Decentraland began to make headlines soon after the emergence of augmented reality Metaverse which steered the world's markets in a new direction and drew a plethora of attention since Zuckerberg rebranded Facebook to Meta last October.
Ever since the virtual universe became the newest investing fad, many institutional players and companies raced to explore prospects in what appears to be the new era of business.
The world as we know it changed dramatically in the last couple of years. The Metaverse, similar to the video game The Sims, is a virtual world where players can connect, socialize, work, play, shop, and even visit art galleries and museums, among other things. Nowadays, JPMorgan made headlines by becoming the first big financial institution to hop into the Metaverse, opening a virtual lounge on Decentraland that has laid the foundation since 2015, everyone is wondering what this blockchain-based Metaverse is.
What is Decentraland?
Entering the fray as a blockchain-powered digital real estate platform that allows users to create, explore, and trade in the first-ever user-owned virtual environment. Powered by the Ethereum blockchain, in Decentraland users create, enjoy, and monetize their content and applications on the platform. From a space adventure to a medieval dungeon maze, community members have created entire villages. In the Decentraland Marketplace, you may buy and sell LAND, Estates, Avatar clothes, and even names, as well as other digital goods and paraphernalia supported by the Ethereum blockchain.
What is LAND?
LAND, a non-fungible digital asset maintained in an Ethereum smart contract, which represents Decentraland's finite, traversable, 3D virtual space. LAND are divided into parcels with cartesian coordinates to identify them (x,y). Each LAND token has information about its location, owner, and a link to a content description file or parcel manifest that explains and encodes the material that the owner wants to deliver on his or her land.
What is MANA?
MANA is a fungible ERC20 cryptocurrency token that allows Decentraland users to buy LAND and other products and services from other Decentraland users using smart contracts. MANA got a major boost recently, scoring eye-watering gains by 4,000% in the last 12 months.
What do you need to enter Decentraland to play?
All you need is to have a computer that can run Google Chrome or Firefox and to fully enjoy the game you’ll also need to connect a crypto wallet that will help you keep your LAND, MANA and collectibles safe. However, the game is playable without a wallet.
