Decentraland is a virtual reality platform or virtual world powered by the Ethereum blockchain. Users explore the project’s meta universe and fill it with content.
In Decentraland, users create various artifacts and interactive objects. The objects and plots of land in this virtual world are NFTs. They are traded on an internal marketplace.
MANA and LAND coins are used on the platform. The non-mutually exchangeable tokens LAND are plots of land and MANA is used for settlement and management.
Who created Decentraland and when?
Esteban Ordano and Ariel Meilich founded Decentraland in 2015. Prior to that, Ordano worked as a programmer at Bitpay and Meilich worked as an analyst at Charles River Ventures.
The developers initially released the virtual world as a two-dimensional pixel map. Dots were colored in a specific color and linked to metadata that allowed them to be identified.
In 2016, the team began creating a digital world using 3D graphics.
In 2017, Decentraland raised 86,206 ETH ($24 million at the time) in an ICO. The organization maintains the project’s website and also owns the intellectual property rights. The developers kept 20% of the raised funds.
The development plan of the platform was formed in 2017, and its beta version was presented in 2019. Later, interactive applications and the possibility of in-game communication were added.
In February 2020, the developers presented the final version of the meta universe.
What can you do in Decentraland?
The platform belongs to the GameFi sector – provides users with gaming and financial opportunities. Players explore territories, communicate and participate in interactive scenes, as well as create virtual objects in the form of NFTs.
Various events take place in Decentraland, including exhibitions, trainings and workshops. The meta-universe allows advertising products and services, as well as informing about upcoming activities.
In the white paper of the project various ways of developing the meta universe and expanding the gameplay possibilities are described. Users can create objects, mini-games and applications. The team offers two tools for developing the virtual world:
- The Builder. It is a browser-based editor that allows you to create and edit the content of the meta universe by dragging and dropping objects.
- Decentraland SDK. A set of development tools designed to implement interactive scenes and custom elements.
Libraries extend the possibilities of interactive content. Territory owners can create mini-games and generate revenue from them.
