Your guide to Decentraland, the digital real estate to invest in now

The world has come a long way from The Sims, the life simulation video game that was first released in 2000 that enabled players to interact with the game environment in their digital selves. However, it was still a game like many others of its time.

Cut to 2021, people live in an alternative version of themselves in the virtual world. They trade cryptocurrencies as real money, buy digital clothes, and collect digital art in the form of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). So the virtual real estate platform Decentraland was only a matter of time.

On November 25, the New York Post reported that Metaverse Group, the NFT-based Metaverse real estate company that is a subsidiary of Tokens.com, has purchased land on Decentraland for $ 2.43 million. This amount is more than double the previous record for the largest Metaverse land purchase.

According to the company, the group bought the “116 parcels in the heart of the Fashion Street district”. The purchase, the company said, will help in its foray into digital fashion.

“The Metaverse Group also plans to partner with several existing fashion brands that target new audiences and expand their e-commerce offerings within the Metaverse,” the statement said.

That’s not all. On November 15, Coindesk reported that Barbados was the first country to sign an agreement with Decentraland to set up its virtual embassy on the platform in January 2022.

Here’s everything we know about Decentraland and land acquisition.

What is Decentraland?

What started as a pixelated 2D grid where users could buy pixels has grown into an experience where everything is in 3D.

Decentraland is based on the Ethereum blockchain and is decentralized software for the virtual world, in which virtual properties can be bought and sold. With virtual trees, airplanes and much more, people can create their own micro-worlds.

To put it simply, Decentraland is very similar to virtual reality video games, but is more immersive and “real” in that it has asset ownership. From digital skyscrapers and fast transport systems to cinemas and hotels, everything that is available in the physical world can be found here.

Decentraland got a huge boost in popularity after Facebook changed its company name to Meta. Facebook’s decision resulted in a surge in the concept of what is popularly known as the “metaverse”.

What is a property in Decentraland?

A screenshot of a scene in the Home Country section of Builder in Decentraland. (Photo credit: Decentraland)

There are 90,601 individual virtual lots on the system. Each takes the form of an NFT known as a LAND. Thus, a LAND trade is an NFT transaction.

Once a plot of land has been purchased, the user can create a fully virtual city from it.

With the LAND Estates feature from Decentraland, multiple properties can be managed. Country groups that have a similar topic can be grouped together as districts. This enables different users who have a common interest to form a community. A voting system known as the Agora allows users to have more control over developments in their districts.

How does it work?

Items in the market place of Decentraland. (Photo credit: Decentraland)

LAND in Decentraland can be bought with a cryptocurrency called MANA, which is itself completely decentralized.

In fact, all transactions within this virtual world are processed with MANA. Trading takes place in its marketplace – a one-stop shop for LAND, lands, avatars, and items that users need to build their world.

Land ownership is tracked through the Ethereum blockchain and users must keep their MANA tokens in an Ethereum wallet. At the time of writing, a MANA was trading at $ 5.09.

The platform enables designers to shape their world using animation and interactions.

There are broadly three layers created with Ethereum Smart Contracts. The ledger that tracks ownership of land purchases is managed at the consensus level. The content layer controls the distribution of the packets and renders content such as audio, visuals and voice chat. Finally, all peer-to-peer connections, such as social interactions, are established within Decentralized via the real-time layer.

What about investing?

Buying a plot of land in Decentraland should be done carefully. The world is steadily and rapidly evolving into the metaverse, but these are early stages.

There will be extreme ends to the up and down movement in the markets. In the short term, there could be booms and ultimately bankruptcy.

(Main and special images: Decentraland)