Earlier this month, DGaming.com published story on one of Decentraland’s largest holders of LAND. His inspiring story showed how it is possible to build a career by trading digital assets.
Decentraland is a virtual world, where the cheapest plot of LAND sells for around 10,200 MANA, or approximately $400.
Following our article, we hosted an AMA with Matty, as well as a giveaway with prizes given for the best questions. Keep reading for giveaway results and a super interesting AMA with Matty, otherwise known as DCLBlogger.
If you missed out on this giveaway, don’t worry. We have an even bigger event which will be launched on DGaming.com. This exclusive event includes giveaways and opportunities to own amazing assets and starts later this month.
Further information will be released shortly. Be sure to follow us on Twitter or join our Discord to stay up to date.
We’re pleased to announce that the following members of our Discord community will receive the following prizes:
1st prize – Decentraland LAND parcel – Cyrus
2nd prize – The Executioner Axe of Presence item in Chainbreakers – Tim “DogGodFrogLog” Timmons
3rd prize – Battle Racers Silver Crate – zinkcity
4th prize – Battle Racers Silver Crate – mimichiel
5th prize – Battle Racers Silver Crate – Mojtaba
6th prize – Rare Decentraland branded Blockchain Cutie – chi2000
What made Matty take the risk to invest by buying lands in a new kind of project? Since at that time projects like Decentraland were never heard of and there weren’t many blockchain projects that sell land on a blockchain.
It was Jan 2018. My portfolio of alts/BTC was tanking hard so I was looking for other ways to diversify and somehow stumbled upon Decentraland.
When I joined Discord I found out there was an auction I just missed and there were hundreds of people trying to buy and sell land.
I was hooked, even though I had no land. So naturally I wanted some. I found a few people and bargained my way down to 3-4k per land. I bought a few and quickly realized others wanted to buy so I could sell and make some money. Back then there was no marketplace so the only way was to manually send tokens and take the risk.
So for me it was simple. There was minimal risk investing in something I could bargain under market price. Imagine being able to bargain BTC down from someone at a price of $9,000, (currently at $11,300). You’d buy it, right?
Being able to buy low and flip at any time changed my mentality from holder to flipper.
Do you see yourself living, working and spending most of your time inside a virtual world like Decentraland in the future? Do you believe that our future is digital?
Personally, I won’t ‘work’ virtually but if communications and services that happen in the real world like investment pitches, education, real estate, etc. get taken digital then I’ll definitely be looking at a macro way to be involved.
I definitely believe our future is digital. It’s just a matter of when all these elements come together to make being digital more enjoyable and accessible than being in the real world.
What do you think is the best way to onboard regular users? Does the crypto aspect of everything intimidate them and need to be hidden upfront by more game aspects? Did you have trouble transitioning to holding so much of your wealth in digital assets?
Crypto definitely is a big deterrent to most, especially for non-crypto people. It’s hard enough buying Bitcoin for the common non-tech savvy person, let alone sending ETH to Metamask and buying digital assets.
Setting up an account with an exchange, buying MANA, transferring to Metamask, connecting to the land marketplace, buying, managing security is a headache if you just want to buy digital land.
I was nervous holding so much wealth digitally for sure so have diversified across multiple wallets. That’s why I hustled hard to bargain and buy and sell land to the point I’ve cashed out my MANA I initially invested and am only playing with house money now.
So cool to read about your story Matty. I have some questions:
1 – Only the ones with decent volume, growth and a bright future. Axie is one. Looking forward to more. Digital land ownership will be huge especially after seeing the success of Decentraland. Others will hold land sales.
2 – If interested buyers are potential developers with great portfolios I’m happier to budge on price. I want value added to the ecosystem as I’m a large holder of land and MANA.
A dream project would be a colosseum where you can fight in VR. I can send in lions and dragons with AI and you can bring in your NFTs to help. Would be so fun.
Or a ‘shark tank’ like place where potential developers can pitch their ideas and we can invest.
3 – Yes but they gotta get away from using those bulky headsets and make the price cheaper. Quest is doing a great job. The experience still gives people headaches and staring at a screen is a bit taxing for the mind. It’s gotta move from novelty to something you can’t live without, kind of like our phones or computers, and I believe it will.
My question will be, do you plan to build something on your land? If yes, will it be a video game? What kind?
I would prefer hiring it out to more capable developers. I know my strengths and weaknesses and it’s definitely not developing lol.
I’d rather be able to fund projects, market them and help them grow. I’ve been in marketing for a long time. I know how to build and grow businesses well.
A sports center like VR tennis, golf and bowling would be cool. I’d like to hold tournaments and maybe even an escape room. Again, I can’t build but can help grow.
Hi Matty, what do you see as being the dominant activity between commercial business and gaming in Decentraland?
Gaming for sure. Commercial business is something high fidelity is working on so I think that will have a big future too. Something like virtual workplaces. I own and run some other websites and being able to manage and hold meetings with my team in Decentraland could be a thing!
Art will be big. Museum district looks like a lot of fun. Gambling, maybe for adults. I guess those are the big industries in the real world.
Matty, wouldn’t it be great if $MANA would become a sort of stable coin? So everything you own is the real price (Ask>Demand). No influence by the fluctuation of bitcoin and other coins.
For sure. This would make it much easier to manage a land portfolio. It’s definitely hard being connected to BTC swings especially if you’re mostly in it for fiat.
Personally, I’m largely in it to increase my crypto portfolio so it’s a little easier. It’s definitely annoying when the project is doing well but BTC swings downwards and takes you with it.
Having a volatile in game currency will be an interesting experiment to see how it works.
Hi Matty, how advanced do you foresee the future of Decentraland’s VR and motion sensing technology? Anywhere near Ready Player One?
We need some serious improvements to current tech to facilitate a Ready Player One world but I can definitely see a metaverse project going there. Decentraland is an attempt for sure and seems like a strong contender.
We’re still in major infancy. I think in five to ten years it should be real cool for the VR world and maybe a closer realization of a Ready Player One world.
Motion sensing continues to blow us away. I recently saw an article about introducing the sense of smell. It’s going to get wild.
Is Decentraland just a Secondlife + Minecraft?
I’ve never played either of them. I assume it’s similar but you can own your land via blockchain in Decentraland which is what made it special. ‘A virtual world owned and governed by its users’. There’s a limited land supply which also is different and is where the land value comes from.
What do you think are the implications of introducing digital scarcity into social networking? How will that influence the nature of value and attention?
Scarcity plays a big role especially in crypto. People just love collecting. I think that’s one of the biggest things that drives NFT presales. But that will only have long term value if you continue to build the game and attract new players.
It’s an interesting question. If you’re referring to the virtual world with social networking, I really haven’t thought about it. If Decentraland really does attract millions of users then holding 1 of 45,000 private lands will be pretty cool! Not to mention land prices would be crazy.
Hi Matty, do you see the future of DGames as gamification of investment with macro-transactions or casual gaming for everyone with micro-transactions? For example, Decentraland could have been in either group initially, however, now it seems to be in the first group, but on the other hand, developers are adding features to shift it more towards the second group. Can it be ever both of them?
It will be a mix of both. Early investors will get involved on a macro level, owning and being a big part of how the game will develop and shift and if these games grow big then microtransactions will mostly drive the economy.
Especially, with the case of Decentraland. Eventually there won’t be many people selling, mostly renting and building in game experiences and profiting from in-game transactions.
Most blockchain developers want to monetize by charging a fee for marketplace transactions so it’s in their best interest to grow and develop a strong in-game economy.
That’s why I’m mega excited about this space, high market volume is when I get involved with NFT’s.
Hi Matty, nice concept. Please, what is the future of Decentraland?
No idea, it looks like it’s going the way of a game/fun experience platform. Another metaverse that will eventually be in VR.
It’s really a big experiment at this stage. Pushing the limits of blockchain, VR, decentralized ownership, I honestly have no idea what to expect long term.
What’s the biggest difference between Decentraland and the classic Second Life?
Blockchain, ownership of limited land supply, decentralized governance, being in crypto, volatile in-game currency.
Those are the biggest differences I can think of. In terms of content, we are yet to see.
Hi Guys, I’ve got a similar question as the one above, but more crypto related – how does Decentraland compare to Mark.Space?
I stumbled upon Mark.Space a while back, it looked interesting. Haven’t tracked it since. I don’t think there was a land sale was there.
I only want to get involved with projects that have funding, connections and strong marketing power which Decentraland seems to have. I’d love to see how Mark.Space goes in terms of volume for their land sale if they hold one. Or even in game transactions. For me this is the biggest indicator of potential success. Consistent volume.
Decentraland has some strong partnerships – Animoca brands, Barunson, Axie Infinity, South Korean program, particularly with game developers and strong investors like Barry Silbert’s group who own 1% of btc.
Makes me feel my money is backing a strong project.
Have you read Snow Crash? Has there been a particular seminal work of fiction that inspired you to believe in the dream of virtual property, or which especially made you believe that others will come to embrace that dream?
I haven’t but I know the core Devs of Decentraland are heavily motivated by these books.
I was pretty influenced by Ready Player One, the movie. I know it probably wasn’t as deep as the books but it was cool to see the potential.
And even anime like Sword Art online, etc.
Hi Matty, what was your inspiration throughout the journey of Decentraland? How has the artistic and creative vision of Decentraland changed throughout its development? I’d also like to ask how you imagine the creative vision for Decentraland might change in five to ten years?
I always saw it being a Ready Player One type universe. But slowly realized tech isn’t up to speed for that quite yet. With Decentralands partnerships mainly being game studios I envisioned a place you can go in and explore fun VR experiments.
I feel it will be an awesome place for creative and artistic people to build and display their work. Might even introduce a new genre of art. Digital and interactive.
In five to ten years hopefully we can get some serious Ready Player One like experiences. Like the race scene that would be epic.
Hello, how early did you get started? I was a MANA holder before the first land auction and thought of doing similar. However, I saw something about ‘resale of land will not be permitted’. So, I got scared and sold off the MANA during (at the time) ATH point. Do you remember seeing that and how did it affect your decisions at the time?
I only got involved after the auction. Stumbled upon it too late. So for me it was a no brainer buying these and selling them literally the next day at a profit.
Maybe they meant you can’t trade district land or can’t sell on a marketplace just yet as it wasn’t built.
Can you provide any more information on how avatars will work? Will they be editable, and will they be able to be interacted on by the environment ?
There will be ways to buy NFT wearables for your avatar but I don’t know to what extent you’ll be able to customize. Hopefully it’s a lot because I can imagine people want to bring their identities to Decentraland.
How do you come up with the name ‘MANA’ in relative to the token utility?
Not sure what went behind the name choice.
What’s your vision/goals of upping the development of Decentraland besides making it a lucrative investment opportunity for game enthusiasts of this crypto community? Exactly what will be the driving force to realize your vision/goals?
It will definitely be a collective effort from developers that are building for fun.
I know some people that just love to create cool experiences and as people visit, share and participate in these experiences it will motivate more developers to get involved.
I think developers being able to sustain themselves with a strong game economy will really take this to the next level.
Decentraland developers understand this well and are working on both the SDK and drag and drop builder to even drag and drop AI characters into the scene and sell your creations.
How can you/users maintain a healthy and thriving ecosystem in Decentraland with an improved liquidity and credibility of the use of cryptocurrency $MANA?
Experiences need to be fun and plentiful. The utility of MANA must continue to grow. Whether it’s simply buying stuff in-game or deciding on governance. The more utility in and out of Decentraland MANA has, the more it will grow.
Currently MANA is used to decide on governing issues using agora, trading land, some Devs like Chainbreakers have used MANA to run their presale which was so cool to see!
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