Decentralands guide and overview: How to play the blockchain game?

Decentraland has become a well-known name in the world of crypto metaverses. Here’s a complete guide to what it is and how to play it.

Online gaming is one of the best use cases for blockchain technology. The ability to assign traceable and verifiable ownership to in-game assets opens up enormous opportunities.

The popularity of this concept continues to grow, and one of the first games to pioneer this space was Decentraland.

Below is a complete guide to Decentraland—what it is, how it was launched, and how to play it, with a detailed step-by-step breakdown.

Quick Summary:

Name: Decentraland

Launch Date: 20.02.2020

Tokens & Network: Ethereum, LAND, MANA

What it is: Decentraland is a decentralized virtual platform where users can create, explore, and monetize experiences, content, and applications.

Associated Brands & Celebrities: Samsung, Australian Open 2022, Digital Currency Group, JJ Lin, and more.

What is Decentraland?

Decentraland is a decentralized virtual reality (VR) platform built on the Ethereum blockchain. It allows users to create, experience, and monetize content, applications, and experiences.

Essentially, it's a virtual world where 3D land is permanently owned by the community, giving participants complete control over their creations. You can log in, create an avatar, and start exploring, buying land, and building anything from game zones to virtual cinemas and galleries.

Landowners control the content published on their plots, which can range from interactive experiences like games to static 3D scenes like artwork.

At the time of writing, Decentraland already has numerous exciting locations for users to visit—more details on this in the "How to Play" section below.

Decentraland gameplay image

Decentraland DAO

Decentraland DAO was created to make the game the first fully decentralized virtual world, a key part of its original vision.

The DAO owns critical smart contracts and assets that make up Decentraland, including the LAND Contract, wearable items, content servers, the Estates Contract, and the marketplace.

The DAO also holds a significant amount of MANA tokens, enabling it to operate autonomously while funding various initiatives.

Participants in the DAO (i.e., LAND and MANA holders) can vote on key decisions such as:

• Adding or replacing content servers
• Upgrading LAND to include new features
• Specifications and dates for LAND auctions
• Primary sale fees
• Adding new wearable items, and more

The Team Behind Decentraland

The concept of Decentraland was outlined in a detailed paper by Esteban Ordano, Ariel Meilich, Yemel Jardi, and Manuel Araoz, with contributions from renowned experts like Michael Bosworth (Google), John Choi (Dropbox), and Jake Brukhman (CoinFund).

The team’s vision became a reality on February 20, 2020 (20.02.2020), when Decentraland was publicly launched. This release included the creation of the Decentraland DAO, the full decentralization of the world's infrastructure, and open access to its offerings.

This was a pivotal moment in the development of Decentraland because, after the launch, no single entity could unilaterally alter its rules.

Despite limited publicly available data on its player base, Decentraland has undeniably become one of the leading metaverse virtual realities in the blockchain industry as of early 2022.

From Samsung to AO 2022: Decentraland's Key Partnerships

Among its major partnerships, one of the most notable was Samsung's deeper dive into the Metaverse via Decentraland. This included limited-edition Samsung wearables available for avatars.

Another highlight was the Australian Open (AO) 2022, one of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments, joining the Metaverse by partnering with Decentraland.

Prominent crypto investment firm Digital Currency Group, led by Barry Silbert, is also a key supporter of Decentraland.

In June 2021, Sotheby's, the world’s oldest auction house, entered the Metaverse by opening a virtual gallery in Decentraland.

Decentralized Economy: Understanding LAND and MANA

The game consists of multiple layers, but understanding its tokenomics is key to navigating it. The two main tokens in Decentraland are LAND and MANA.

What is LAND?

LAND is represented as non-fungible tokens (NFTs) that track ownership of virtual land on the Ethereum blockchain.

These LAND tokens are ERC-721 standard, making them unique digital assets that can be traded like any other NFT.

How to Buy LAND

LAND can be acquired in Decentraland via:

• Official LAND auctions announced by the team
• Buying on the Decentraland Marketplace

To purchase, you’ll need a crypto wallet like MetaMask to store your MANA tokens.

Want to explore Decentraland? Read on for a step-by-step guide on how to play.