Everyone’s asking right now – is the real estate market going to crash?
Well, first you have to ask yourself – what is Decentraland?
Decentraland is an Ethereum-powered virtual reality platform.
In this virtual world, you purchase plots of land that you can later traverse, build upon, and monetize. There’s no limit to what you can do. It’s the first digital platform that’s completely owned by its users where you can buy, build and sell virtual real estate. Just think real estate now, but virtually.
How Does Decentraland Work?
Similar to games like The Sims and Fallout, or movies like “Ready Player One,” Decentraland is an all-immersive virtual universe. However, instead of playing on a two-dimensional screen, you participate in a three-dimensional world using VR goggles and holograms.
It seems to be the logical next step before creating full-blown AI-based games in the physical space. Westworld world comes to mind if you’ve seen it.
What Is LAND?
In Decentraland, the spaces that you interact with are LAND, non-fungible digital assets that you purchase in the VR. Once you own a plot of LAND, you’re free to do with it as you choose. You can create games, applications, gambling services, art shows, music events, or even dynamic 3D scenes. But, why stop there? Although not its primary purpose, you can also create LAND-based services around education, professional development, tourism, etc.
The number of LAND is capped, and each plot of LAND is 33 feet by 33 feet, but there’s no limit to its height. Recently Decentraland created LAND Estates, a feature that allows you to more easily manage your LAND by associating adjacent plots. If you’re interested in purchasing LAND (or just want to see the map), please let us know and we’ll be happy to tell you more about it.
Similar groupings on LAND comprise Districts. Districts are basically communities that revolve around a shared theme. For example, there may be a District just for crypto enthusiasts with cryptocurrency apps and services. You can vote on District issues through Decentraland’s voting dApp, Agora. The amount of LAND you hold in a specific district correlates to the weight of your vote. Decentraland created Agora to give you more control over what happens in your districts, and to provide feedback on the platform at large. Similar to how cities and county are set up now.
So, how do I actually buy LAND in Decentraland?
MANA is Decentraland’s cryptocurrency token. It’s an Ethereum token that you use to purchase plots of LAND as well as pay for in-world goods and services. When you buy LAND, Decentraland burns the MANA that you purchase it with. Thus decreasing the supply and increasing the value of these virtual real estate plots. We’re living in a digital age now and this reminds me of the ever so iconic dot com bubble, or the gold rush maybe. I’ll leave you with one last quote for now, “ Thinking you’re late to crypto is like thinking you’re too late to use the internet.”
