The idea of virtual world in which you can do whatever you want has long kept dreamers awake at night. A plenty of films, books and games about this topic has already been made. The project called Decentreland is no doubt a breakthrough in this area because it has done something that no one has ever done before: created a decentralized virtual reality world completely owned by its users.
So, what is Decentreland?
Decentrеlаnd is а virtuаl rеality platform bаsеd on the Ethereum blockchain. Users can crеаte, tеst, аnd monetize content and аpps. The platform is fully governed by users through special system called DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization). All apps created on the Decentraland network belong exclusively to their creators.
To start creating content user has to buy land on the land market using blockchain based token called MANA. The number of land plots is limited which creates an artificial deficit that affects the price of land plots. At the moment, the price of land varies from 500 dollars to several thousand dollars. About 80% of all land belongs to users. Part of the territory is rented out by the Decentraland team. Public objects such as squares and roads are not for sale.
According to developers, the main goal for them is to make virtual reality world in which creative people can easily realise their ideas. That is why they created special tool to make the process of creating content easier. As a result, everyone may create whatever he wants without any knowledge in coding.
As regards playing Decentreland, it is possible to play Decentreland through web browser or virtual reality helmet even without downloading app. In addition, Decentreland does not require registration, to join the virtual world user just has to have Ethereum wallet.
Unfortunatelly, even though Decentreland is so easy to join, the number of active players is low because of 2 main reasons. First of all, the game is still poorly optimized and has a plenty of bugs. Secondly, the game has attracted attention of speculators instead of declared target audience (creative people). As a subsequence of land speculations, the entry threshold for owning land is to high for ordinary people and no doubts that it pushes away some potential players.
In conclusion, even though now Decentreland has many serious problems, the potential of it is huge. In case, the team of development would solve main problems, the project is no doubt will be popular in the future.
Resources:
https://decentraland.org/
https://www.publish0x.com/cryptocurrency/what-is-decentraland-mana-a-comprehensive-guide-to-understan-xkxyrn