Decentraland (MANA) is building a virtual world in which users can be rewarded for the creations built in it. Founded in 2017 by Ari Meilich, Esteban Ordano, the project’s token, MANA, raised $24 million in just over 30 seconds during its ICO, an event that attracted a lot of attention.
Quite unique in what it is doing, Decentraland calls itself a virtual world built and owned by its users. Users can create avatars on the network and users tools and documentation to create new spaces and objects in the virtual world. This is accompanied by a market called the Decentraland Marketplace, where users buy and sell virtual plots of LAND.
The team has stated that once the virtual experiences have been created, which they claim is being worked on by thousands of LAND owners, users will be able to experience the world on computers, phones and VR headsets.
The MANA token has had several use cases be outlined for being particularly suitable for application. This includes the building of 3D scenes, games and decentralized applications, content curation, digital collectibles and advertising.
The project’s roadmap, which is viewable as a Trello board, comprehensively details the progress of the various areas of development, which roughly are: development on the “world”, the “builder” tool, the marketplace, policy, and improvements and features for developers. Current efforts focus extensively on features for creating spaces and experiences better.