The desire to achieve a decentralized economy, away from the cumbersome market rules implemented by various national governments, has led to the creation of virtual reality platforms, just like the one called Decentraland. Its token is represented by the MANA, the cryptocurrency used to buy or sell land which is the main object of exchange of the platform. The MANA token has become very famous and purchased in recent days since Facebook changed its name to Meta and the Metaverse trend exploded.
The Affinity Between Cryptocurrencies and Virtual Reality Platforms
The world of cryptocurrencies seems to know no boundaries in the creation of new cryptocurrencies, capable of showing great competitiveness among them. There is, in fact, no precise regulation that can limit their entry or impose a limit on their life once they have entered the market. Similarly, there are no rules about the creation of different platforms that are able to host additional exchange markets between different crypto monies.
The absence of specific disciplines on the subject implies, therefore, the existence of a single great economic law, that of exchange based on supply and demand. This criterion has inspired the realization of a world almost parallel to the real one, in which only users are the makers of the financial performance of goods. This kind of intuition has found paternity in video games even before platforms such as Decentraland (see previous chapter).
The creators of the latter are, however, experimenting with the approach of people who find themselves in a sort of limbo immersed between fantasy and reality. They have, in fact, had the merit of being able to convey the exchange tools, such as game coins, towards a single currency that can acquire value not only within the virtual platform, but also outside, in the real world. All this is made possible by the monetary force of cryptocurrencies.
Mana, Decentraland's Cryptocurrency
Decentraland was built on the Ethereum blockchain. The purchase of land takes place, in fact, precisely by exploiting the blockchain of the famous cryptocurrency. The feature of Decentraland, which distinguishes this platform from others, however, lies in ownership. Users become owners free from any centralization of the financial organization, able to generate revenue simply according to the appreciation and value introduced by other users.
The purchase and sale thus regulated, or not regulated in a managerial sense, by the free market of Decentraland have as object plots of ten square meters. You can make the commercial exchange of goods and services on the platform through MANA. This is the name of the currency used and can be purchased directly on the main exchanges, just like any cryptocurrency.
Following your purchase, you can also choose to store MANAs in your Ethereum wallet.
The success of MANA and Decentraland
The escalation of the MANA token is inevitably linked to the success of the platform that allows its use, Decentraland. The prospect of a virtual world within which there are perfect correspondences with real commercial dynamics, has led to the expansion of a single monetary system, able to unite the two worlds in this respect. Cryptocurrencies and the blockchain system on which they are based represent only the bridge through which the national currency crosses the border line to enter this kind of digital platform, perfectly parallel to the real dimension, with the difference that in the virtual one there are no financial pressures of any kind.
The concept of union between real and virtual just expressed, is better identified with the name of Metaverse. It is none other than the umpteenth step of the digital revolution. Coined by an American author of science fiction novels already mentioned at the beginning of this book, it is now the most widely used term to express the functional passage of the value of a currency from the real world to the virtual world, from traditional finance to that of the blockchain. The digital value of goods and services can no longer, in fact, be separated from the monetary one and Decentraland seems to have hit the nail on the head, in a game of words and currencies that combines the playful aspect with the seriousness of economic affairs.