No.180
Decentraland MANA
the user-owned metaverse, where land is an NFT and the players write the rules
π a builder sprite forever buying up parcels of virtual ground and decorating them
π¬ βI'm not a coin you spend at a shop. I'm a place. Buy a plot of me, build whatever you dream on it, and when you hold MANA you don't just own land here, you get a vote on the rules of the whole world.β
- A 3D virtual world on Ethereum where land and items are NFTs you actually own.
- Two assets: MANA (the spendable currency) and LAND (a deed to one parcel of the map).
- Holders vote on the world's rules through the Decentraland DAO, so no single company is in charge.
- Supply isn't capped. It started near 2.8 billion MANA and slowly burns down, now about 2.19 billion.
π The Story
Around 2015, two developers in Argentina, Ari Meilich and Esteban Ordano, asked a simple question: what if a virtual world were owned by the people inside it instead of by one company? They began sketching a map where every plot of ground was recorded on a blockchain, so a plot could truly belong to whoever held its deed.
August 2017. They raised the money to build it with a token sale, gathering roughly $24β26 million in a single month. MANA went out into the world at a few cents a coin, and the dream had a budget.
February 20, 2020. After a closed beta the year before, Decentraland opened its doors to the public. You could now make an avatar, walk through districts of player-built scenes, and buy a parcel of LAND that was yours on-chain.
2021. The metaverse went supernova. Land that had sold for a few thousand dollars was changing hands for tens of thousands, and that November one virtual estate firm paid $2.43 million for a single plot. In March 2022 the world even hosted a Metaverse Fashion Week with real fashion brands setting up shop.
The hype cooled, and the harder truth showed up in the numbers: by late 2022, reports counted only a few dozen people actually transacting in-world on a typical day. The land was valuable, but the streets were quiet. In October 2024 the team answered with Decentraland 2.0, a faster desktop client and easier sign-in, trying to coax visitors back into the place they had bought.
π Stats
𧩠How it works
Decentraland is not its own blockchain. It is a set of smart contracts living on Ethereum, so it borrows Ethereum's security instead of building its own. Two of those contracts matter most: MANA, an ERC-20 token where every unit is interchangeable like a coin, and LAND, an ERC-721 NFT where every parcel is unique like a street address. MANA sits at the centre: you spend it to buy LAND, to trade wearables on the marketplace, and to vote in the DAO that steers the world. Some of that MANA never comes back, because registering an avatar name burns 100 MANA and a small slice of every marketplace sale is burned too, so the supply quietly shrinks as the world is used.
π Light & Shadow
- Real, on-chain ownership. Your LAND parcel and your wearables are NFTs in your wallet, not entries in a company's private database
- One of the first user-governed metaverses, with a working DAO and a track record back to 2017
- The supply slowly shrinks. Avatar names burn 100 MANA each and marketplace sales burn a small slice, so coins leave circulation over time
- Thin real usage. In late 2022, reports counted only a few dozen people transacting in-world on a typical day, a gap between the land's price and the crowd actually there
- Its value rides metaverse hype. Land that fetched six figures in 2021 cooled hard when the buzz faded
- No supply cap and no scarcity story like Bitcoin's. The slow burn helps, but it does not promise the value will hold
𧬠Evolution lineage
Decentraland is not a fork of any coin. It is a native token ecosystem built directly on Ethereum, using the ERC-721 NFT standard for its LAND. Its closest peer is a separate, independently built rival in the same metaverse niche, The Sandbox.
π§ Meet other friends
β FAQ
- What is Decentraland?
- A 3D virtual world that runs on Ethereum. You walk around as an avatar, and the land you stand on and the items you wear are NFTs that you actually own. The MANA token is the money you spend inside it and the vote you cast over its rules.
- What is the difference between MANA and LAND?
- MANA is the spendable currency (an ERC-20 token, so every unit is the same). LAND is a deed to one parcel of the virtual world (an ERC-721 NFT, so each plot is unique). You spend MANA to buy LAND, wearables, and avatar names.
- Does Decentraland have its own blockchain?
- No. It lives on Ethereum rather than running a chain of its own. MANA and LAND are just smart contracts on Ethereum, so the world borrows Ethereum's security instead of building its own.
- Is the MANA supply capped like Bitcoin?
- No fixed cap. It started near 2.8 billion MANA and slowly shrinks through burning: registering an avatar name burns 100 MANA, and marketplace sales burn a small slice. Total supply is now around 2.19 billion.
- Where can I buy MANA?
- MANA is listed on most large crypto exchanges. It moves with metaverse hype, so only try a small amount for fun. (Information only, not advice to use any particular exchange or to invest.)
β οΈ Not investment advice. All figures are for information only.