How To Make Money On Virtual Land

Exploring Decentraland and Mana

Virtual land. No you’re not crazy.

I saw it coming in a weird way. Back in 2016, I used to play this game called Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. It’s basically Call of Duty for the PC, in case you’re not familiar.

In CS:GO you could spend hard-earned cash on virtual weapon skins. These ranged from graffiti-styled dragons draped across your sniper rifle, or a significantly more subtle gold-fade gradient on your knife.

Skins were a way to flex off your wallet in Counter-Strike. It was the virtual equivalent to a guy cruising around in a red hot Ferrari (who totally doesn’t have a small penis by the way).

Flexing is in our DNA. Whether it’s your clothes, car or virtual skins in a video game; everyone wants to look badass.

Today, you can still buy CS:GO skins for thousands of dollars and some even appreciate in value. Skins became their own currency and no one except this relatively small gaming community knew it.

So, this leads us to virtual land; the hot new craze which stands to severely widen the scope of digital flexing.

What is Decentraland?

Decentraland is an online video game released to the public in 2020 that brings together games like Second Life, Roblox and Minecraft, and pairs them together with blockchain.

It’s the first step towards Ernest Cline’s “Ready Player One;” an online experience where you can explore a digitized second life with friends and strangers.

And for some, it’s already taking precedence over the real world.

What makes Decentraland stand apart from those other games, however, is its use of Ethereum’s blockchain. The innate rules of Decentraland are final, and cannot be altered unless voted upon by the majority of its community.

LAND (the primary token used to purchase virtual land in Decentraland) is a finite resource, just like Bitcoin.

LAND is fixed at 45,000 private parcels. Some of this virtual land is already owned by major crypto companies like Binance and Kraken who have spent hundreds of thousands in this space.

Travel to Crypto Valley to see how they set their area up.

Additionally, Decentraland has its own cryptocurrency known as MANA, which can be exchanged for LAND or other goods and services; including but not limited to costumes for your character or Non-fungible Tokens (i.e. digital art).

“Unlike other virtual worlds and social networks, Decentraland is not controlled by a centralized organization. There is no single agent with the power to modify the rules of the software, contents of land, economics of the currency, or prevent others from accessing the world.” — Decentraland White Paper

What Do You Do In Decentraland?

Not much, as it stands now.

This is my biggest concern with the game. Decentraland is pretty boring, and even a bit buggy sometimes.

There are some fun minigames to play, and a few interesting worlds to explore, but overall it's a slog. You can occasionally find some hot spots with something interesting to do, yet it’s sparse.

All in all, however, the framework is there. Often you’ll find many charming spots in Decentraland. I found myself smiling plenty as I navigated the nightclubs of Vegas City.

There are many other ways that users make the game fun:

• Host podcasts with your friends: There is a charm to doing things in a virtual world where there are no limits. Especially with Decentraland trending as of late. Hosting events here may be a perfect way to give your brand a unique edge.
• Showcase your digital art: The one thing missing from the NFT art space is a place to flex it. Decentraland is trying to become that space and does offer some really cool locales to show off your NFTs. However, I really do think one of the big social media players will get in on NFTs soon. It’s too lucrative a space not to.
• Virtual performances: Events happen quite frequently in Decentraland and can be quite fun. DJ NGHTMRE dropped by a club recently for an exclusive show. More events like this will bring me back for sure.
• Make money: There are several ways to take advantage of the virtual land craze and earn some serious dough. So, let’s go over the most popular —

Work Inside Decentraland

This blew my mind.

Earlier this month, Decentraland hired real people to manage their in-game casino.

20 part-time greeters and a full-time manager were welcomed on board, according to Decentraland project lead Miles Anthony.

“You can’t play a game with a robot and say, ‘Hey, man, this is cool isn’t it? Wow, look at this,’” said the newly hired manager who goes by the username GLHF.“You know, there’s just that personal touch that I believe is worth the investment. And you can actually share emotions.”

I couldn’t find how much ‘GLHF’ makes, but it was enough for him to quit his real-life jobs of bartending and sales.

Flipping Land in Decentraland

Speaking as a New Jersey native, Decentraland reminds a lot of New York City. In an Orwellian dystopia kind of way.

Decentraland is split up into many different districts. There’s the Fashion District, Cyberpunk District, and Gambling District to name a few. The more interesting the area — i.e. fun things to do, or scarcity of LAND — the more value.

In fact, located inside some of these areas is ad space where you will receive a cut for lending it out to advertisers.

In order to make money flipping land, you would first want to become very accustomed to the game and which parcels of land stand to gain the most. Then you can purchase LAND on the marketplace and hold while it gains in value.

This LAND doesn’t come cheap. You’ll spend thousands at the very least.

There is a network of roads built around Decentraland which guarantee more traffic than if you built in the middle of nowhere. Although, the middle of nowhere is much cheaper.

Since launch, there have been more than 50,000 secondary LAND sales totaling $30+ million at an average price of $560, according to CoinDesk. Today, the total value of all the LAND is about $100 million and growing.

Of course, flipping land banks on the assumptions that Decentraland gains in popularity and the LAND you’ve chosen will be a popping spot.

Generating Passive Income On Your LAND

Across my adventures in Decentraland I found many places where the creators are generating (or at least attempting to generate) passive income.

Some offer to rent out their LAND. Others have created a unique experience like playing a claw game or entering a haunted house which costs MANA to play. You’ll even find art galleries where you can purchase NFT art through the game.

It got me thinking. Man this is really freaking neat.

If Decentraland continues its enormous trend — the price of MANA has risen more than 4000% in the last year alone — it could create a massive means of passive income for creators who got in early.

Can you believe that virtual mortgages are even being offered now?

What a time to be alive!

What’s Next For Decentraland?

Clearly, we are inside a cryptocurrency and NFT bubble.

Not all digital art will grow in value, not all digital LAND will be worth more than a buck, and many of these altcoins are scams.

Virtual socialization is inevitable, but the real question is will it happen inside Decentraland?

I think it's very tough to tell as I do believe it’s one of the riskiest investments to make right now. And all this throwing around of wild insane numbers on social media and YouTube just makes me more skeptical.

However, Decentraland does have a good framework. It lacks polish, but has charm. It’s not original, but has attracted a growing userbase. It’s the first, and most popular of its kind; and in the cryptocurrency space, that’s always a huge benefit.

I’d recommend creating a character in Decentraland (it takes less than five minutes) and exploring the world for yourself. It’s a strange place, especially knowing the concept behind it all.

Decentaland’s fate lies with its users and developers. If it works, I’m terrified to see what it does next.

This is not financial advice. All investment strategies and investments involve risk of loss. Nothing contained in this publication should be construed as investment advice.

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