A virtual set of land in Decentraland was recently sold for 1.07 million MANA which equals to $1 million.
Yes, MANA is the virtual currency of the Decentraland World, which equals $0.92.
Interesting right? Well in that case, let’s explore how Decentraland works and whether we can really make money from it?
An Overview of Decentraland
Decentraland is a 3D virtual reality platform running on the ethereum blockchain.
Originally created in 2015 by Ari Meilich and Esteban Ordano, Decentraland was a giant pixelated grid.
The pixels within that grid were allocated to different owners using the proof-of-work algorithms.
After a couple of years, it slowly evolved into a 3D world.
It was first made public in February 2020 and now being run by a non-profit called Decentraland Foundation.
Along with this, there were some other known investors of Decentraland:
- Digital Currency Group
- Kenetic Capital
- FBG Capital
- CoinFund
- Hashed
Back in 2017, the beta program allowed users to buy land on the Decentraland for as low as $20.
Right now, the most desirable patches are sold for over $100K due to the massive boom for NFTs in 2020-2021.
In layman terms, Decentraland is a virtual world where you can create, sell, buy, and explore collectibles and other virtual goods using its marketplace.
Let’s see what the Decentraland marketplace is like.
Dencentraland MarketPlace – Let’s Explore!
Although the Decentraland marketplace is like any other NFT marketplace, what’s inside of it makes it stand apart.
To have a complete grasp over its marketplace, let’s look into these things:
How We Can Buy or Sell At the Decentraland Marketplace?
To buy or sell anything, you need a crypto wallet like MetaTask to hold the primary currency of Decentraland marketplace, known as MANA.
Once you’ve MetaTask connected, you can buy or hold MANA using it.
Let’s suppose, if you’re selling a T-Shirt, you’ll get MANA that you can redeem to real USD later on.
Similarly when you buy a T-Shirt, you’ve to buy MANA coins or credits so that you can give it to the seller from your wallet.
Buying and selling NFT on Decentraland is a 3-step process:
- Setting up MetaMask to buy and hold MANA (currency od Decentraland)
- Sell or buy products in MANA
- Redeem these MANA in USD and withdraw
What Can We Buy or Sell At the Decentraland Marketplace?
The marketplace is a place where we can manage our Decentraland assets like:
- Clothes
- Hats
- Shoes
- Avatar or Usernames
- Land
Let’s go over all of these different elements on the Decentraland marketplace.
Avatar / Usernames
To explore the virtual world, you don’t need an avatar. However, there are plenty of benefits for having one of these.
An avatar is like a registered username for your ‘character’ or in-game presence.
You can buy or sell one of those from the marketplace and it acts like an NFT.
Additionally, you can only have one username. So selling something unique is the concept here.
Wearables
An avatar without a unique touch is boring, right?
Decentraland thinks the same and gives you an opportunity to buy a variety of accessories to fancy up your avatar.
First, you can choose different styles of hair, facial hair, eyes, eyebrows, and mouth under the head section.
Not only this, there are different clothing options for the upper body, lower body, and shoes.
After that, there are different accessories like earrings, eyewear, hats, helmets, masks, and headwear.
All of these unique items are sold and bought on the Decentraland marketplace or other supported ones like OpenSea and SuperRare.
Land in on Decentraland Virtual Reality World
As I said earlier, you can actually buy areas in the Decentraland. These areas are called parcels and estates.
One parcel of land is equal to 16m x 16m in size, you can buy or sell these parcels from the marketplace individually or in bulk.
You can buy multiple parcels and merge them together to make an estate.
Once you have them, you can design an area inside-out to look however you want and create a place that the community can visit.
Some of the estates in Decentraland are the Genesis Plaza, where you spawn after entering the game.
How Can We Leverage Decentraland to Make Money?
Decentraland is a digital world made with NFTs and Cryptocurrency. These NFT items can be sold and bought to make profits over time.
But wait, there are more ways to make money from Decentraland:
The Marketplace Transactions
There are a bunch of unique items on the marketplace to buy. Each item has a value that increases or decreases based on factors like popularity, rarity, uniqueness, etc.
You can also make an estimate of which item will get you the most resale value and invest in it.
In this way, you not only make an investment but also increase the chances of making profits.
Buying Parcels & Estates
Because the land on Decentraland is finite, its value increases as the demand increases.
You can jump the gun first and buy multiple parcels to make an estate.
When you see an opening for a potential buyer that can afford to give you the amount you want, you can sell it.
Currently, one parcel of land goes for about 6,900 MANA which is approximately $5,998.
If selling isn’t really your ball game, you can do much more with it than just let it sit around.
Building Your Own Estate Scene
If you have land, you can use it to make a scene.
There is a builder tool on Decentraland where you can make a great 3D scene that can be static or interactive.
If your goal is to make money, you can create an interactive scene with some aspect of exchange MANA.
As far as we know, the builder tool has some drag and drop tools that can make it easy for you to make multiple scenes.
Alternatively, you can hire someone to make it for you to get a professional’s touch.
In case you find scene making as a tough thing, you may learn from the Decentraland University.
Earning Big with Activities
Activities are a big part of Decentraland. Massive estates are mostly bought for the purpose of creating an activity for the residents.
You can do the same with your land by creating an activity scene. See, here are some of the most interesting activities in Decentraland.
The Casino
The Casino in Decentraland is for gambling enthusiasts. You can buy MANA and head out to the casino to participate in a game of roulette or blackjack.
This is one of the most common ways that users follow to make some money on Decentraland without selling their assets.
Apart from MANA, you can also win NFT wearables or collectibles which are also valuable.
By participating in these games with real people, you can gamble in real-time.
That’s not all though!
You can also earn Decentral Games Tokens which is another way to earn money on Decentraland. To know more about it in detail, please read this guide.
For starters, all we can say is – Decentral Games Token can be earned in-game by playing games and performing activities.
Also, it can be exchanged for MANA to use it on assets or convert it to cryptocurrency.
Some Other Events & Activities to Earn Money on Decentraland
The casino is not the only thing, there are several things to do in Decentraland to make money.
Pretty much anything you can do in the real world to earn money can be done in Decentraland as well.
Let’s see some of the most popular examples:
Art Exhibitions & NFT stores
If you own a parcel of land or an estate, you can create a scene for an art exhibition for NFTs.
Of course, these NFTs are limited to Decentraland items but there are a lot of users that would love to buy them.
Renting Land
Renting your own land to some other user is also a way to earn money on Decentraland.
Whenever someone wants to have an Event on your land, you can take commissions, fix rates, etc.
On the other hand, you can also rent someone else’s land to host your own event.
Live Performances & Concerts
If you’re a musician or a band, you can have live performances or a concert on your land.
You can keep an entry fee to let users listen to your music.
This is an especially great opportunity for those who have an audience that is familiar with Decentraland.
Some Other Tips for Making Money on Decentraland
Decentraland is a new concept. Before we see its real benefits, it has to mature a bit more.
So, the best way to make the most profit on your investments is to hold them for the next couple of years.
As the finite Land becomes rare to buy, you will see a sharp rise in the value of your goods.
Other than all of this, I would suggest making informed investments and taking better decisions by staying up-to-date with your Decentraland knowledge!