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Decentraland guide: How to make money in the play-to-earn crypto game
DECENTRALAND is one of the most popular metaverse games, where users can make money by playing games and selling property.
Players can buy and sell digital real estate, create digital art and play casino games, while interacting with other users in the virtual world.
2 Decentraland is one of the hottest virtual reality games
What is Decentraland?
Decentraland is a “decentralized virtual world” where plots of lands can be bought and sold using cryptocurrency.
The platform shot to fame when Metaverse Group, the NFT-based metaverse real estate company, bought a plot on the game for $2.43m in November 2021.
Through a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO), land owners in the game can control policies and determine how the world behaves - in other words, this online game is a virtual world where users make the rules.
The game is built on the Ethereum blockchain, and when it first launched in 2017, parcels of digital land sold for about $20.
The MANA tokens - the main currency in the game, sold for $0.02.
As of January 2022, the price of 1 MANA has shot to $2.79 (£2.05).
Decentraland recently partnered up with Polygon to use its blockchain to solve issues around scalability, speed, and transaction costs, addressing some of the main complaints of users.
Dubbed a layer 2 solution (L2), it allows tokens to operate on a blockchain that’s separate from, but still linked to, a mainchain, as explained in the blog announcement.
To find out more about metaverse games, check out our Gala Games vs The Sandbox vs Decentraland explainer.
How does Decentraland work?
Decentraland is a 3D virtual world where players can purchase, trade, and create digital real estate, art, and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
To progress in Decentraland, you need two main tokens - MANA and LAND.
MANA is the transactional coin used for buying things in the game.
With MANA, you can buy everything you want, including LAND lots, wearables (clothes), and collectibles.
LAND are the game’s real estate lots.
You can buy LAND tokens using MANA and build whatever you can afford on them, including stores, art galleries and casinos.
Decentraland is a browser-based game, meaning you can only play on PC or Mac running Chrome or Firefox.
It is not yet available on mobile or any existing headsets but there are plans to make this happen, according to the FAQ page on its website.
You don’t need a wallet to play Decentraland, but having one helps to enjoy the full experience.
If you don’t have a wallet, your info will only be locally stored and while you’ll be able to engage in the experience with your avatar, you’ll be cut off from daily rewards, taking part in events, and logging in from a different device.
Decentraland recommends MetaMask.
How to earn money in Decentraland?
As Decentraland is not just an online game, but a whole virtual universe, there are tons of different opportunities to make money.
You can work for a company and receive salary, work as a freelancer for other clients (players), or create art and clothing and sell them for profit.
But here are some of the most common ways to make money in Decentraland.
Buy and sell LAND
Just like IRL real estate, investing in LAND and selling them once their value increases is one of the most common ways to earn in Decentraland.
Land in Decentraland comes in parcels of 16m by 16m as NFTs, meaning they are unique and irreproducible.
Players can purchase their LAND parcels at the in-game marketplace or in third-party exchanges such as OpenSea.
The cheapest parcel of LAND is around 5,000 MANA, or approximately $14,000.
And like in the real world, LAND located near frequently visited destinations like Crypto Valley and Vegas City cost more than others.
Decentraland has a fixed quantity of 90,000 properties, meaning their value will only go up as more users invest in land.
If you own adjacent parcels, you can also combine them into “Estates", increasing their value even more.
Buy and hold MANA
MANA tokens serve as a means of exchange in Decentraland.
You can get them in exchange for Bitcoins or Ethereum on trading platforms like Binance, Coinbase, and Gemini.
Apart from usingit to buy things in the game, there’s always the option to buy and hold MANA - as with every cryptocurrency, its value might fluctuate in time.
In October 2021, when Facebook rebranded to Meta, token prices of Metaverse-related cryptocurrencies skyrocketed, including the MANA token.
Create Clothes and Sell Wearables
Just like in real life, you can design and sell clothes and wearables on Decentraland to earn money.
Apart from having 3D design experience, you will also have to invest 500 MANA for each piece.
Marketing your designs properly and creating hype around them can guarantee more customers - you can even use social platforms like Discord and Reddit to let people know what you’re selling.
Play-to-Earn Games
Decentraland offers the opportunity to design and play mini games and win NFTs and wearables.
You can then sell these assets for a profit.
In the Decentraland casinos, you can also play popular casino games and earn MANA, NFTs and wearables.
The casino games include the classics - Slot, Poker, Roulette and Blackjack.
Work as a Freelancer
Just like in the real world, in Decentraland you can offer your services as a freelancer and get employed by other players.
Job opportunities include 3D modelling, creating wearables, coding, making videos and art, and marketing.
Work for Decentral Games
Decentral Games is hiring inside the metaverse - you can work as a host in a virtual casino and get paid a fixed rate of $200 per month, and get promoted once you get enough experience.
A casino host’s responsibilities include interacting with the players and running games and other events.
2 You can chat and play with others in Decentraland
How to play Decentraland?
For the best gameplay experience, you would first need to get a MetaMask wallet, which is a browser extension.
Decentraland gives you two options - to log in with your wallet, or play as a guest.
Claim a unique name
As you first log in, you will be asked to create a username.
You can pay to claim a name, or choose to get one for free.
You can also buy a name from the ones listed in the marketplace - names include things like “CRonaldo”, “Omicron” and “GoogleCEO”.
Once you have the name, you can also re-sell it.
Some players have already claimed names belonging to real-world celebrities.
Explore the world
There are many different controls you have to learn in order to navigate the world.
Pressing C on the keyboard brings up the control panel, which shows the various buttons you need.
Once you learn how to move around, you can teleport in different areas, in order to explore the world of Decentraland.
Complete quests
There are many quests to do when you join the game.
You can join a treasure hunt, or chat to other players and find out if anyone has a quest for you.
In exchange, you can get NFTs and wearables.
To find more quests, head to the Genesis Plaza and hit the rocket icon in the bottom right hand corner of the window and follow the instructions.
Play games, attend events, buy and sell land and NFTs
Decentraland offers many play-to-earn games, but you could also buy land with MANA and create your own games, shops, galleries and museums.
You can also attend live events where you can connect with the community and make virtual friends.
If you would like to sell assets, the Decentraland in-built marketplace is the place to go.
To sell, you need to follow these steps:
Click on the “My Assets” tab
Go to “Sell”
Choose a price for your item and set an expiration date for the offer
Go to “List For Sale” and re-type the price to confirm
Decentraland offers a roster of exciting experiences and opportunities to make money.
However, it is not the best when it comes to gameplay - it tends to be sluggish and has long loading times.
So if you’re looking for good video games, check the best games for 2021.
IndiGG secures $6 mn in funding to foster play-to-earn movement in India
IndiGG, the India subDAO (decemtralised autonomous organisation) of Yield Guild Games (YGG), has secured $6 million in funding to foster the play-to earn movement in India. The round saw participation from Sequoia Capital India, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Jump Capital, Variant Fund, Dune Ventures, Griffin Gaming Partners, Transcend Fund, Animoca Brands, Play Ventures, Backed and Sfermion, IVC, Emfarsis and others.
Angels included Reddit Co-founder Alexis Ohanian, Alan Howard co-founder of Brevan Howard Asset Management and executives from the Indian gaming and entertainment industry, including Hungama, Nazara, WinZo, Hindustan Talkies and Mobile Premier League (MPL).
The funds, including an additional $1 million pre-seed led by YGG, will be utilised by IndiGG to focus on several key areas to fuel platform growth and onboard Indian gamers to the web3 world of play-to-earn. As well as driving local education of the Play-to-earn movement, expanding the team, and organising community events.
According to a November 2021 report by BCG and Sequoia Capital India, monetisation of the Indian gaming market is already in excess of $1.8 billion with more than 400 million people already playing online video games in the country with the industry set to triple in size by 2025.
“India is set to take a leadership role in establishing this new web3 frontier. We have the talent, capital and confidence to ensure that we are in the driver’s seat and games are the perfect vehicle to engage our next generation of talent,” said Hemant Mohapatra, partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners
IndiGG will soon support NFT assets for Axie infinity, Pegaxy, Fancy Birds, Nyan Heroes, Nitro League before onboarding new games for the Indian market. Polygon Studios and their thriving ecosystem of Web3 games — including Zed Run, Skyweaver by Horizon Games, Decentraland, and Decentral Games — will ensure IndiGG scholars continually have access to the latest releases.
“The play-to-earn guild model was first proven by YGG in the Philippines, our partnership with Polygon Studios will bring this life-changing model to one of the gaming communities in one of world’s largest emerging economies so they can reap the benefits of web3,” said Gabby Dizon, Co-founder of Yield Guild Games.
Play-to-earn games typically harness NFTs - blockchain-based digital assets needed by players to play these games. The introduction of these assets enables the tangible ownership of in-game items and helps build a sustainable economy from which players can earn. The guild will also provide scholarships for selected recipients, enabling them to rent out NFT assets owned by the guild to play games and start earning — lowering the barrier of entry for those who want to join the play-to-earn revolution.
“Through the Polygon ecosystem we’ve already seen traction in player-owned virtual economies and we know the quality of games in development. Our goal in partnering with YGG for IndiGG is to onboard 400m people to Web3 on the path to mass adoption,” said Sandeep Nailwal, co-founder, Polygon.
“Polygon and YGG coming together to address the gaming market in India is a big step for the Indian gaming ecosystem. Ownership of in-game assets will fundamentally alter the game economies and design dynamics. We want to leverage the power of this paradigm to ensure that the Indian gamers are a big part of the Web3 Gaming revolution.” added Siddhartha Jain, advisor, IndiGG
Top 5 Metaverse Crypto Coins With a Market Cap Over $2 Billion
Metaverse crypto coins are undoubtedly the current hype in crypto markets. With several Metaverse crypto coins seeing multi-billion dollar valuations, it’s not a surprise that projects with Metaverse use cases are doing exceptionally well. This article looks at the top five Metaverse crypto coins with a market cap over $2 billion, ordered by project valuation, lowest to highest.
#5 Enjin Coin (ENJ) – $2 billion
Launched in June 2018, Enjin is a custom blockchain allowing users to create custom NFTs. Enjin established itself as one of the leading blockchains for NFTs and recently pivoted towards the Metaverse with their Efinity project.
The Enjin ecosystem offers features for businesses, developers, and individuals. Enjin’s full-fledged NFT solution enables businesses to grow their brands. In addition, Enjin provides an SDK with a robust API for NFT development for developers.
Enjin makes it easy for individuals to explore the Metaverse and manage their NFTs and crypto-assets. The project features its mobile app with over 1.7 million downloads, making it easy for new crypto investors to get their foot in the door with NFTs and Web3.
Enjin continues to expand its Metaverse ecosystem with various DeFi and GameFi applications. Recently, Enjin featured the Kingdom Karnage game on Twitter.
Kingdom Karnage is a virtual trading card game that is available on PC and Android devices. All assets are tokenized and are infused with the Enjin Cryptocurrency.
Enjin is trading at $2.41 with a 24-hour volume of $189 million at writing. Its market cap is $2 billion, with a circulating supply of 847 million tokens.
Enjin peaked during the November 2011 bull run, when it reached a high of $4.6. As their ecosystem continues to grow and evolve, the ENJ token makes for a great long-term hold, and the current price of $2.41 is a great entry point.
You can purchase ENJ on most major exchanges like Binance, Coinbase, KuCoin, Binance, FTX, and more.
#4 Theta Network (THETA) – $4.1 billion
Launched in 2018, the Theta Network is a next-generation entertainment and video blockchain. Its platform features a robust ecosystem consisting of NFT collections and dApps.
THETA is the native currency to the platform, used for purchasing NFTs, accessing various platforms, and more.
THETA’s NFT platform is top-rated, with high-profile celebrities like Katy Perry releasing their NFT collections. In addition, THETA received endorsement from Steve Chen, Co-Founder of YouTube, which makes this an underrated project.
THETA is setting up to release their TNT-20 standard governance token TDROP, scheduled for February 2022. In addition, THETA has a streaming platform enabling users to earn TFUEL tokens.
The THETA network had seen incredible price gains last year, setting a new all-time high in April 2021 when it reached $13. Currently, THETA is trading at $4.14, 30% of its all-time high. THETA has great potential this year as it managed to remain within the top 5 Metaverse crypto coins with the highest market capitalization, even after this month’s bearish momentum.
In addition, THETA shared on Twitter today that their traffic has grown by three times in just two months, showing the exponential growth of their ecosystem.
Traffic to @ThetaDrop has grown 3x in just two months, leading up to the launch of TDROP token in just 18 days! See what the buzz is about at https://t.co/APofDsDPtP and learn about all about TDROP and NFT Liquidity Mining in our latest blog post: https://t.co/C3KdQddWOq pic.twitter.com/aCrCLm2T99 — Theta Network (@Theta_Network) January 14, 2022
You can purchase THETA on most major exchanges like Binance, KuCoin, Crypto.com, and more.
#3 Axie Infinity (AXS) – $4.4 billion
You’ve probably heard about Axie Infinity, launched in March 2018. It’s one of the most popular Metaverse crypto coins available. Axie Infinity features a game Metaverse filled with Axies, cute Pokemon-inspired creatures which are NFTs. The game’s goal is to collect, breed, and upgrade your Axies and grow your wealth.
Axie Infinity includes multiple game modes. Players can compete against each other, complete quests, defeat bosses, and follow in-depth storylines.
Axie Infinity was initially built on Ethereum, but the team is developing Ronin, a unique blockchain specifically for Axie. Ronin is explicitly made to handle Axie’s high userbase and transaction volume.
In recent news, Ronin reached over 250k unique addresses on their blockchain, showing successful progress in its development.
We are Ronin. • 250,000 unique active addresses 🌋
• Katana, Ronin’s Dex, is the #2 dex by weekly active users ↔️
• 5 B in deposited value ✨
• 15% of all NFT transactions in 2021 happened on Ronin 👀
• 2.5 M Ronin wallet downloads 🪶 Data 👇https://t.co/g7Qs07DsEf — Ronin (@Ronin_Network) January 14, 2022
In addition, Ronin currently has over 2.5 million wallet downloads, showing the scale of its ecosystem. As Axie Infinity continues to expand its platform, AXS could easily break the previous all-time high that it reached back in November 2021.
In November, AXS reached an all-time high of $160. Its current price of $74 is a strong support level for Axie Infinity, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see a bullish reversal in the coming months. As one of the most popular Metaverse crypto coins on the market, AXS makes for a great long-term hold.
You can purchase AXS on Binance, KuCoin, Gemini, Coinbase, and more.
#2 The Sandbox (SAND) – $4.5 billion
Launching its token in 2020, one of the most anticipated Metaverse crypto coins on the market is The Sandbox, a 3D Ethereum-based digital realm combining RPG and MMO mechanics with a play-to-earn model.
The Sandbox offers one of the highest quality immersive experiences because it features a desktop client. The main appeal for The Sandbox is the ability for investors to purchase Land. Players can monetize and customize their Land in The Sandbox and establish a passive form of income in the Metaverse.
In recent news, Snoop Dogg announced plans to develop his virtual playground in The Sandbox called Snoopverse. In fact, a user recently purchased a plot of Land in The Snoopverse for over $400k!
Currently, SAND is trading at $4.88 with a 24-hour volume of $819 million. Its market cap is $4.4 billion, with a circulating supply of 920 million tokens.
SAND hit an all-time high in November 2021, when the price peaked at $8. Unlike other Metaverse crypto coins, SAND maintained a high price even after the recent market correction. The Sandbox makes for a great long-term project with a high potential to see significant gains by the end of the year.
In recent news, The Sandbox completed their recent land sale with multiple ESTATEs and LANDs, showing the growing interest around the project.
~4 hours remain on these MEGA CITY – ESTATE auctions! 🏙️ Claim your piece of #VirtualRealEstate in the #Metaverse today! https://t.co/Wkb6oDV4Mm — The Sandbox (@TheSandboxGame) January 14, 2022
You can purchase SAND on Uniswap, Binance, KuCoin, Gemini, Crypto.com, and more.
#1 Decentraland (MANA) – $5.3 billion
Launched in February 2020, Decentraland is my favorite Metaverse crypto coin and is the pioneer of 3D blockchain-based virtual experiences. Decentraland is currently the most popular Metaverse platform on the market, and its MANA token has the highest valuation of over $5.3 billion.
Decentralnand lives on the Ethereum blockchain, but the team has been working on a partnership with Polygon, a Layer-2 scalability solution that will help decrease fees and increase engagement on the platform.
The most significant appeal of Decentralnand is currently for more prominent investors looking to purchase Land in the Metaverse. Decentraland includes one of the most active Land markets, with over 250k in ETH ($829 million) traded on OpenSea.
One reason for Decentraland’s success is its most popular attraction, Decentral Games’ ICE Poker, a virtual casino featuring a free-to-play and play-to-earn model. That’s right; you can play in the casino with FREE tokens and earn rewards that have real-world value. The catch is that users must wear Decentral Games’ ICE wearable NFT, which can cost quite a bit.
Users have been using one solution: delegating the ICE NFTs to others for a lower price, making a passive income in the process, and enabling users to play ICE poker without spending a fortune.
Decentraland continues to update its platform with better controls. In recent news, Decentraland shared an update on Twitter regarding a new control for users’ avatars:
A new update allows you to control your avatar without locking your mouse to your screen!
Just right click, drag, and release.
You can now also right click to release from the screen when locked. 🎉 pic.twitter.com/9JQJihcYGx — Decentraland (@decentraland) January 13, 2022
MANA is currently trading at $2.97, with a 24-hour volume of $416 million. Its market cap is $5.4 billion, with a circulating supply of 1.82 billion tokens.
MANA reached its all-time high in November when it peaked at $5. MANA had one of the sharpest price hikes when it came to Metaverse coins when it went from $0.75 to $3.5 in a matter of 48 hours.
MANA has genuine utility, and Decentraland is the current leader in Metaverse crypto coins. This project has excellent long-term potential, and as its userbase continues to grow, MANA could easily break its previous all-time high by the end of the year.
You can purchase MANA on Coinbase, KuCoin, Binance, FTX, and more.
Disclosure: This is not trading or investment advice. Always do your research before buying any Metaverse crypto coins.
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Hubble Protocol, a DeFi project on Solana Raises $10 Million Led By Crypto.com Capital, DCG and CMS
Hubble Protocol, a decentralized finance (DeFi) application on the Solana network, has raised $10 million. Hubble will commence the first phase of its development on January 28, a zero-interest lending platform that will produce USDH, a censorship-resistant crypto-backed stablecoin. Bank of America: Solana might become the “Visa of the digital asset ecosystem” since it focuses on scalability, cheap transaction costs, and simplicity of use. Solana has settled more than 50 billion transactions and has more than $11 billion in total value locked.
Solana Projects Attract Investments as the Ecosystem Grows
Before its January 28 Mainnet launch, Hubble Protocol, a decentralized finance (DeFi) application on the Solana network, has raised $10 million. Hubble was able to accomplish this considerable rise with the help of some of crypto’s most powerful and well-known figures. Marius Ciubotariu, the project lead at Hubble Protocol, in an exclusive interview with Hackernoon, discussed the advantages of the Solana ecosystem, such as its scalability, composability, and latency.
Three Arrows / DeFiance Capital, Delphi Digital, Digital Currency Group, Crypto.com Capital, ParaFi, Jump Capital, Decentral Park Capital, CMS, Spartan, DeFi Alliance, and Mechanism Capital were among the investors in Hubble’s funding rounds.
Hubble will use this funding to grow its workforce and DeFi products throughout 2022. Hubble will commence the first phase of its development on January 28, a zero-interest lending platform that will produce USDH, a censorship-resistant crypto-backed stablecoin. USDH is primed to become a “building block” for additional protocols on Solana, as stated in Decentral Park Capital’s investment thesis. The protocol aims to improve the future of DeFi and Web3 continually.
Hubble’s native token, HBB, allows users to earn the bulk of the protocol’s fees by minting USDH. The revenue streams contributing to this fee-share may expand in the future. HBB will be available on three launchpads at the end of January: SolRazr, Solanium, and DAO Maker.
As the ecosystem for Solana is still at its nascent stage, building the initial infrastructure such as a decentralized stablecoin to a novel borrowing marketplace and undercollateralized lending is the key to building DeFi primitives for the Solana ecosystem. These are essential components of the Web3 financial stack on the most well-known cryptocurrency infrastructure.
Solana Eats the Market Share of Ethereum
In a research note, Bank of America informed clients that the Solana blockchain might become the “Visa of the digital asset ecosystem” since it focuses on scalability, cheap transaction costs, and simplicity of use. Due to the success of Solana as a high throughput blockchain, projects such as Hubble Protocol are building DeFi infrastructure on the blockchain.
Since its premiere in 2020, Solana has seen rapid acceptance and has settled more than 50 billion transactions and has more than $11 billion in total value locked, and has been used to mint more than 5.7 million non-fungible tokens (NFTs). For comparison, Visa, the payment processing giant, handled 164.7 billion transactions in the year ended September 30. According to the bank, Solana is designed for consumer use cases like micropayments and gaming.
While Solana promotes scalability, a less decentralized and secure blockchain comes with trade-offs, as seen by multiple network performance concerns since its launch. Ethereum values decentralization and security above scalability, resulting in periods of network congestion and transaction fees that are often more than the value of the transaction being transmitted.
According to Bank of America, Solana and other blockchains might eat into Ethereum’s market share over time and will begin to differentiate themselves via user acceptance and developer engagement.
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