Decentraland Review

The growing interest in metaverses indicates that it is only a matter of time before we begin to witness an influx of companies vying for the chance of leading the ongoing digital revolution. Already, Facebook, now Meta, has made its intention known when it underwent a total restructure centered around the creation of a Metaverse. It is safe to say that many more companies will follow suit in the coming years.

However, before the recent massive surge in corporate interest in Metaverse-based solutions, some teams and platforms had already made progress in this field. Some of these platforms had introduced elements of blockchain technology to make the virtual experience a lot more worthwhile. One of such is Decentraland, the Ethereum-based platform that allows users to explore an evergrowing digital world powered by non-fungible tokens.

In this guide, I will explore the workings of Decentraland and why it has become a prominent blockchain game. Additionally, I will highlight its downsides, if there are any.

What is Decentraland?

Decentraland is a pixelated virtual platform or game where users can explore and build on. Think of it as a virtual world where a virtual representation of you can exist. Not only that, you can monetize your virtual experience such that your active participation yields financial rewards. Herein lies one of the core factors that set blockchain-powered virtual realms apart from those built with conventional models.

Before the advent of blockchain-powered metaverses, what we had were companies that had complete control over their in-world economy, that is if they had any. Users could explore all they want but there was a limit to the level of control they have over the infrastructures and features that make up the virtual game. Usually, you can buy in-game items but that does not translate to outright ownership. When you buy such items, they are untransferable, which makes it impossible to monetize.

In contrast, blockchain-based metaverses like Decentraland have introduced an innovative system that allows you and I to outrightly own in-game items, transfer them, and ultimately monetize them. So with Decentraland, what you will get is a decentralized platform where your purchases are finalized on the blockchain. With this, it becomes possible to track and authenticate each item. As such, this system gives no room for counterfeiting. This is thanks to the implementation of what we call non-fungible tokens (NFTs).