What is Decentraland (MANA) | Whitepaper Summary

Decentraland Whitepaper Summary – Ethereum-based Virtual World

INTRODUCTION

Decentraland has created a new virtual ecosystem where users can buy or sell digital properties, play games, exchange collectibles, socialise and interact with others. This platform allows users to be part of a shared Ethereum-based virtual world. Here user can purchase their environment, marketplace, and applications.

There are three tokens of Decentraland, and each one has its unique role in furnishing Decentraland’s economy. The tokens are – MANA, LAND, and Estate. Unlike other virtual worlds, Decentraland is not controlled by a centralised entity. Argon is a software that allows users to create DAOs( decentralised autonomous organizations ) on the Ethereum blockchain and its rinkeby test network. Decentraland is governed by MANA, LAND, and Estate Holders through DAO, which is created using Argon.

EMERGENCE OF DECENTRALAND (MANA)

Decentraland started in development in 2015, and it was created by Argentinians Ari Meilich and Esteban Ordano. It was launched in 2017, and at that time, MANA tokens sold for approximately 0.02 USD, and the price of one digital land parcel was 20 USD. It opened to the public in January 2020.

Recently after 2021, the crypto market and the NFTs got popular through social media, and people started taking an interest in this, so parcels sold in the range of $6000 to $100,000. In early 2022 lot of big brands like Samsung, Adidas, Atari, and Miller Lite involve in it and bought “properties” in it.

DECENTRALAND’S ARCHITECTURE

There are 3 concepts in Decentraland whitepaper summary:

1. The World
2. The District
3. The Marketplace

The World is divided into 3-D units called Parcels. A district is composed of multiple Parcels and can be formed only by a majority vote on Decentraland’s DAO. The Marketplace is the heart of Decentraland’s economy.

People can trade each Parcel they own for a certain number of $MANA, or transfer Parcels to other people. Coming to the technical side, there are 3 layers concerned:

1. Consensus layer: This layer is where the Ethereum blockchain comes in, and is concerned with the knowledge of which owner owns which parcel(s).
2. Assets layer: This layer is concerned with storing assets for the World. 3D models and associated assets are stored in decentralised distribution systems such as IPFS.
3. Real-time layer: This layer is concerned with synchronising various parcels in the Decentraland Metaverse. This layer allows various world viewers to connect.

DECENTRALAND’S (MANA) TOKENOMICS

There are 2 different decentraland tokens:

1. LAND token The LAND token is required to buy a parcel in Decentraland. Unclaimed LAND can be bought using the MANA tokens at an exchange rate of 1000 MANA per LAND.
2. MANA token The MANA token is an ERC20 token and is performs the functions of a governance token.

DECENTRALAND’S (MANA Price) PERFORMANCE OVER THE YEARS

Additional Read: MANA Price Prediction

MANA FACES STIFF COMPETITION IN THE CRYPTO SPACE

Decentraland is the first decentralised virtual reality system that allows communication and interaction between users and grants ownership of the virtual land in the Decentraland metaverse. User can prove their ownership over LAND at any time as the system record every interaction and action. The uniqueness of the project provides more value for Decentraland and its two tokens. The number of users of Decentraland is constantly growing by the time.

1. The Sandbox: This is a slightly older generation of games that uniquely transitioned into the blockchain gaming space by launching its own metaverse, quite similar to Decentraland and happens to be one of its biggest competitors.
2. Rarible: It is an Ethereum-based platform that provides the feature of creation, sale, and purchase of ownership rights to digital works via NFTs. And Rarible enables users to mint and index their digital assets through smart contracts. The company makes money from its NFTs transactions.
3. Vault Hill: This is the world’s 1st human-centric metaverse distributing the extended reality. It has multiple payment options. There are limitless earning opportunities where users can come up with their metaverse.
4. Odyssey: Odyssey provides an open-source web3 metaverse stack for collaboration between people, organizations, and communities.

Additional Read: Mana vs Sand

CHALLENGES

1. Decentralised content sharing: Relying on traditional peer-to-peer storage systems would be slow, which could hurt the real-time layer and the general user experience. Decentraland relies on services such as IPFS.
2. Security and Programmability: The tools and APIs in Decentraland must be simple to use, yet provably secure to authorise transactions and hold private keys.
3. Content curation: Content filtering will be vital, and restricting people from adding profanity to the world is necessary. This is facilitated by Decentraland’s DAO.

Decoding Decentraland Whitepaper Summary (ROADMAP & VISION)

There are a lot of problems that it will be going to be better to tackle easily with other competitors. A mobile application is coming soon so anyone can enter Decentraland anywhere. The bugs from Windows, Linux, and MAC will get fixed.

It will become the open metaverse, Decentraland is working hard to make our in-game experience as smooth as possible they can. A desktop client, a VR client, and a mobile app are coming in 2022. Things which Decentraland is planning to improve are

1. Accessibility: Decentraland is currently hard to use for normal people, it should be better to compete with other platforms, it requires us to build private lands and own it and can give access free whenever we want.
2. Developer-friendliness: Because Decentaland is an open source platform so anyone can make changes and give their input to make this platform better.

Additional Read: How to buy Virtual Land in Decentraland

CONCLUSION

Decentraland is a blockchain-based virtual world that enables people to develop shared spaces and monetize content. Anyone with reasonable knowledge of javascript/typescript and 3D development can easily try out Decentraland’s APIs and set up their own spaces. Decentraland has a great future as it is among the best-rated metaverse projects.

HOW TO INVEST IN DECENTRALAND (MANA) 

Use this three-step process to buy your first MANA token using the CoinDCX, crypto investment app.

• Sign Up for the CoinDCX account: Enter a valid email address and a user name on the sign-up page. Once the Email Id has been verified, set a strong password to secure your account.
• Verify the account: You need to complete your KYC, to buy MANA token on the CoinDCX platform. All you need to do is upload the documents and your account will be set up in 15 minutes.
•  Buy MANA: After the account has been verified, you can deposit any amount of fiat currency you are comfortable with and start your crypto journey!

Additioanl Read: Sandbox Whitepaper Summary

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Disclaimer: User Generated Content – Original Content created by a member of BITS Pilani, under the consultation of Dr. Amit Dua, Assistant Professor, Computer Science Department, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus in association with CoinDCX. The views and opinions expressed within this post belong solely to the author.
Author: Madhav Madhusoodanan, Tikesh Vaishnav

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