What Is Decentraland (MANA)?

Decentraland is a 3D virtual reality platform where users can create and monetize content and applications. Decentraland is based on the Ethereum blockchain and aims to establish a network owned by its users and provides an immersive experience. The platform is a shared metaverse where users can purchase virtual plots of land. A metaverse is a shared virtual world where users can socialize, interact, learn, and play. In simpler words, Decentraland is a decentralized world where users can explore LAND owned by users, experience scenes and structures, trade virtual assets, and connect.

Today, as people spend more time in virtual worlds for work and leisure, the big centralized organizations manage the network rules and content flow. The creators and developers, in return, are paid very little. To solve this, Decentraland provides a decentralized infrastructure where users can gather, share content, and play games and also where the creators can derive the full value of their efforts. On the platform, advertisers can display their brands, artists can set up virtual galleries for their digital art, and much more.

In Decentraland, the space that a user interacts with is known as LAND. According to the whitepaper, LAND is a finite and transferable 3D virtual space that is a non-fungible digital asset (NFT) that users can purchase and is permanently owned by them. The LAND owners can choose to do whatever they like on their portion of LAND, like creating dynamic scenes, applications, and games. As per the official website, each plot of LAND is an ERC-721 token and is of size 52 feet by 52 feet (16 meters by 16 meters). The total number of plots is capped at 90,601 and can be bought using MANA tokens.

MANA token is the in-game currency of Decentraland and also serves as the platform's cryptocurrency. MANA is an ERC-20 token that lets users purchase or trade LAND and pay for goods and services in the virtual world. The token can be used to purchase estates, avatars, wearables, and unique names through the Decentraland Marketplace. Decentraland offers a comprehensive marketplace that is the go-to place to trade and manage all the on-chain assets.

Talking about the game play, every user needs to create an avatar to enter into the virtual world. Avatars can be personalized; users can change body type, shoes, accessories, and much more. There are many things to do in the virtual world, like interacting with other players, visiting casino districts, listening to music, enjoying parties with other players, or just roaming. Creators have built Decentraland with the help of scenes that are displayed one next to another. A scene here is an experience and is a little world in itself where the players can walk from one scene to the other.

As per the whitepaper, the Decentraland protocol is based on a three-layered architecture:

• Consensus Layer: This tracks the LAND ownership through an Ethereum smart contract.

• Land Content Layer: This uses a decentralized distribution system to download the assets.

• Real-Time Layer: This provides peer-to-peer connections between the users to interact.

History of Decentraland (MANA)

Decentraland is led by Ari Meilich and Esteban Ordano. Ari Meilich was the project lead at Decentraland from 2017 to 2020. He is an entrepreneur and has founded several start-ups, including the CRM platform. 

Meanwhile, Esteban Ordano was formerly working as a software engineer at BitPay and was also an advisor to Matic Network.

The initial coin offering (ICO) for Decentraland took place on 18 August 2017, where the project managed to raise $24 million. 

Although the whitepaper for Decentraland got released in 2017, the project started developing in June 2015. The project launched the closed beta version of the world in 2019 and opened it to the public in February 2020. 

How Are New MANA Tokens Created?

The Decentraland block can be mined by using ASIC mining rigs. As Decentraland is built on Ethereum, it uses the proof-of-work consensus mechanism. The transactions in this mechanism are made on the network and are mined by one of the nodes. All the transactions that occur cost a fee known as “gas,” which is paid to the network user that mines the transaction.

Furthermore, Decentraland’s DAO uses an off-chain voting system for the community. This allows MANA and LAND token holders to participate in the governance and create a proposal. With this, members can vote to make changes to the members and smart contracts on which the entire system is built.

How Many MANA Tokens Are There?

There is a total supply of 2.19 billion MANA tokens.

How to Purchase MANA Tokens?

The MANA token is available on several centralized and decentralized exchanges like Coinbase.