As cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology continue to take the world by storm, we will see more innovative use cases of this technology coming up. Most recently, one of the most popular use cases of decentralized Blockchain technology is in the software known as Decentraland. But what is ‘Decentraland? More importantly, how does one buy MANA, the game’s native crypto token?

Decentraland is thought by many people to be the next step to what is now being termed as the metaverse. This is because Decentraland features a virtual world where users can connect and interact and even play games.

However, Decentraland is much more than that, and in this article, we will explore what Decentraland is, what MANA is, and how you can connect, interact, and play games in Decentraland with MANA.

What is Decentraland?

Decentraland is software that runs on the Ethereum network, also known as the Ethereum Virtual Machine. The main objective of Decentraland is to incentivize a global network of users to operate and interact with one another in a virtual world.

Users of Decentraland can buy and sell digital real estate while also exploring the virtual world, connecting and interacting with other users, and playing in-world games. More recently, the platform has evolved to include the implementation of interactive apps on the Ethereum Blockchain, in-world cryptocurrency payments, and peer-to-peer, or decentralized, user communications.

The Decentraland software leverages the Ethereum Blockchain network to track and verify ownership of virtual land, requiring users to engage with the virtual real estate ecosystem by holding one of the two native cryptocurrencies of the software: MANA. Therefore, in simpler terms, Decentraland can be thought of as the world’s first decentralized virtual world owned and governed by the community of users who participate in the game.

Even more incredibly, developers have the opportunity to innovate within the Decentraland platform by designing the animation that is experienced on their virtual real estate. Virtual land is represented as non-fungible tokens, called LAND, and each parcel of LAND within the virtual world has a unique coordinate. Through smart contracts and a layered consensus mechanism, a ledger is maintained that tracks the ownership of each parcel of LAND.

Decentraland allows users to create and develop their virtual land or explore and interact with other virtual lands that other users have created and developed.

What is MANA in Decentraland?

Two types of native tokens govern operations in Decentraland. While LAND is a non-fungible token (NFT) used to define the ownership of parcels of virtual real estate within Decentraland, MANA, the software’s other native token, is a cryptocurrency that facilitates LAND purchases along with other virtual goods and services within the virtual world.

MANA is used in the marketplace developed within the virtual world, where participants can manage and exchange LAND tokens through MANA. All LAND parcels in Decentraland are priced in MANA, and hence this is the cryptocurrency through which exchanges of virtual real estate occur on the Decentraland marketplace.

Therefore, MANA is the native crypto token that fuels the economy of the decentralized virtual ecosystem. MANA was first introduced back in August 2016 through an initial coin offering (ICO) that gathered a little over $26 million, and its circulation started just a few months later. At the beginning of 2018, it saw its all-time-high of 18 cents. It has since then declined to an average price of around 5 cents.

How to Buy MANA

There are several different ways you can buy MANA. However, most users have found it best to purchase MANA via a trusted global exchange like Kraken or Coinbase Pro. To buy MANA, you will have to convert or exchange another crypto-token, like Bitcoin, for MANA.

In Coinbase Pro, however, you can only buy MANA using US dollar Stable Coin (USDC). Therefore, to buy MANA on Coinbase Pro, you will first have to convert your Bitcoin to USDC, after which you can convert USDC into MANA.

First, go to the trade interface on Coinbase Pro, and under ‘Select Market,’ choose the BTC-USDC market. To sell your BTC in exchange for USDC, click ‘Sell’ and choose the specific amount of BTC you would like to exchange. After this, select ‘Place Sell Order.’

While that order is being filled, you can buy some MANA with the USDC that you received. From the trading section, select ‘Market’ and from the drop-down menu that appears, select MANA-USDC. Since you want to buy MANA, click on ‘Buy’ and choose the specific amount of MANA you would like to buy. After doing so, select ‘Place Buy Order.’

Congratulation! If you have completed all these steps, your order to exchange USDC for MANA will have been filled. You can go back to your portfolios to confirm whether the exchange was successful and how much MANA you currently have in your wallet.

How to Store MANA

Once you have successfully bought MANA, you will need to ensure that you safely secure it. While many platforms allow you to store MANA, it is always safest to store your MANA in a crypto wallet, software, or hardware device.

Since Decentraland is built on the Ethereum network, you can easily store your MANA in an Ethereum wallet. Notably, there are multiple Ethereum wallets to choose from, including MetaMask, Trezor One, Ledger Nano S, and Exodus. For this reason, it is important to spend some time researching which Ethereum wallet best suits your needs so that you can choose the right one for you.

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Final Words

There is no doubt that Decentraland has proven itself to be the popular innovative use-case of Blockchain technology.

The ability to own, create, and develop virtual land in which participants can connect, interact, and play games with one another in Decentraland is one of the first successful instances of how cryptocurrency and Blockchain technology can be used to create virtual gaming and completely decentralized marketplace ecosystem, hence operated and governed by the community of users that participate in the game.

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