How to get started in Decentraland

DECENTRALAND is an Ethereum-based metaverse where users you can play, explore, and interact with games, activities and other users.

Users can also purchase land so they can then build their own marketplaces, and applications.

Decentraland’s three native tokens — MANA, LAND, and Estate — all play a role in the Decentraland economy.

The platform is governed by its users through the Decentraland DAO, a decentralised autonomous organisation.

Keyboard functions:

WASD – Move
V – Third Person View
B – Emotes (e.g. dance)
U – Remove user interface
Spacebar – Jump
Enter – Start chat
TAB – Open full map


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Decentraland map

The Decentraland map is made up of both private LAND owners and themed community districts.

It shows the location of all 90,601 LAND parcels which form Genesis City.

What does the Decentraland map mean?

LAND (Dark Grey)
Pivately owned LAND parcels which can be purchased and sold on the Marketplace.

Districts (Purple)
Privately owned themed communities but these are not for sale.

Plazas (Large Green Squares)
Respawn and high footfall area but also not for sale.

Roads (Light Grey, Straight Lines)
Roads are not for sale.

Decentraland Land

Each land parcel is a NFT, which means it’s unique and can’t be forged or duplicated.

Anybody can buy, sell or rent land in Decentraland through the official Decentraland Marketplace, or via a marketplace such as Opensea.

All transactions are stored on the Ethereum blockchain as proof of ownership.

Every land token has unique co-ordinates which represent a location on the Decentraland map.

The value depends on the location.

If you own multiple parcels of land next to each other in Decentraland, this is called an Estate, and allows the owner to build upwards.

Total LAND: 90,601
Private land parcels: 43689
District LAND: 33886
Roads: 9438
Plazas: 3588

Each LAND Size is 16m x 16m square spaces, it was previously 10m x 10m but changed in February 2019.

Building in Decentraland

If you own land in Decentraland, then you can build on top of it regardless of whether you’re a coders or non-coder.

To create a simple build in Decentraland, start with the Builder Tool.

This requires no coding knowledge, and allows users to create simple games.

It has an library of pre-made models, both static and dynamic.

If you have knowledge of coding in Typescript, or a similar coding language, you can use the Decentraland SDK.

The Software Development Kit allows you to import 3D models into Decentraland, as well as code games, applications, animations and more.

Decentraland currency

MANA is the native currency of Decentraland.

It can be used to buy avatars, wearables, land and in-game services.

Owners of MANA can also vote on the future development of Decentraland.

MANA tokens can be purchased in a number of ways:

1) Buy with fiat on most of the popular crypto exchanges such as Coinbase or Binance
2) Buy with Ethereum on the official Decentraland Marketplace
3) Buy with Ethereum at Uniswap
4) Buy with USD ($) from a CoinCloud ATM (USA only)

Decentraland avatars

A Decentraland avatar is a customisable character which will represent you inside the metaverse.

Ownership of each avatar is represented by an NFT and recorded on the blockchain.

An avatar in Decentraland will cost you 100 MANA which is then burnt and removed from the total currency supply.

You can customise your character with Decentraland wearables which are available to buy on the official marketplace or Opensea.

Registered usernames can also be bought and sold on the Decentraland marketplace.

Decentraland wearables range from hats, boots and masks, to raver glasses, fancy dress costumes and pumpkin heads.

All wearables are NFTs and can be bought and sold on the open market.

Wearables are categorised into the following category depending on the amount available: Uncommon, Swanky, Epic, Legendary, Mythic.