How to Buy Land in Decentraland : Tips to find the Best Land for Investment

Decentraland is a booming product of such metaverse trends- it is a software that runs on the Ethereum platform where the users can sell, trade, and buy digital real estate (non-fungible unique digital assets) while playing and interacting with the other users in the virtual world. In this article, we will learn how to buy land in Decentraland and more.

What is Decentraland?

Imagine a world where you could travel, socialize and create an alternate reality with thousands of other real-time users, within the same digital universe. Such a world is a reality, owing to the innovative creation of the metaverse, which refers to an amalgamation of augmented reality, virtual reality, and the internet.

Anyone can purchase, sell or lease land peer-to-peer on the official Decentraland Global Market or through Opensea. Founded in 2015 by Esteban Ordno and Ari Meilich and launched in 2017. Decentraland runs on the Ethereum ERC-20 token known as MANA that lets the user by plots of LAND, monetize them, and create avatars, in-world goods, and art that are NFT-based items unique to each user.

Land in Decentraland

The crypto asset LAND is the game’s real estate lots that are among the Non-fungible tokens(NFT) used to define the ownership of land parcels. The users can buy land lots in the game by using MANA and creatively construct whatever they can afford on them.

The economy of the game develops in the same way as the real world with the increase in land valuation directly proportional to the purchase rate. A user can have their own games, stores, and art that can be built on their own in-game land, just like the real-world ownership of the real estate.

MANA in Decentraland

Decentraland MANA

MANA is the cryptocurrency that helps in the purchase of LAND, as well as virtual goods and services within the Decentraland. One can buy wearables, collectibles, and land lots with the help of MANA. Uniswap Exchange aids in converting MANA from other currencies. 

Architecture 

Decentraland has various component layers built using Ethereum smart contracts.

  1. Consensus layer: It tracks LAND ownership and content through a smart contract.
  2. The Content layer: This layer makes use of a decentralized distribution system to render content in the virtual world.
  3. The Real-time layer: It provides peer-to-peer interaction and connection with each other.

Each piece of LAND is marked by a distinct set of cartesian coordinates where the particular Land has a user claimed ownership through a blockchain-based ledger of encoded parcels. The content can range anywhere from a three-dimensional scene or an interactive game.

Marketplace and Builder

Decentraland outside the gaming environment has a marketplace and a drag-and-drop editor that can be used to build items and scenes in the game.

The marketplace aids the users to exchange and manage LAND tokens costing MANA. Users can use the marketplace to transfer parcels and in-game items such as art. Wearables and unique names.

The Decentraland’s builder tool helps to create and curate a unique experience within the LAND parcels. The developers can access customization libraries and payment implementations to design interactive scenes with the editing tool.

How to Buy Land in Decentraland?

We shall walk you through the process of buying land in Decentraland, which is pretty easy:

Create a crypto wallet – Metamask

A crypto wallet is essentially needed for buying, selling, and storing cryptocurrencies. One of the most reliable and flexible crypto wallets happens to be MetaMask.

Steps: 

  • Go to Metamask.io and get their official Chrome plugin
  •  Click on “Add to Chrome” and thereafter “ Add Extension
  • Metamask is now installed in your Chrome browser
  • To create an account click on the MetaMask Logo Icon in the top right corner of your browser.
  • Click on the option “Try it now” 
  • Hit “Continue” 
  • Create a password and click on “Create
  • Click on next and then accept the terms and conditions.
  • Then, create a password for your MetaMask account and press on “Create
  • You will be sent a secret backup phrase of 12 words. Store the phrase safely and securely. Click on “Reveal Secret Words” it will be used for recovery if you ever forget your main account password.
  • Once you have verified your secret phrase. Click on “confirm” 
  • Now you have created your account successfully and it can be used to connect with your Decentraland

Get a Decentraland Account and Passport

Decentraland passports like real-life passports are used to identify one’s character and are used to verify one’s identity when logging into Decentraland.

To create a Decentraland account :

  •  Go to Decentraland’s official website and press on “Start Exploring”.
  • Click on the Play Button and choose the MetaMask option to connect your MetaMask wallet with Decentraland.
  • Press the sign button in the MetaMask Wallet extension.
  • You will reach the character avatar customization page.
  • Click on done after you have created and named your avatar.
  • Click on Next and then Accept the Terms and Conditions.
  • You will initially get in-game tutorials before you can start exploring the game.
  • You will need to put some money into your MetaMask account. This can be done by directly buying CryptoCurrency from your MetaMask account or using a CryptoCurrency Wallet such as Coinbase. 
  • Now the next step is to buy land in Decentraland.

Buy Land in Decentraland

Once you have your MetaMask and Decentraland account set up and you have finished your basic tutorial, you can proceed towards buying land in Decentraland.

  1. From the bottom right corner of the screen, you can click on the option called “Builder
  2. Choose the “LAND” option from the left and the game will display all the owned lands. Since you don’t own any land at this point, the game will prompt you to buy land.
  3. Click on the “Buy Land” option
  4. Next, you will be taken to the Official Marketplace of Decentraland; here you may have to reconnect to Decentraland again to see your profile in the marketplace.
  5. Once you are connected you can browse through the lands in Decentraland. You can find listings of land that you can buy at a specific price.
  6. After you have selected the land, you need to bid for it depending on what price the owner of the land wants to sell it for.
  7. This is the procedure by which you can buy your own land on Decentraland

a. What is Atlas View?

The bird’s-eye view of every color-coded property/plot, street, area, and plaza in the Decentraland Marketplace is referred to as the Atlas view. One can relocate around the map by dragging and clicking, zooming in and out, or toggling your mouse pointer over a parcel to see its x,y coordinates and the names of the holders. 

Any parcels that are currently available for purchase will be outlined in the Global Market. You can tap on the parcel and find the public address of its holder; you can also make an offer or purchase the parcel from the display screen.

b. What is an Estate?

An estate is a non-fungible digital asset, the same as a Land, where two or more parcels of land are next to each other or cannot be divided by a road, parcel, or plaza. One can effectively manage a larger estate by trying to connect parcels to constructing estates. They are particularly useful for creating multiple parcels in a larger sequence. 

c. What is a parcel?

Land parcels in Decentraland are non-fungible tokens (ERC 721) which imply it is a unique piece of land that cannot be copied or recreated just like real land.

The cheapest land available in Decentraland costs 3487 MANA.

d. How to view the Marketplace?

To view the marketplace and see all the items on sale one must go to the Explore tab and:

  1. Choose a category to see only a particular type of item.
  2. Sort them according to their price, time of creation, etc.
  3. To find items that are not on sale, switch On, Sale off.
  4. Sort items by title to discover something particular.

e. How to Purchase, Bid, and Sell Items?

To purchase MANA tokens,

  1. Press Exchange or Markets link once you have registered into your existing account.
  2. Look for the pair of currencies that interests you, which includes ETH/MANA or BTC/MANA.
  3. Click on the BUY button in which you can enter the quantity you want to spend or even the quantity of MANA you want to buy
  4. Fill out the form and buy the MANA tokens.

To purchase LAND, Wearables, Estates, or unique titles in Decentraland:

  1. You can explore various deals and access their specifics by tapping on them.
  2. Select BUY on the product details page.
  3. Pay by verifying on the Ethereum client 

To Bid on an item: 

  1. To see a list of your accessible and awaiting bids, click on Pick My Bids from the top navigation bar.
  2. You can also set the value of your big by pressing Update.

To Sell an Estate or a Parcel:

  1. Find Access My Assets and navigate to the asset’s details page.
  2. Press Sell on the details page.
  3. You need to set a price and expiry date for your listing and then put it up for sale.
  4. Verify the payment in your Ethereum client and wait for the system verification.

f. How to transfer Land?

To transfer a land parcel or Estate to another customer, follow these steps:

  1. Access My Assets and navigate to the details page of an estate or property you want to transfer then tap Transfer.
  2. Insert the user’s Ethereum wallet’s public address.
  3. Click on submit.
  4. Verify this transfer of funds in your Ethereum client and wait for the system verification. 

How to Play Decentraland?

These are a few steps as to how one can play the Decentraland:

  • Claim your name:

You will require 100 MANA to create a unique name. Once created you can sell it, since you will be the only player with that name that other players will have to obtain by paying money. Some players use names belonging to famous real-world celebrities.

  • Explore by teleporting to different areas:

To navigate in the world of Decentraland you need to press C on the keyboard. There are options in the bottom bar for quests, teleporting in different areas, building, and exploring. 

  • Complete quests to get NFTs:

One can complete in-game quests created by other players and gain NFTs.

  • You can buy land, play games, and attend events:

You can buy lands with the MANA, create your own games, stores, and museums. You can also attend live events within the metaverse.

What is a Decentraland map?

We can learn more about the Decentraland map from here.

The Decentraland map contains both particularly themed community districts and private LANDs.  

The Decentraland map Color Key:

LAND (Dark Grey) – These are Privately owned LAND parcels that can be bought and sold on the Marketplace.

DISTRICTS (Purple) – Privately owned, themed communities. Not for sale.

PLAZAS (Green Squares) – The Plazas are not for sale since it is an area on the map where players are expected to respawn.

ROADS (Light Grey, – These are not for sale.

How to get a Decentraland coin?

The following steps can be undertaken to obtain Decentraland coins known as MANA:

  1. Set up a Binance account
  2. Enter your email address with a strong password
  3. Click on the checkbox to confirm that you are above 18.
  4. The verification code will be sent to your email address; enter the code in the verification box.
  5. Increase your account security by allowing two-factor authentication. 
  6. Once your account is secured, click on “security” on the dashboard and click “verify”
  7. On this page, you will see basic information. Click ‘verify’. Enter your name and address similar to your identification
  8. You will then be asked to verify identification and face.
  9. Start the verification. Select the country where your identification was issued and the type of identification you have.
  10. You will be given the option to either upload a file of your picture or take a picture of yourself for identification.
  11. Now you have to buy bitcoins by going to the top menu and clicking on “buy crypto” and “Credit/Debit card”
  12. You will be given the option of your preferred currency, the entire amount you would like to spend.
  13. Press “buy bitcoin”
  14. You may be told that your account is under review to assess if you are eligible to purchase crypto-currencies using a credit card or debit card. The review process might take up to two hours.
  15. Now you can Trade bitcoin for Decentraland using the Binance exchange.

There are two ways of buying MANA:

A ‘Limit’ order

  1. A limit order lets one set the price manually at which one wants to buy Decentraland (MANA).
  2. Select ‘limit’ in the exchange section of the page.
  3. Now you have to enter the price you want to pay for Decentraland in the ‘price’ box.
  4. Enter the amount of Decentraland (MANA) you want to purchase in ‘amount’.
  5. You will now be told the total amount of Bitcoin the order will be priced at. Press ‘buy MANA’.

A ‘Market’ buy

  1. Market buy fills one’s order automatically at the very best price available.
  2. Select ‘market’ in the ‘exchange’ section of the page 
  3. In the box marked ‘amount’ fill in how many MANA you would like to buy. 
  4. Once you are happy with the amount you have allotted to buy, press the green button marked ‘buy MANA’.
  5. Your order will be filled immediately.

Conclusion 

The metaverse has turned out to be a complete game-changer, with Decentraland at its apex. Buying land in Decentraland is an investment due to the prominent growth of VR gaming. The MANA has a positive outlook for growth in the coming times and such investment can lead to enhanced growth in one’s investment portfolio. 

We hope this guide has helped our readers to learn all about Decentraland, ranging from How to buy land, gameplay techniques, the Decentraland map, and the Tokens used in the game. With important tips and guides in the article, we hope this answers your doubts and apprehensions about traversing the new world of a virtual universe.