.
Beyond the LAND adventures, there’s a DAO (
Decentralized Autonomous Organization Beginner’s Guide
) to vote on the latest policies for Decentraland, and even a
Marketplace
where people trade their virtual LAND, as well as Avatar accessories, like wearables and names.
All of this is possible thanks to three layers in Decentraland: a decentralized ledger for land ownership, a protocol for describing the content of each land parcel and rendering the world, and a peer-to-peer network for real-time user interactions.
Show Me the Money
Currently:
There are two native tokens to Decentraland: MANA and LAND. MANA is the native token used to make purchases and payments within Decentraland, while LAND tokens are NFTs representing parcels of virtual land to trade or sell.
The appreciation of the MANA token is driven by facilitating interactions, such as purchasing lands, goods, and services in-world, as well as general token speculation about the type of utility and content that can be created within Decentraland.
For LAND owners, profit is primarily through virtual land sales and its appreciation. Otherwise additional revenue monetization extends to the activities on their virtual land, such as advertising or service charges for hosting events.
Because Decentraland is community owned and driven, the overall revenue or value generation is simplified to the appreciation of the native tokens - MANA and LAND.
Be Wary
Where to be wary for Decentraland:
The biggest slowdown, not necessarily setback, is the lack of entry points for Decentraland. Currently, we are limited to a browser experience without support for mobile or even Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality for a more immersive experience (though being addressed per their
roadmap
!).
The second piece to keep an eye on is the evolution of governance for a community-driven project. How will governance and this virtual world evolve as more users onboard and fewer people hold the MANA token for a vote on new proposals?
Now Get Excited
I’m really excited for Decentraland and you should be too.
First, the vision of a true Open Metaverse, specifically one not owned by Big Tech corporations, is as compelling as any reason to get involved. Decentraland is the opportunity to stitch together a decentralized Internet environment that emphasizes an ownership model rooted in digital-native assets and experiences.
Even more so, the digital identity overlaps and is interconnected across “Open Metaverse” projects thanks to a single sign-in through your wallet. Ownership and authentication exists on the blockchain, and thanks to the wallet sign-in experience, a user can buy an NFT on a third-party marketplace then display it on another Metaverse project before porting over to a Decentraland exhibit (
Value Chain of the Open Metaverse
).
Within a community owned and driven environment like Decentraland, Creators and users alike can partake in the growth and successes, further incentivizing contribution.
Second, I very much appreciate the ease of onboarding to Decentraland because it allows for new users to immediately start creating within the virtual world, requiring no technical experience. Non-programmers are empowered with no-code tools like
Builder
-- a drag-and-drop 3D editor that lets you build interactive scenes on your LAND without the need to code.
This started as a social experiment and very quickly evolved with the right foundational pieces for the next iteration of the Internet.
Finally, I’m excited about Decentraland’s potential for expansion by:
The product - Interoperability with other decentralized Metaverse platform assets and avatars (e.g. The Sandbox); Bridge to DeFi and further expand the native economic offerings of Web3 to the virtual world; Creation without the need to own LAND; And expansion into Augmented and Virtual Reality with haptics for a fully immersive experience
The target user market - Partnerships with projects or companies looking to expand their virtual presence; DAO formation for niche groups to join and have a sub-community to engage with; And language localization to improve global onboarding
Revenue generation - Continue to create utility and value within Decentraland for the MANA token to appreciate. Examples include: Advertising expansion, Content Creator Program expansion, NFT exhibit ticket sales, and more
And that’s a wrap. As always, I welcome all replies - I love to hear what you enjoyed and didn’t.
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