CORE MAGAZINE September 2017 | Page 25

BlockChain News tent in a virtual reality setting. The project is similar to social platforms like second life but, because of blockchain technol- ogy, it is able to skipe middlemen fees and offer lower prices. It also doesn’t have strict policies, making it possible for many applications to reach the market. completely different experience. Users can explore the virtual world for content and discover districts devoted to a special topic or theme. This is great for users, they can travel themed neighborhoods or high traffic hubs, and for content creators, ena- bling access to targeted traffic. Decentraland first began as a 2D grid where users could own digital real es- tate on the blockchain, represented by pixels on the grid. Developers called this Decentraland’s Stone Age. In late 2016, it evolved to Bronze Age. Users are now able to own land parcels in 3D and each parcel was associated with a hash reference to a file. This file is where where the textures and models of the land parcel are located and it’s possible for users to download it. Decentraland is powered by the Ethere- um blockchain and will have two differ- ent digital assets: LAND, the scarce and non-fungible parcels of land of the virtual world; and MANA, and ERC-20 token that is used to make in-world purchases and also burned to claim LAND. If done correctly, Decentraland has the potential to overthrow other social plat- forms and become a metaverse, an in- frastructure to support a shared virtual The next version will be Decentraland’s world. It lets you create your dream world Iron Age. Developers aim to add economy with a liberty that other social platforms to the virtual land. Users will be able to simply cannot afford you. It will become create dynamic applications and mone- the closest thing to the matrix yet, and tize them to others, so not only will it be a if you’re dream was to create and live in distribution of land but of content as well. your own world, with the possibility of A payment system will be added to allow even making some income out of it, De- global, instant, and cost-effective pay- centraland might be the experience for ments between any two users. Also, the you. entire social structure will be developed, https://decentraland.org/whitepaper.pdf implementing peer-to-peer communica- tions with voice chat, positioning, pos- If you want to learn more about Filecoin, tures, and other features. visit the official website. What makes Decentraland different from web domains is the adjacency factor. Web domains can have an unlimited number of hyperlinks, that may not even be re- lated or share a common topic. But the virtual setting of Decentraland offers a 22