Today, from where I stand, cryptocurrencies have successfully managed to take up the entire marketplace and are rapidly progressing towards completely revolutionizing the global payment system. The crypto industry has been around us for a long time now and over the past couple of years, the industry has witnessed a tremendous surge in growth and popularity and I don’t think, it is going to slow down anytime soon.
Looking at the name that the industry has managed to make for itself, I am forced to assume that, most of you are already aware of the industry but, if for some reason, you are still not familiar with the basics of the industry, let’s talk about that first, shall we?
Crypto as the name suggests is nothing but a form of virtual currency which can be used for a variety of purposes including the purchase and sale of goods and services as well as for the purpose of trade and exchange over crypto exchanges online.
In technical terms, crypto is a decentralized blockchain-based platform that makes use of blockchain technology in order to perform functions on the platform and also for the purpose of recording and verifying each and every transaction that takes place on the network in order to eliminate double-spending and counterfeiting.
Other than this, being decentralized, the industry is very well capable of working outside the overall control and jurisdiction of central authorities and can work freely without any government interferences. Also, a few other factors for the overall success of the industry include its convenience, portability, ease of use, high-profit margins as well as its highly intuitive nature.
In addition to this, when the industry was first introduced, it is quite obvious that there were not many currencies to choose from and frankly, there were not many investors lining up to put in their money either. But, on the contrary, it feels almost unreal, seeing how the industry today caters to such a large audience on a global level, with newer currencies coming up every day and new investors joining in with each passing hour.
Speaking of a lot of currencies available today in the marketplace, some of the most popular currencies to choose from in the marketplace right now includes Bitcoin, Ethereum, Cardano, Binance Coin, Dogecoin as well as Baby Doge to name just a few.
Now that you have a brief backstory about the crypto world, I sincerely believe that you will be able to have a much better understanding of what we have with us today, Decentraland. To know more, I suggest you read further!
Everything to know about Decentraland (MANA)
Decentraland or as commonly referred to as MANA is nothing but a virtual reality platform that is powered by the popular Ethereum blockchain and was founded by Esteban Ordano along with Ariel Meilich. The platform is known to allow its users to create, experience as well as monetize applications and content.
In addition to this, Decentraland was first introduced about four years ago, back in 2017 after an initial coin offering (ICO) of about 24 million dollars. Also, the said platform launched its closed beta in the 2019 model year and opened it to the general public in February last year. Not just that, Decentraland is known to primarily focus on incentivizing a global network of users in order to operate a shared virtual world.
In other words, in this virtual world, users have the ability to purchase plots of land that they would be able to build upon, investigate as well as monetize. Also, Decentraland was initially introduced as an experimental grid that often allocated pixels to users on the platform, based on the Proof of Work (PoW) mining.
Before moving on any further, it is worth noting that MANA is the native utility token of the platform, which can indeed be used for numerous purposes on the platform itself. Being an ERC-20 token, MANA has to be burnt in order to acquire non-fungible ERC-721 LAND tokens on the platform. Other than this, MANA tokens are also capable of being used to pay for various avatars, wearables as well as names, to name a few of course.
As mentioned, Decentraland had a surge in growth and popularity especially after the ICO conducted back In 2017, since then, users have been able to build a wide range of experiences on their parcels of LAND, including sprawling 3D scenes, interactive games along with several other interactive experiences for users.
Not to mention, apart from buying and selling virtual real estate, while interacting, exploring as well as playing games in this virtual world, users have really been able to take advantage of the implementation of interactive apps, peer to peer communication, and in-world payments, that have all evolved over the years. Also, you should be aware of the fact that there are two different types of tokens that are known to govern operations in Decentraland, namely LAND and MANA.
For some of you wondering what they are? Allow me a chance to explain. LAND is nothing but a non-fungible token(NFT), which is often used to define the so-called ownership of land parcels representing virtual real estate. On the other hand, as discussed, MANA is a cryptocurrency that is said to facilitate the purchase of LAND and virtual goods and services that are used in Decentraland.
Moreover, any changes to Decentraland software are enacted with the help of a collection of blockchain-based smart contracts, which allow participants on the platform holding MANA to vote on land auctions, policy updates as well as subsidies for new developments of course.
In addition to this, on Decentraland, there is no limit in respect to what you can do, it being the very first platform to be completely owned by its users. Talking more about LAND, in Decentraland, LAND basically refers to any spaces that you interact with. These are non-fungible virtual assets that you as users purchase in the game itself. Once you have successfully purchased a plot of LAND, you are then free to do whatever you choose to with it.
For instance, you can create gambling services, games, applications as well as dynamic 3D scenes and though it is not its primary purpose, you can even create LAND-based services in respect to professional development, education, and tourism along with many more. However, it is worth noting that, the number of LAND is capped on the platform and each plot of LAND is about 33 feet by 33 feet, but as a matter of fact, there is no limit to its height.
Also, Decentraland is said to have recently created LAND estates, a feature that allows users on the platform to manage their LAND with much more ease, by just associating adjacent plots. Similar grouping on LAND comprises of Districts, which are nothing but communities that are said to revolve around a shared theme. Not just that, it is vital for you to know that the amount of LAND you hold in a specific district correlates to the so-called weight of your vote.
Moving on, let’s talk in brief about the working of Decentraland. The platform is said to have no central authority and as a matter of fact, the entire virtual reality ecosystem is governed and operated by users on Decentraland. The world operates as an alternative VR ecosystem, which allows users to purchase and sell their virtual property and real estate, play games as well as use their plot of land for absolutely anything they like as long as the features on the network allow it.
Furthermore, the total number of parcels on the platform is said to be capped at 90,000, while developers of Decentraland own plazas, common spaces along with roads, which cannot be bought or sold by any use whatsoever. As a matter of fact, this scarcity is one of the fundamental drivers of the value in respect to a particular LAND on the platform. Similar to the real world, space in Decentraland is also finite, thus making owning of real estate in the metaverse potentially valuable indeed.
What makes Decentraland special?
Reading so far, you must have understood that, Decentraland is basically developed for content creators, individuals, and businesses that are said to be looking for a new business opportunity, artistic medium, or a source of entertainment. As a whole, the Decentraland gameworld commonly referred to as “Metaverse” is divided into 90,601 parcels of LAND, which can be found at particular coordinates in the Metaverse.
Though as mentioned previously, LAND holders are more or less free to develop their plot in any way they choose, a large part of Metaverse is widely divided into various districts, each of which is known to have a different theme and size. These districts however were generated with the help of individual crowd sales for MANA tokens and as a matter of fact, parcels of LAND in these districts cannot be traded.
Not just that, as of January this year, Aetheria, the cyberpunk-themed largest district, comprising about a total of 8,008 LAND. Also, Decentraland is one of the growing numbers of projects which makes use of decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) structure for the purpose of making governance decisions. As a result of this, MANA token holders are the ones in control of how the entire world of Decentraland behaves, by proposing and voting on various policy updates, the specifications of upcoming LAND auctions as well as the type of content that are allowed in the Metaverse.
Apart from just being a creative outlet, many users on Decentraland are said to currently monetize their LAND with the help of advertising, paid experiences, and leasing. Similarly, other users on the platform generate their income by simply creating and selling products on the Decentraland marketplace in exchange for MANA tokens.
Now that we have talked much about Decentraland, some of you must be wondering, whether or not it is a good idea to invest in the platform? if that’s the case, then let’s find out, shall we?
Investing in Decentraland (MANA)
As of today, the price of Decentraland is about 3.74 US dollars with a twenty-four-hour trading volume of 34,471,266,736 dollars. Not just that, in just the past twenty-four hours, the value of the Decentraland has gone up by 171.62 percent, and with the current market cap of 6,796,559,526 US dollars, MANA is currently placed at #33 position as per the CoinMarketCap rankings.
Also, it is worth mentioning that, the current circulating supply of Decentraland is nearly 1,816,940,191 MANA coins but unfortunately, the maximum lifetime supply of the platform is not yet available. In just the past week alone, the price of Decentraland has gone uphill by 378.32 percent.
Reading so far, you must have gotten a fair understanding of the platform and by now, you should be able to figure out on your own whether or not investing in Decentraland is the right thing for you to do. Seeing what it has to offer when combined with its performance in the recent past as well as its plans for the near future, I certainly believe that Decentraland can prove to be a profitable investment in the near future, which is likely to provide you with good returns and it is a possibility that your current investment may increase in value. But again, nothing can be said for sure!
As mentioned at the very beginning, crypto is a highly volatile marketplace and is extremely uncertain. Thus, It is very important for you to understand the fact that, just like any other currency in the crypto marketplace, Decentraland does have its own risks as well and you should invest only if you are willing to take those risks and bear any and all losses if at all necessary.
If you are wondering, where can you buy Decentraland? Let me help you with that. Currently, Decentraland is available on all major crypto exchanges but some of the popular exchanges that have MANA listed on them include Binance, OKEx, Upbit, CoinTiger as well as Mandala Exchange to name a few.
In conclusion, what are your thoughts on Decentraland? Do let us know in the comments below. To know more about various cryptocurrencies, do check out other articles we have on our website. Thank you for your time & if you found our content informative, do share it with your investor friends!
Also read: Kishu Inu: Everything you need to know
